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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => FRESH DIRECT ACID COAGULATED - Primarily Non-Lactic & Non-Rennet => Topic started by: KazAugustin on July 08, 2016, 07:11:41 AM
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This is a sad tale with a happy ending, proof that quickish thinking (aka utter panic!) can sometimes save you from disaster.
As I live in southern Malaysia, I only have supermarket milk to depend on. (The really good quality, non-homogenised stuff is only available in a small geographic area around the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Sigh.) Flush with success from my Fourme d’Ambert, I decided to go for a Cambozola. I got 2L of supermarket milk, a brand I hadn't tried before for cheesemaking. (Yes, I know. I won't do it again.) Cambozola normally asks for a 1:1 milk:cream ratio, but the only cream we can get here is UHT, so I went with 750mL of cream and 1.25L of “super-charged” milk liquid (200g milk powder + 1L water).
I began my recipe, added all the cultures, rennet and whatnot. And waited. And waited. And waited. No curds. The milk had barely thickened after more than 4 hours of ripening! The milk had obviously been over-pasteurised. Aaaargh!!! What to do? I had some citric acid in the pantry and decided to use the failed curd mixture thing to make that most detested of cheeses: Ricotta. Bland, grainy. Bleech! Better than throwing the lot away. Barely. I could always put it in lasagne, I thought.
Friends, ah friends, the Ricotta I got from my Cambozola debacle was unlike any ricotta I had ever tasted in my life. It actually had flavour! It wasn't the Ricotta of which I was familiar, drywall/gyprock filler, but a real cheese! So I made an Italian cheesecake out of it, with a topping of berry jam.
I’m so glad the recipe went wrong. If it hadn’t, I would never have discovered the joy of Real Ricotta. I’m now a convert. This is going to be the start of a beautiful, and tummy-satisfying, relationship!
Kaz!
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I always told my cheesemaking classes that there are rarely true failures in cheesemaking, but many "results other than expected".
I'd venture to guess that what you ended up with was very similar to mascarpone, but because of the culturing also had elements of cream cheese. At any rate, you had a successful result, just not what you expected.
True ricotta is made by re-cooking whey that is left over from making a cultured cheese - my best and highest volume results are from mozzarella whey. It is light and fluffy and only gets grainy if it is allowed to come to a boil or there are bits of the "original" cheese curd left in the whey. You are probably thinking of ricotta made by heating milk and adding acid to it.
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Nice going! There's this gourmet shop I go to in Philly that has baked ricotta. Looks a lot like your cheesecake and is divine. I'm thinking of doing something like that with the left over ricotta from my "failed" batch from Monday.
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Aw, @MrsKK, does that mean that I have to go through the whole Cambozola disaster again to get that Ricotta? I followed a recipe for "Sweet Ricotta" from Amrein-Boyes', which uses whole milk rather than whey ("Traditional Ricotta"). I think I may just give it another shot this weekend. Just to be scientific about it all, of course. ;)
@atalanta, oh, you've got to try it. It's delish. I got the recipe from Allrecipes. Here's the link: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/8168/sicilian-ricotta-cheesecake/ (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/8168/sicilian-ricotta-cheesecake/). I left out the cinnamon and used the full complement of 6 eggs. I hear they're healthy now! LOL
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This recipe is in the oven now. I left out the spices and added amaretto witch is supposed to be authentic Sicilian. I am just happy I found something different to do with the fresh ricotta.
John
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This is a sad tale with a happy ending, proof that quickish thinking (aka utter panic!) can sometimes save you from disaster.
As I live in southern Malaysia, I only have supermarket milk to depend on. (The really good quality, non-homogenised stuff is only available in a small geographic area around the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Sigh.) Flush with success from my Fourme d’Ambert, I decided to go for a Cambozola. I got 2L of supermarket milk, a brand I hadn't tried before for cheesemaking. (Yes, I know. I won't do it again.) Cambozola normally asks for a 1:1 milk:cream ratio, but the only cream we can get here is UHT, so I went with 750mL of cream and 1.25L of “super-charged” milk liquid (200g milk powder + 1L water).
I began my recipe, added all the cultures, rennet and whatnot. And waited. And waited. And waited. No curds. The milk had barely thickened after more than 4 hours of ripening! The milk had obviously been over-pasteurised. Aaaargh!!! What to do? I had some citric acid in the pantry and decided to use the failed curd mixture thing to make that most detested of cheeses: Ricotta. Bland, grainy. Bleech! Better than throwing the lot away. Barely. I could always put it in lasagne, I thought.
Friends, ah friends, the Ricotta I got from my Cambozola debacle was unlike any ricotta I had ever tasted in my life. It actually had flavour! It wasn't the Ricotta of which I was familiar, drywall/gyprock filler, but a real cheese! So I made an Italian cheesecake out of it, with a topping of berry jam.
I’m so glad the recipe went wrong. If it hadn’t, I would never have discovered the joy of Real Ricotta. I’m now a convert. This is going to be the start of a beautiful, and tummy-satisfying, relationship!
Kaz!
Another fellow malaysian :-*
Welcome... southern malaysia?
Melaka? Johore?
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Hey there @achik1990! Johor, 8 years. :)
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Hey there @achik1990! Johor, 8 years. :)
what 8 years?
I thought Johore has a lot of farm?
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Ha, typical! You must be from KL. ;) There are hundreds of thousands of people who commute to Singapore daily, even children, so, rest assured, we have houses. And even shops! LOL
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What, you have houses?? When I lived in Singapore for 3 years, we lived in thatched huts, AND we had to walk to school 8 miles each way, AND it was uphill all the way there ... and all the way back!
Of course, this was 40 years ago, and I might be exaggerating just a little ... :):):)
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Ha, typical! You must be from KL. ;) There are hundreds of thousands of people who commute to Singapore daily, even children, so, rest assured, we have houses. And even shops! LOL
I meant ...johore has a lot of farm yes?? you couldnt find 1 near your area?
Are you from JB? and yeah I'm a klnite :P
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Welcome, that was a good read, glad it came out well for you.
awakephd, You know, re: your school memory. I went to 5miles to school, in a farming community, in Sothern California. I had occasion, when visiting a cousin, to retrace that walk with wifey and our girls in the car. The Odometer read exactly 1 mile. I'm sure there some explanation, an earth shift or, well, there are people who talk of parallel universes.
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@John H: You didn't give us an update on the taste test!
@awakephd: You forgot the typhoons every afternoon. Like clockwork!
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Well ... typhoon might be an exaggeration as well. But it does indeed rain pretty much every afternoon. People in Singapore claimed that there were two seasons, the regular season and the monsoon season ... but I could never tell the difference!
One of the nicest things about living in Singapore was that you never needed to consult the weather forecast. Every single day was exactly the same: 80°F (27°C) with a strong chance of rain in the afternoon. At least in the 3 years we were there, there was never what I would call a real typhoon -- not like what we experienced regularly in the Philippines.
When I came back to the US, I was so aggravated that "they" could not do a better job with the weather. One day it was sunny and warm, the next day freezing cold, the next day raining ... how ridiculous! :)
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This brand has several type of milk, including the one pictured in your post which is "Full Cream", it means this milk is a reconstuted milk using milk powder and water (read the fine print it's there).
They also have "Fresh Milk" written on the box which means the milk is pasteurised and homogenised cow milk (not from powder). You will likely to have curd from the latter but very weak, once stirred it shatters into tiny pieces (I added cacl and it still gave me similar result).
If you have Summerfield it is a better choice for cheesemaking, not great but I made camemberts with it few times with success.
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@AnnDee: Yes, I know, but we can only get a very limited range of milk here in Johor. And I do read the packs before I make cheese, but this was all I had on hand. You may be able to get certain types of milk up in KL, but don't assume it's available country-wide. Sigh.
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AnnDee, Those cheeses in your avatar, have they been rolled in pepper?
Thanks
Richard
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@AnnDee: Yes, I know, but we can only get a very limited range of milk here in Johor. And I do read the packs before I make cheese, but this was all I had on hand. You may be able to get certain types of milk up in KL, but don't assume it's available country-wide. Sigh.
Last time i made using good day (lil' bird as a logo) milk ... fresh milk ones and + calcium chloride ...
maybe u should try using that?
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Yes, I use Good Day. For some reason, I have found that the 1-litre cartons are not as highly pasteurised as the 2-litre bottles and so give slightly better curds. Go figure. I have also used Farm Fresh, but it seems to be closer to UHT in results. All the powdered milk we get here, regardless of brand, comes from New Zealand. Inconsistent results with three brands I've tried. In fact, the "cheap stuff" I get from the Indian grocery store is as good as the flashier packs in the supermarket, so I'm not hung up on packaging or brand names anymore.
Without having access to raw, full cream, Good Day is the best I can do...which isn't good enough, tbh. I'm sticking to blues and fresh cheeses because my white-rinds and hard cheeses are utterly revolting!
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Yes, I use Good Day. For some reason, I have found that the 1-litre cartons are not as highly pasteurised as the 2-litre bottles and so give slightly better curds. Go figure. I have also used Farm Fresh, but it seems to be closer to UHT in results. All the powdered milk we get here, regardless of brand, comes from New Zealand. Inconsistent results with three brands I've tried. In fact, the "cheap stuff" I get from the Indian grocery store is as good as the flashier packs in the supermarket, so I'm not hung up on packaging or brand names anymore.
Without having access to raw, full cream, Good Day is the best I can do...which isn't good enough, tbh. I'm sticking to blues and fresh cheeses because my white-rinds and hard cheeses are utterly revolting!
have u tried adding calcium chloride?
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Yep. I'm aware that calcium chloride is added to homogenised milk in order to increase the curd yield. I am also aware that Gianaclis Caldwell recommends adding the calcium chloride solution (dissolved in distilled water) to the milk 15-20 mins before adding the rennet.
Regardless, my whites and hards taste despicable. I'll just have to wait until I can get my hands on better-quality milk, I think.
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@AnnDee: Yes, I know, but we can only get a very limited range of milk here in Johor. And I do read the packs before I make cheese, but this was all I had on hand. You may be able to get certain types of milk up in KL, but don't assume it's available country-wide. Sigh.
Maybe you can contact Summerfield milk company, the owner Johannis is very accomodating. This one is lightly pasteurised milk, quite good to make cheese with.
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AnnDee, Those cheeses in your avatar, have they been rolled in pepper?
Thanks
Richard
Yes Richard, those are belper knolle. At one stage some of us made this type together, Kern develop a recipe to make it without premix culture packet in the end.
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Maybe you can contact Summerfield milk company, the owner Johannis is very accomodating. This one is lightly pasteurised milk, quite good to make cheese with.
Thanks! You're right. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. :)