Cheese Disasters: An Update

I took a bit of a break from cheesemaking for a while, but I realize that I haven't even mentioned my favorite food at all in the past few months, so it's due a blog post. (Bees coming sometime soon, promise.)

I had a little free time before class started last week, so I planned to make a batch of feta. It's half cow half goat milk, which always gives it a really nice tang. But apparently I've been too distracted to make cheese, because immediately I heated the milk too much, then realized I was out of lipase, which is an enzyme I use to give cheese flavor, then heated it too much again. Eventually I ended up with something resulting that was a little less like feta and more like a grainier chevre. Though it did taste ok.

The point is that making cheese under duress or while you have other things on your mind just doesn't work out well. Don't get me wrong; it's nothing a bottle of Cork Jumper bubbly couldn't fix, but I found myself frustrated at my own hobby. In fact, doing anything when you just don't have the mindset just doesn't really work. I tend to be pretty good at psyching myself up even in my most dire moments, but sometimes a girl just needs a break.

I'll have to give it another good shot in a few weeks. Until then, at least I can buy and eat some good stuff. Here are a few of my favorite pairings of wine and cheese:

Crottin de Champcol and bubbly, preferably Brut Rosé.

Trader Joe's Truffle Cheese and Pinot Noir - earthy and creamy. Yum!

Fontina and oakier Chardonnay - the cheese has a nice soft bite to it that matches well.

And the old favorites which go with everything are Pecorino and Manchego.

Parmesan: Round Two

My last recipe for Parmesan mentioned at the very end that this cheese should only be made in four pound increments because of its unique aging time. (I definitely need to start reading instructions all the way through...) So this time, I intended to follow this request and made a huge batch. All well and good, except my mold only barely holds three pounds. I stuffed it full, piled on some weights, and went to bed.

In the middle of the night, I woke to a loud crash in the kitchen. My press had tilted slightly, and the weights had come crashing to the floor, leaving a nice dent in one tile. So my parmesan is a little crooked, but I’m hoping this won’t affect anything. It does seem a bit moister than last time, too, but that might have something to do with the uneven weights.

That was two months ago, and honestly, it's tasting great and really has the texture of parmesan this time. Maybe it likes its funky shape.

The Cheddar Experience

My first hard cheese was a large 4 pound wheel of cheddar. This cheese was really fun to make, but required a good deal of attention, especially during the “cheddaring” process, which involves exact temperatures and a lot of flipping of cheese hunks. I didn’t add enough coloring, so it was more of a white cheddar, and while it isn’t sharp, it is pretty tasty. Right now, a few waxed pieces are happily aging away in my cheese fridge, hopefully getting better and better.