Author Topic: Greetings from Villa Rica, Ga, USA  (Read 930 times)

jbrewton

  • Guest
Greetings from Villa Rica, Ga, USA
« on: December 15, 2014, 02:27:33 AM »
My name is John, and I was born and raised in Ga, currently living in Villa Rica (30 minutes west of Atlanta).  I first became interested in cheese making a few years back (2012).  I wanted to make Cheddar.  It looked difficult and time consuming so I dropped the idea. 

Most recently I was watching some YouTube videos that happened to show up in my "what to watch" queue  and discovered that I could make mozzarella with instant results.  My first attempt was not exactly what I was expecting (curds did not have clean break), but I was able get a good stretch and a tasty cheese with great texture.  My second attempt did not go as well.  I got mush. 

My goal is to get to the point where I have a few cheddars aging by this time next year.

Anyway, that's my intro.  I am sure I will have plenty of questions and will try to search for the answers before I post.

John


Offline awakephd

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: North Carolina
  • Posts: 2,351
  • Cheeses: 240
  • compounding the benefits of a free press
Re: Greetings from Villa Rica, Ga, USA
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2014, 06:02:22 PM »
John, welcome to the forum, and to the addiction hobby of making cheese!

If you do some searching here, you will find that the 30-minute Mozarella recipes tend to give a wide range of results -- sometimes great, and sometimes mush. Much better, apparently -- I haven't yet tried, but I'm anxious to try -- are the more traditional recipes which set the curd via bacterial culture and rennet, and wait for the right acidity.

Regardless of recipe, the milk you use is very, very important. If you happen to have access to raw milk, un-homogenized milk, or low-temperature pasteurized milk (or a combination of the latter two), you will get far better results than with the typical pasteurized, homogenized (PH) milk from the store. But you can get decent results even with PH if you make sure it is not ultra-pasteurized. Adding calcium chloride will also help.

As for cheddar ... let me offer a suggestion: start with Caerphilly or Lancashire. These are in the cheddar family, but mature much more rapidly -- as little as 3 and 6 weeks, respectively. Both of these makes have various recipes here and there on this forum; here are some I like, the first for Lancashire: http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,6505.msg46408.html#msg46408 and a couple of recipes for Caerphilly: http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,12855.0.html and http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10887.msg82601.html#msg82601.
-- Andy

Offline Danbo

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Denmark, Europe, Earth, Universe
  • Posts: 1,277
  • Cheeses: 116
Re: Greetings from Villa Rica, Ga, USA
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2014, 06:23:32 PM »
Welcome from a Danish cheese head. :-)

jbrewton

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from Villa Rica, Ga, USA
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2014, 06:35:29 PM »
awakephd,

Thanks for the suggestions.  The milk I used was Publix brand whole milk.  It did not state UP, but the two milks had different production dates.  Should have checked the dairy location codes.  The second batch I did with my daughter and she wanted to check the temperature so not sure if we may have under or over heated during the process.  Nothing but fine curd mush when I strained.

I have been looking at a local dairy that sells raw cow milk (for my pets of course).  I think I will try the 30 minute mozzarella with store milk again, then move to your suggestions using the raw milk.  I am more concerned about the basic process (clean,add, heat, cut, heat, form, with a dash of wait between everything) than the end result right now.  Failure making mistakes is the best way I learn.




jbrewton

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from Villa Rica, Ga, USA
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2014, 06:37:41 PM »
Thanks Danbo.

Sweet Leaves Farm

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from Villa Rica, Ga, USA
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2014, 07:23:16 PM »
If I let the temp. go a little astray, then we have "Oops" Ricotta. Good thing everybody likes it! We have goats milk, and its a little more temp. sensitive than cows milk. Don't use ultrapastuerized milk because it just won't stretch. Good Luck!