Cow's Milk, Raw - How To Make Into 2% Fat For Parmesan Cheese Making

[coco]

Well, it's going through the final press now. This morning was a comedy of errors with me running around trying to find all my cheese stuff. My two gals just freshened two weeks ago (three days apart, ugg) I've been making simple stuff , now I realize my hard cheese making skill have gone rusty.

Didn't have any non-chlorinated water for the rennet, couldn't find my thermo starter (could be in the garage freezer under a hog, need to check or make more), used Flora Danica instead, still haven't checked to see if FD is thermo.lol But I was not backing down. Good news, It can go only better the next time!

Coffee Joe, thanks that's really interesting. I may try it, I love using the morning milk whenever  possible.

Karen, Debbi, I have a yeast, bread making question you'd both probably be able to answer. I'll go find the appropriate section.

[tnsven]

In Italy, half the milk comes from the night before and left to sit in a covered Paiolo, (Copper Pot) at 18ºC, the next morning this milk is skimmed fully, yielding cream for butter and the other half is whole milk from that morning's milking.

In an attempt this year to better utilize my bounty, I've been doing this some for most of my "hard" cheeses. The results are good!

BTW, if you need a recipe to use up cheese, try the Fiasco Farm Queso Fresco (have I mentioned this already? If so, please forgive). I have been able to eat it fresh as the recipe was intended but also wax it and age it for a cheddar cheese and rub ghee, butter, or lard on it and age for a more Parmesan taste. This way I've got the one recipe in my head I can repeat daily if necessary and can do more than one cheese.

On a related note: the amount of cream in milk varies by season considerably. My cream content is nearly 50% higher now that the weather has cooled a bit. Perhaps this is why some of the mold ripened cheeses were made in the winter months?

Kristin

[coco]

Thanks Tnsven!
I love those quicker recipes that I can do half sleep! I really trying to branch out and try new to me varieties...it's not for the lack of milk, but the lack of time. I'm on a mission now, at least one new cheese a week!