After the 18 hours, I tasted the curds to make sure they had cultured properly. They had! - a pleasant sourness. I poured the curds into sterile chevre molds, made with cheap plastic Dixie-like cups perforated with a sterilized ice pick. After filling each about a fourth to a third of the way, I added one or two of the following to each: black pepper, smoked paprika, thyme, green peppercorns, garlic, savory, red pepper flakes, and a smidgen of I-don't remember-now. Oh, caraway. Finish filling the little (3 inch high) molds. Place on a sterile rack above a baking pan with raised sides. Set the timer for 48 hours. Wait. Waiting. Waited.
The potential cheeses have been draining at too high a temperature - they should have been kept at no higher than 72 degrees. This is early August, so not much chance. I should have used this as an excuse to turn on the air conditioner. If the cheese fails, I will next time. If the cheese fails, I will probably remove this post.
We are minutes away from unmolding and salting. Sea salt sounds good, doesn't it? But cheeses like a 'clean' salt - just sodium chloride, nothing that can give an off taste or discolor. Sorry. If I don't salt until serving, though, I can use any fancy salt I want. A larger textured salt is nice for anything where the salt is applied to the surface of a food. "Clean" salts would be kosher, canning, or cheese salt. Kosher has a good texture, less fine than the others.
This herbed soft goat cheese recipe was adapted from Ricki Carroll's Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Delicious Cheeses
The cheese can be wrapped in cheese wrap, paper, or cellophane. They keep about two weeks refrigerated, and they freeze well.
These sound great! I, however, don't have a timer that goes beyond 1 hour. So, I'm out. The fact that I also don't have a goat share or any of the equipment you described is completely irrelavant compared to that magical timer.
ReplyDeleteI like reading about the kitcheny things that you do, though, so keep it up!