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!
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!
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!
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 (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,6131.0.html).