I've been lurking for a bit, but I've finally got a proper account now, so I guess I should make an introduction, yeah?
I've recently gotten into cheesemaking. I've usually leaned more towards baking, I'm not a fan of pickled food or alcohol or anything, but I've recently escaped a hotel after a couple of years being trapped there, so I've gone a little overboard on cooking, and discovering powdered whole milk for baking led me to yogurt and then to cheese, since I'm generally not a fan of keeping large amounts of milk around that might go bad. It helps that cheese is one of the few things where I don't have to fret over high altitude alterations.
I'm not really one for table cheese, not in the least bit since the only time I've tried brie it ended up feeling and tasting like Silly Putty, but I do use cheese a lot in cooking, so that's what I've been geared more towards. I've tried Mozzarella, which taught me that my hands are too sensitive for curd pulling, gloves or no, Ricotta from the mozzarella whey, which ended up nice and smooth, Robiola, which ended up bitter and fell apart when I tried to unmold it, and Brick, which I'm currently doing the final drying for before wrapping (see attachment) and which tastes fine, if a bit salty, but I feel might not be as acidic as it should be, so I've bitten the bullet and gotten actual meso cultures instead of culturing from whatever I can find at the grocery store.
All my cheese so far has been made with Nido powdered whole milk, which has turned out surprisingly nicely, though I've gotten a couple gallons of milk that ended up having an expiration date in only 3 days, so I'm going to try using them up for my next cheese soon. Probably a jack?
I'm also trying to find a whey to cheat my way to parmesan without having to wait the full aging time.
Anyway, hi.
Hi there. I just joined the forum too. I thought it would be nice to say Hi, since no one has welcomed you yet. So, hi! ;D