Butter & Cheese Making

[WadePatton]

Anybody do this? i became fascinated when Gordon Ramsey took the crew of a failing restaurant (the "nightmare" show) to a local farm, milked a cow, then went back to the kitchen and made fresh cheese for the menu that night.

i knew i had access to fresh milk, but had never been around any butter/cheese making.

got a fresh jug yesterday. skimmed off the cream last night and let it set out overnight. started making butter this morning--30 min later had my first batch.

guess who had fresh butter on pancakes for lunch?

Butter is quite simple, and the by-product is buttermilk! i used the method published in Mother Earth News: allow cream to rise, skim off, allow 12 hours or so for cream to "culture" and reach 75f. then whoop it around as violently as you care to for 10-20 minutes-until it starts making. pour off the buttermilk, strain/rinse butter with water. work the water and remaining buttermilk out (with fingers). blend a tense of salt. done-lick fingers.

From what i've learned so far, the complexity of cheese-making varies quite a bit by the style. I still have to collect some cheese-making stuff, but will try that soon too.

note: the freshness of the butter does not remove the fact that it's 100% fat. limit your exposure yo.

[caleb]

note: the freshness of the butter does not remove the fact that it's 100% fat. limit your exposure yo.

Was Cindy Crawford's mole a deal breaker for you?

I never even noticed until someone else pointed it out.



I'm looking forward to seeing where this thread goes.

[Sasha]

This is quite easy. I've done it a few times

Fresh Ricotta

(not my photo)

[bocarider]

+1 on the fresh, home made ricotta. We have done that a bunch of times with great results.

[Dorman]

Hey Wade, check out cheesemaking dot com. They have all sorts of equipment, recipes, etc. for cheese making. I started a thread on this a month or so back, but didn't really go anywhere. You can just throw heavy cream in a stainless mixer bowl and beat on high and make whipped cream. If you go too long it will turn light yellow and be whipped butter. Different application, but still pretty tasty. Fat is good. Makes me ride.

[Too Tall]

Hey Wade, check out cheesemaking dot com. They have all sorts of equipment, recipes, etc. for cheese making. I started a thread on this a month or so back, but didn't really go anywhere. You can just throw heavy cream in a stainless mixer bowl and beat on high and make whipped cream. If you go too long it will turn light yellow and be whipped butter. Different application, but still pretty tasty. Fat is good. Makes me ride.

So true. Not to go off topic, Wade, we used to churn ice creme during rain days at the beach. Big party scene. Our family has two large White Mtn. hand crank churns. If we don't keep a lid on the football players will make peach or vanilla butter. Pretty funny to see the look on peoples faces when you tell them it's no good.

[WadePatton]

what mole?

[WadePatton]

Made two runs of ricotta last night. that wasn't hard. used the microwave. where do i go from here?

[JoB]

Made two runs of ricotta last night. that wasn't hard. used the microwave. where do i go from here?

order the starter kit from cheesemaking.com or another supplier (or get some citric acid, some rennet (junk rennet from the store won't work) and some iodine-free salt) and make mozzarella. Not too hard (worse comes to worst, you end up with more ricotta) and tasty.

[WadePatton]

order the starter kit from cheesemaking.com or another supplier (or get some citric acid, some rennet (junk rennet from the store won't work) and some iodine-free salt) and make mozzarella. Not too hard (worse comes to worst, you end up with more ricotta) and tasty.

eff me...this is what i hear when mozzarella is mentioned:

"yo, put some extra mootsarella on that muv fucker and shit"

radio raheem to sal wrt his pizza order in spike lee's do the right thing, yo.

thanks. next i'll be making pizzas.

yeah, extra cheese is two dollars:

[Dorman]

Wade... Wade... Make the Mozzarella.... Put your hot peppers in it... Ship some to me...

[rec head]

1) how was the butter? I'm guessing awesome but was it different?

2) I made cheater ricotta (made from milk not whey) last year and it was only OK. It tasted fine but it was a little rubbery. I used it in a lasagna that used fresh homemade noodles and vegetables from our garden. It was a lot of work to have it only be "OK" and haven't tried since.

[WadePatton]

peppers is two dollars

messing with wheat just now...more dairy in a bit.

the butter is great and mild and running low, but then i quit eating supermarket butter or butter subs a long long time ago. nothing really to compare it to, but that i know where the cow lives and exactly what's in it, and how to make more.

Whole milk ricotta is what yous make when you don't have proper whey to start with. I don't see that as a cheat. Look at this: fresh-ricotta-in-five-minutes-or-less/ It's very informative for the novice, with good rundowns on acidifying agents and draining time results.

[ericpmoss]

This whole series is pretty great.

[Blue Jays]

Delicious cheese makes me weak in the knees. An all-time favorite food.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was a proponent of cheese on the training table for athletes.