My third cheese making, used
Neufchatel Recipe posted here.
APRIL 19, 2008 - PREPARATION- As per post in this Forum on making Simple Mesophilic Starter Culture, in morning, I bought 1 US pint of Cultured Butterfat Milk and let sit at room temp 21 C /70 F for 6 hours until consistancy of liquid yogurt, then used 4 oz in recipe and froze remainder in ice cube tray and puit in freezer bag for later use.
- Let 1 US gallon of store bought Homogenized, Pasteurized Whole Milk warm to room temperature.
- At 9PM put milk in stainless steel pot, added 4 oz of Starter Culture and 18 drops liquid vegetarian rennet as per package directions to 4 oz water to dilute and then to milk.
- Whisked the mix for 5 minutes (seems overkill) with clean wire wisk.
- Put lid on pot and let sit overnight at same room temperature.
APRIL 20, 2008 - SEPARATING CURDS & WHEY- 10AM, after 13 hours, checked set of curd with spoon, not set enough.
- 3PM, after 18 hours, checked set of curd with spoon, well set. Ladled into muslin cheesecloth, very heavy as minimal whey removed, realized could not hang from light weight hook with plastic Ikea type clip like when made my first cheese.
- 3:15PM, removed cheese from muslin cheesecloth sock, double seamed edge and added heavy duty drawstring around top.
- 3:30PM, refilled sock and hung by drawstring from strong impromtu camera tripod, steady trickle of whey.
APRIL 21, 2008 - SEPARATING CURDS & WHEY- 6AM, after 16 hours hanging, whey still slowly dripping from hanging bag. Put in fridge in top of double boiler - colander with 2 lb / 1 kg weight on top to force more of whey from cheese.
- 5PM, after 11 hours in fridge with weight and more whey dripped out, removed cheese from bag, perfect consistancy, like soft store bought. Stirred in one teaspoon salt, made slightly softer, will probably stiffen up in fridge. Weighed and tasted, made 2.5 lb / 1.1 kg of delicious Fromage Neufchatel !
