Author Topic: "Simple" cottage cheese save  (Read 1645 times)

Hansadutta

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"Simple" cottage cheese save
« on: December 09, 2016, 02:39:45 PM »
It has been a long time since I posted something. Sorry about that. I am still making cheese!
Usually I trie to make cheeses which are labeled as "intermediate" or "advanced". This time I wanted to make something that is considered an "easy" cheese. Cottage cheese. I tried it before and it failed which is a slap in my face so I tried it again. And it failed again! I was not surprised but puzzled and disappointed in my understanding. Or in the recipe I followed. I have not decided yet.

In a few words here is the recipe. (It is from Tim Smith's book which I like a lot)
Bring milk (3,8L) to 22C
add CaCl and culture (1/8 tsp direct-set)
Leave for 24 hours at room temperature (minimal 20C)
Cut curds to 4mm and leave for 15min
Heat in 25min to 38C
Leave for 10 min
Heat in 15 min to 44C
Leave for 30 min
Put curds in cheese cloth and dip in cold water to remove whey
After 5 minutes repeat with ice water.
Break curds and add salt and cream to taste

Instead of a direct-set culture I used 45 mL mesophylic motherculture and because I use raw milk I don't add CaCl. After 24 hours the milk smelled sour but did not coagulate at all. So I added 2 mL rennet and waited for 1 hour. Now I had a clean break but it looked different from my previous cheeses. The surface looked very creamy but the curds looked ok. I continued according to the recipe and added parsley and salt. I added 10 gm salt but that is just a little too much. I think 5 to 7 gm would be better.
Anyway. The result is great. I added parsley because I thought that this cheese would be rather tasteless after just 1 day but the cheese is already very tasty. I doubt that the cottage cheese I was trying to make would be nicer. Just look at it!



I was very happy that the cheese was saved and I hope that this story can help people with the same problem. I am still curious why the milk would not coagulate so any thoughts are welcome.

Best regards
Hans

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: "Simple" cottage cheese save
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2016, 03:58:20 PM »
I've made cream cheese just using culture, Flora Danica, and half and half but would suspect your milk didn't have enough cream in it to coagulate.  My understanding is that milk is poor this time of year but I'm no dairy farmer.  Anyway, AC4U for your save! ;D
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Hansadutta

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Re: "Simple" cottage cheese save
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2016, 07:47:04 PM »
Hi Al,

Thanks for the suggestion. I did not realize this at all. Since the cheese is supposed to be an easy one I thought that the recipe would be idiot proof.
The culture I used was also Flora Danica.