Greetings from Denver, CO

[Scarlet Runner]

Hi everyone! I live in a small house in Denver, CO (USA), where I grow vegetables, raise chickens, and long for a cow of my own.  I want to learn to make tasty cheese for fun!

I'm new to cheesemaking; I've made three attempts at Ricki Carrol's 30 min mozzarella, and paneer.  The mozzarella never really comes out right (melts into a mushy mess when I get it to form and stretch at all) and I figured I'd try and perfect this before moving onto hard cheeses...but after 3 mushy mozzarella messes, I plunged in to my first batch of Monterey Jack a few weeks ago, and last night fired up a 2 gallon batch of Farmhouse Cheddar. Those were way more fun!  The Jack tastes pretty tangy (I snuck a taste on waxing day) but good.  Cheddar should be interesting; I messed up and added Thermophilic Starter- more about this in a separate post in the Hard Cheddared Cheese Board later...

I've enjoyed this website and forum for several weeks, learning a ton about cheesemaking.  Thanks for helping me to forge ahead into the hard cheeses!

[dadzcats]

Hi, Scarlet Runner - welcome.  I'm pretty new, too and, like you, have been reading the posts on this site and getting SO much info.   I have seen and heard that a lot of people have trouble with the mozz.  I haven't tried making it yet.  I made yogurt, fromage blanc and chevre - so far, so good.

Tomorrow is my first try with camembert.

Can't wait to read about how your cheddar turns out - interesting!

My step-daughter and family live in a little house in Denver, too.  We visit a few times a year, usually.  I am trying to picture where you must be raising chickens!

Have fun - will look for your cheese posts!

[Cheese Head]

Hi Scarlot Runner, welcome to making cheese, moz is tough, lots of problem and success posts in the Pasta Filata Board, have fun with your hard cheeses!

[Scarlet Runner]

Thanks for the welcome!

dadzcats, good luck with the camembert!  I envy your source of goat' milk (I assume, based on your chevre?)...I would love to try this at some point. Maybe I'll learn to milk the chickens.   

John (CH), I think I'm ready to let the dream of 30 minute mozz go- I've read some of people's trials on the forum, and seems to make much more sense to simply make true mozz the cultured way! I have my eye on several recipes from member posts...

Cheddar update: It's out of the press, forming a nice rind, and curds taste nice and mild.  So far, so good!  I'll continue to post the outcome of the cheddar here.