Cheesemaking Recipes - Accuracy & Timing vs Feel

[BethGi]

I have been giving this a lot of thought lately. Yesterday I made a Derby cheese and noticed that the two cheese books I use had very different times listed for the hard press press prior to removing from the mold. It reinforces this observation...

Some books are very precise in their recipes and give specific amounts/weights/times. Others are a bit looser (e.g., "firm pressure," that sort of thing).

My grandmother was an immigrant from an Eastern European peasant family. She was a fabulous cook, but never did it from a recipe. Everything was by feel, based on hands-on teaching from her mother and her own experience. And though I love recipes and cookbooks, I sometimes think that we get too caught up in exactness. Surely early cheesemakers and many peasant people never used written formulas!

So my question/thought: when/how do other people go 'off recipe'? Do you think that the commonly available books are useful, or constraining? Although I am a relative newbie, I find that I am already starting to rely on anecdotal information from others on this forum in place of prescribed practices. And thus far, I find that my results are largely pretty successful.

An example: I find that I have to remind myself that pressing something for an extra hour or two overnight is unlikely to ruin a particular cheese. And since I cook my milk in two unequally sized pots, I 'eyeball' the relative proportions of the added starters, rennet, additives, as splitting the recommended amounts results in 1/16 tsp. and similar measures in some cases.

I have been mainly trying semi-firm or hard cheeses, washed curd cheeses, and a few miscellaneous ones like cottage, mozzarella, and ricottas. Perhaps some of the finer/more complex cheeses are different?

I am curious as to what some of you more experienced cheesemakers think on this subject.

[Boofer]

I too have found the directions given in different books somewhat confusing. I have learned to follow the recipes with a grain of salt (or several teaspoons) and apply expertise gleaned from this forum to focus on what is crucial to success. I believe you can develop a "gut feel" for what a cheese should be doing at any given point in the process. That comes from doing it over and over.

What I have learned is that there is a core of knowledge essential to making cheese and it is the little nuances that make for an excellent, "write home to mom" cheese. A lot of the core knowledge comes from repetition. If you do it wrong one time, and know what you did wrong, then you correct that misstep the next time you make that style of cheese. Of course you have to keep some kind of record or notes so that you can attempt to clone a cheese if you did everything right.

I am not an expert. I am a student of cheesemaking. We are fortunate to have so many informed people on this forum providing guidance and instruction. Where else could you get such knowledge so easily given? The price is right too.

Repetition.... 

-Boofer-

[BethGi]

Yes...glad to hear that from a more experienced 'student' of the process! And indeed, repetition (with some variation) seems to help -- I can certainly see progress in my own products (and confidence) just in my first year.

[BigCheese]

This forum has really been the turning point in my cheesemaking. Only now do I feel like the books I have (Ricki Carrol, Tim Smith, Margaret Morris) are truly useful. Because I know enough to compare, combine, and adjust those recipes to my circumstances and desired outcome, with much recent success. I document every make, not quite as detailed as I would like, but decent.

At the same time, I do not have a very romantic idea about not using recipes. I am not one of those cooks who think it is a fault to use recipes. Good cooks should be able to wing it when needed, but in my opinion there is much more to being a good cook. Cheese especially is part cooking, part chemistry, so recipes are good.

[Tropit]

Funny...I've been thinking about this too.  We've even talked about it in my cheese workshops.  There are people that NEED to follow directions and then, there's those people that CAN'T.  Cheesemaking is probably a great hobby for the person that falls somewhere inbetween.

[Gina]

 

Do you think that the commonly available books are useful, or constraining?

A bit of both. I've found as a beginner reading as much as possible to be extremely useful as a stepping off point for the essential learning from experience.

Making cheese reminds me of playing a sport - you can learn the simple basic strokes or footwork patterns by the book, but in a real game situation, you have to adjust what you are doing depending on what your opponent does. Beyond the basics, most knowledge comes from actually playing, and then playing some more. As Mark said, success depends on repitition and making adjustments for the next match.... er, cheese make.

[patit]

So when the recipes in the Margaret Peters-Morris book call for 3-4 gallons of milk with the same amount of rennet and culture for either 3 or 4 gallons, I shouldn't worry?  This is part of the art? 

And can I double, triple or quadruple a recipe by just adjusting the weight of the press?

[MrsKK]

So when the recipes in the Margaret Peters-Morris book call for 3-4 gallons of milk with the same amount of rennet and culture for either 3 or 4 gallons, I shouldn't worry?  This is part of the art? 

And can I double, triple or quadruple a recipe by just adjusting the weight of the press?

I'd have to say there are no absolutes.  That's why the books differ.  Just because the "best" recipe for one person turned out a cheese that he or she really liked or thought was the best example of that type of cheese...doesn't mean that the same exact recipe will turn out the same results for me in my kitchen...or that the cheese will satisfy my idea of how that cheese should have turned out.

Just because there is a lot of science behind the cheesemaking process, doesn't mean that making cheese is a science.  There is a lot of art involved.

As for the weight to press a cheese, much of that is determined by the amount of curd and the size of your mold.  I know that other members have made quite extensive charts regarding psi, weight and mold sizes, but have to admit that I stick with my 6 inch mold and use more weight if it appears that the curd isn't knitting properly.

[patit]

Thanks, Karen.  I think it's time that I stopped thinking of this as science, something that is "right" or "wrong," and started just cooking.  I know how to do that, so everything should fall into place then.

[MrsKK]

Now, mind, there are members here who do work it from a very scientific standpoint, too.  The ones who want to be getting the same results with the same method every time they make cheese.

I'm a fly by the seat of my pants cook, though, and do a lot of variation with cheese as well.  I do take notes, though, so that I can kind of repeat successes and learn from mistakes.  Some of that is out of my control, though, using raw milk from my one cow who is always at a different point in her lactation and the grass/hay/other feed varies from day to day, as well.

But, heck, I have a lot of fun with it!

[linuxboy]

I like to think of it like conducting an orchestra or as working with clay. Some things will always be the same... a violin can only produce a certain range of sounds at certain frequencies. Other things will differ, for example, you can have a solo, or a section solo, or you can turn down the volume of the woodwinds and bring out the flute and viola. And it's up to you to get it all in the order you want.

With claymaking, it's similar. The composition of minerals determines color. The water helps to determine plasticity and moldability. The color of the glaze puts the final finish on. And you need to do all those things, often in the specific order. But it's up to you whether you want to make a vase or plate, and if you want to use red clay or white.

Cheesemaking is about knowing what must happen and knowing what could happen. You as the cheesemaker  make the decisions to pick the timing and conditions of what must happen, and choosing the types and degrees of what could happen. Some decide to do the same thing for both every time, some make completely different decisions, and the rest of us fall in between. That diversity is one of the wonders about our craft

[velward]

That was pure poetry linuxboy.

[Boofer]

That was pure poetry linuxboy.

I second that...and it's not the first time his lilting words have wafted through the forum. The really unique thing is that he packs a great deal of expertise behind that wonderful prose. We are blessed.

-Boofer-

[DeejayDebi]

I agree with both of you. Consider too that the ingredients will not be the same either. My milk comes from a diferent cow, breed, region than yours, my cultures are older/newer, from a different batch or manufacturer, homemade or commercial, kept at a different temperature. My water is different, my therometers are different. My measurements might be heavier/lighter than yours my pH is measured in taste, texture and feeling and rarely with a pH meter, although I will record them sometimes for others who depend on measured values in their cheese making. To me cheesemaking is more of an art than a science and that is the way I choose to view it.

I get excited about reading a description of a cheese and trying to figure out how it was done. I'm usually pretty good at deciphering the code. That is where the art come in. Making cheese is creative, recipes are a guide based on the ingredients the maker had at his/her disposal - make it your own and have fun!