Now I am not saying that I don’t thrill at the idea of making cheese’s that take months to be ready, and I will be more then happy to do those when I have lots and lots of milk from my sweet girl, but right now, I pretty much am milking one sheep which produces around a pint per milking, that means that she does about 7 quarts per week, or in canadian terms, right around 7 liters, she gives less milk on her evening milking but more cream, and she gives more milk with less cream on her morning milking..
The link above is a cute little clip I did of my milking her, I do it a bit different when I have two free hands but overall, it turned out not bad all things considered.
Back to my cheese, so out of that milk coming in the house, I have fresh milk drinking, cooking and baking milk taken out of that, but none the less every three to five days I have enough sitting to make a batch of cheese and to have a big old jar of whey to use up, I find I am using the whey more and more in the baking, in place of the milk itself. This appears to be working well with my lower gluten flours, as it reacts very well with baking powder/or baking soda to help create lift.
So I don’t tend to use any milk that is fresher then two days, so while it has been chilled quickly, most of the time the milk used to make this cheese is seven to five days old, I will skim off any thick heavy cream and set it to be made into butter or used as cream.
Then I take all the milk in a half gallon jar and pour it all together, put cheesecloth on top and put it in the deyhrator at the yogurt setting, and leave it alone for 12 to 16 hours, I tend to do it in the evening, leave it overnight and its ready to make cheese in the morning..
In the morning, i just dump the heavy clumps of raw cheese along with the whey into a pot, add one tbsp of salt (canning salt) and bring to just a gentle simmer..
Now at this point, I have a number of fun things to do, the biggest cheese clumb, gets scooped out and put into cheese cloth and pressed to make a awesome firm white, tangy slightly sweet cheese, its excellent with a bit more salt mixed in, herbs mixed in, or rolled in herbs. Or I can continue to heat the cheese and let it get to a boil, and you check it with the spoon, when it hits the right level, you scoop it out, and pull and roll, and voila, instant mozza, (its not really mozza but it acts just like it)
What is left now is perfect for making roccotta and I do that sometimes, but most of the time, I just pour it back into clean half gallon jars, and let it cool and settle, the top will split from the whey at the bottom, and I skim it out with a one cup with handle, and that becomes a perfert cooking milk, and the whey is wonderful for the baking..
What I love about this is so many things, its super simple to make, it gives me so many uses from the same thing, it really only takes me less then 20 min from start to finish, love love this cheese.. its my go to cheese..
O ya, after its been pressed, you can cube it up, allow it to dry for a day in the fridge and then put it into a salt brine and have mock feta in a matter of a couple days.. (I have I said, how much I love how easy this cheese is to do different things with)
Just another Day on the Farm 