Saturday, January 9, 2021

What I've Been Up To

 

Firm Camemberts - my most successful cheese! I've made 8 wheels in the last few months!

Hi Everyone! 😊

It's been nearly a YEAR since I posted here on Rainy Day Cheese Making! I can't believe how time flies. Most of my friends know that last February, my husband and I bought our first home. We bought sight unseen and moved from a bad situation in Quebec to a lovely rural and peaceful setting in New Brunswick.

I put my cheese making on hold because of lack of time, though I snuck in a few wheels here and there, I didn't have the time to blog about it.

Jarlsberg is another successful cheese in the roster. I've been making that one every few months.

I was hoping to try many new cheeses in 2020, but we had a lot of issues with the new-to-us house and those plans had to be put on hold. Now that things have settled down a little bit, I plan on re-activating this blog with my cheese making efforts!


A few months ago, Alex designed these cheese labels for me, aren't they nice?


I don't ever plan on selling my cheese (too many legal ramifications), but I have been giving a few wheels away with lovely feedback, so I thought it might be nice to have fancy-shmancy labels to go with them!

This is a 6-month Cheddar that will be ready in April 2021

I miss making new cheeses. I've been looking up new recipes and I plan to do more videos this winter/spring.


I'm trying to make everything possible from scratch and this includes all of my cheeses. It's time consuming and it takes a lot of planning, but it's so rewarding to have some homemade soup, homemade crescent rolls and homemade cheese to go with it!

All recipes are listed on my right sidebar!

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

A Successful Cheese Making Season Ends


Hi Friends!

Well, my cheese making season is officially over! Not because I don't want to make anymore, but because Alex and I bought a house and we are in the process of planning, packing and then moving to a new province in Canada. It's very exciting but my gosh it's an overwhelming amount of work! It's our first home, we have officially said goodbye to the renting game and we are so grateful! :)

All of my cheese making equipment is in boxes. I have some cheeses in the cave that we will either bring with us or eat up before we go.

This cheese making season was a great success. I revamped my blog, did a lot of written tutorials, video'd my taste tests, wrote printable recipes and I tried a few new cheeses like Fontina and Raclette. I had some cheese fails for sure, such as Feta and Mascarpone.

The highlights of my cheese making were delicious cheeses such as:

American Cheese
Firm Camembert
Goat Cheese
Homemade Cheez Whiz
Jarlsberg
Sour Cream
Colby

All of my recipes are on the side bar of this blog, please feel free to check them out!

My plans for the next cheese making season are to try some original recipes, learn more about the technical aspect of home cheese making, make new cheeses, video tape my tutorials and try to source some fresh raw cow's milk. I am also going to transition to vegetarian rennet. Though I don't think I will have goats this summer, I'm hoping to look into how to keep and care for dairy goats.

I'll see you all at the end of the summer of 2020!!! Thanks for joining me on my cheese journey!

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Goat Milk Feta Taste Test



Hi Friends! 😊

Here is the video of our Feta cheese taste test. I was so hyped up to taste this cheese and it turned out to be saltier than the Dead Sea!!! We will still try to salvage it by rinsing it under cold water, but the next time I make Feta (and there will be a next time!) - I'll cut down the salt solution in the brine!!

So...I won't post a recipe for this until I have a success!!

- My little hound dog Jack is doing his best to get my attention throughout the video. -

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Cheddar Taste Test (Two Cheddars Using Two Different Bacterial Cultures)


Hi Everyone :)

I recorded a taste test video for two of my Cheddars but the video just didn't turn out! I'll give you a quick summary in writing and add a video addendum below!

Yesterday I opened:

1. A Cheddar that I made in October 2019 that's been aging 3 months. For this cheese I used the culture MA4002 which is a mix between a mesophilic and a thermophilic culture. It's supposed to create a buttery texture and a milder taste.

2. A Cheddar that I made in July 2019 that's been aging 6 months. For this cheese I used the culture MA11 which is marketed as a "go to" mesophilic culture for hard cheeses.

A Cheddar that I opened a few months ago was made with MA11 and both Alex and I found it to be way too tangy for our liking. That's why I made another one with MA4002 to test if there would still be a tang.

Unfortunately the 6- month aged Cheddar (using MA11) was too tangy and yeasty. Sigh. The 3-month aged Cheddar (using MA4002) was also tangy but very edible and tasted like a Cheddar.


We recorded a follow up video after we paused for a bit to taste the cheeses again, here it is, but the conclusion is that I will never use MA11 again in my hard cheeses!


And just for fun, here is the pets' taste test video, they're so supportive! 😊

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Mascarpone (Recipe and Instructions)


Hi Friends! 😊

Mascarpone cheese is very basically an Italian cream cheese. Mascarpone is made from cream, where American cream cheese is made from milk. This cheese is extremely expensive to buy so I thought I'd give it a go and make my own. It wasn't much cheaper to make. 😩 And, likely because I don't have pure cream available to me (I can only buy cream that is filled with gelatin and thickeners), my yield was MUCH  lower than expected.

This recipe should have produced at least two and a half cups of cheese, and it only produced one and a half cups. It was very delicious and worked well for the tiramisu that I made, no complaints there! 

If you can find pure cream and you make this recipe, please let me know how it goes for you and what your yield is! Here is the recipe:

Mascarpone Cheese
Yield: 1.5 cups to 2.5 cups

✎ Print Recipe


Ingredients

5 cups whipping cream
5 tbsp lemon juice

Directions


1. Pour the cream into a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer.


2. Once the cream comes to a simmer add the lemon juice and whisk until the cream begins to thicken, roughly 15 minutes.


3. When thickened, turn off the heat and transfer the pan to an ice bath. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.


4. Place a butter muslin-lined sieve inside a slightly larger bowl and transfer the cooled cream to the sieve.

5. Cover the cream and store in the fridge for 24 hours. After 24 hours the cream will set into Mascarpone cheese.