Hello, from Manila, Philippines!

[alvinco]

Hello all,

I am Alvin, a newbie in cheesemaking. My country is not a cheesemaking nation but a lot of us loves cheese...but we're accustomed to processed cheese since it's easily available and cheap. I've been fascinated with making real cheeses when I read fankhauser's and schmidling's websites(Thanks guys!). Joining this forum might help me improve with this great craft. 

[Cheese Head]

Evening Alvin and welcome to this forum!

I think you are the first located in Philippines, there was another member in Canada who said he was born there, I posted a link for him on a simple famous Philippine cheese but I can't find it now .

As first in Phillipines I've just added you to our members locations sticky and added a Geographic > Philippines board in case you have any local type posts.

Good luck with your cheese making!

[Captain Caprine]

Welcome Alvin,
Nice to have you aboard.
CC

[MrsKK]

Welcome, Alvin.  I look forward to hearing about your cheesemaking adventures.

[alvinco]

Hi john,

We have Kesong Puti(literally it means white cheese) it is the same as Queso Fresco with the exception that we use water buffalo's milk and salt is added into the milk before heating and adding the acids and rennet.  It's not that popular nowadays because we lack fresh milk and proliferation of processed cheese(my country imports about $2 Billion worth of milk or milk products last year from new zealand, australia, and china)

[Cheese Head]

Hi Alvin, yep that was the cheese and this is the thread, I put a link in my reply there to a recipe for it.

When my family & I lived in Brunei in late 90's, we also had lots of Australian and NZ milk and milk products, wasn;t much from China at that time.

Have fun with making cheese . . . John.

[alvinco]

Just read the thread. Thanks. I'll post the kesong puti recipe in my next entry.

[Tea]

Good morning Alvin and welcome to the forum.

[Rich]

Hello Alvin,

40 yrs ago I lived on Luzon for a little over a year.  During that time I took a trip to Manila and was introduced to what was called "native cheese."  I'm wondering if that was kesong puti.  If so, I can attest to its delicious flavor.  I couldn't get enough of it.  What kind of cheeses are you interested in making?

[alvinco]

Good morning Rich and Tea!

Yes, kesong puti is the only native cheese we had. It is usually wrapped in banana leaves eaten with hot pandesal(our local bread).

here is my recipe for kesong puti.

Ingredients:
1 liter water buffalo's milk
1 tsp salt (add additional salt if you prefer a saltier taste)
Rennet (use as packaged)

Pour milk in a pot and stir in salt.  Heat milk at 72C and lower it down to 40C by dipping the pot in cold water. Stir in rennet and leave it until clean break usually 25 to 30 minutes. Cut the curd in 1 inch interval and wait another 5 minutes. ladle the curds in a colander lined with cheesecloth/muslin. take the corners of the cheesecloth and give it a  light squeeze to drain the excess whey. At this point you can start eating it with pandesal and coffee.

 

[alvinco]

I am interested in making my own parmesan, camembert and blue cheese. 

[Rich]

I'd like to make some myself - could you send me some water buffalo milk please?

[DeejayDebi]

Welcome aboard Alvin! Some great folks that know their stuff here. You've come to the right place.

[zenith1]

Hi Alvin-you have buffalo's milk, make mozzarella!!!

[alvinco]

Hello zenith1, Deejaydebi, and Rich. Yes. I tried making mozzarella but i failed to get the correct elasticity, maybe because I used homogenised carabao's milk or some mistake I didn't notice of or acid level isn't enough. I'll will try again when I get hold of raw carabao's milk in the nearby provinces.