Christmas Cheese Gifts

For Christmas this year my wife and I joined forces to gift some family members with a decorative reusable grocery bags filled with goodies: Home made cookies,  Irish Soda Bread, Cheese Crackers, a wedge of Farmhouse Cheddar, and a jar of Feta in Basil infused olive oil.

I made Feta in basil infused olive oil in half pint decorative canning jars.  Using one gallon of 0% fat milk and 16 scoops of goat milk powder, and adding ¼ tsp of Lipase powder, I made one pound 13oz of feta using the recipe I posted earlier. It was aged 4 days before being “canned” with the olive oil.

The basil infused olive oil started out as 3 cups of extra virgin olive oil. Heated to 180F before adding a Tbs of dried basil, the oil takes on the taste of the basil and was allowed to cool.

I cut the feta to about 1/2” cubes and filled six 1/2pt jars. Filling the jars with the olive oil and putting the lids on, finishes these nice gift jars.

Joan made some labels with “Made by the Cheesy Geek” to put on each of them. 

This is the 4lb Farmhouse Cheddar that I made in October. I quartered it and waxed the exposed edges. (And, yes, I took the opportunity to taste it and it tastes like cheddar. (-: )

Overall, I am happy with these cheese gifts. I know that they are not perfect and I'd like the cheddar to be a bit more moist. I also did not compensate for the larger mold when adding the weights for pressing this cheese. I know better now.  There was some sediment in the Feta jars I'd like to eliminate next time. I'll probably have to rinse them off before putting them in the jars.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

the Cheesy Geek

Feta! Feta! Every where Feta!

Sunday was Feta day at my house. Boy, did I make some Feta. Chef Paula asked me to make some Feta for the soft opening of the school Bistro. The feta will be put into basil infused olive oil and served to the guests as one of the “Chef’s Treat”.

I do have a confession to make. I got 5 gallons of skimmed milk on Thursday and planned to make the Feta on Friday. I mixed one can of powdered goat milk with 2 ½ gallons of the milk in one of my new stainless steel stock pot. New as in: I just got it and never used it before. (I’ll probably post a blog about them another time). I put the pot on my induction burning and started it up to bring the temperature of the milk up to 86F.  About half way through the heating process I got distracted for about two minutes and quit stirring the pot. Can we say: BIG MISTAKE? When I got back to it there was a distinct burnt smell in the air and little brown and black bits were floating around the top of the milk. At this point I KNEW that there was no chance of making an edible cheese from this pot. However, I went ahead and finished the process of making the Feta to test the process I would use on the real batch. Afterward, I fed the hungry sewer gods some not so good cheese. (OK, terrible cheese).

I worked Saturday so I started my next attempt after church on Sunday. This time I used the next size larger pot as the bottom of a double boiler and everything went smoothly. I also started a smaller batch from one gallon of fresh goat’s milk. I want to have a direct comparison between “real” Feta and one made with powdered goat milk mixed with skimmed cow milk.

The whole process used 5 stock pots, four pieces of cheese cloth, three wooden spoons, two thermometers, one slotted spoon and a partridge…(oops, nearly got carried away). Eight and a half hours after I started the Feta went into plastic containers and into the refrigerator to age for a few days.

The 2 ¾ gal batch weighed out at a whooping 4lbs 12oz. I know it will lose some whey weight as it ages a few days but I’m impressed. The one gal of fresh goat milk had a yield of 1lb 11oz. which will also shrink some also.

On Thursday I’ll cut the Feta into ½’ cubes and put them in the basil infused olive oil. A previous test has indicated that it will last at least 60 days in the refrigerator. It will get a sharper flavor as it ages but the olive oil cuts that and the saltiness when eaten.

Until Next Time,

Don’t scorch the milk.

The Cheesy Geek

Feta Experiment

Since my source of fresh goat milk has dried up for a couple of months I decided to experiment with some Meyenberg powdered goat milk. My first attempt was using 1 quart of reconstituted goat milk and cutting the recipe down to 1/4 of the 1 gallon procedure. It worked...sorta. The curds were very weak and fell apart during the first minute of slow stirring. I went ahead and drained the whey and got 4.40z of cheese that resembled Ricotta and had a mild goat flavor. I salted it and let it sit a couple days in the fridge and it was okay but not close to the flavor I had been getting with fresh goat milk.

Experiment #2

I mixed 8 scoops of Meyenberg powdered goat will with 1 gal of 0% fat skim milk from Wal Mart. (sell by date Aug 18)
added 1/8 lipase in 1/4 cup water and 1/8tsp calcium chloride. Heated to 86F and added 1/8 tsp MA011 mesophillic culture and let set for 60 minutes

1/4 tsp of liq veg rennet in 1/4 cup of water. Stirred for 1 minute. And let sit for 60 minutes.

Very good curd formation. Custard like consistency.

Cut curds to approx 1/2 inch squares. Let sit for 10 minutes and then slowly stirred for 20 minutes. Transferred curds to cheese cloth and let it hang for 5 hours.

Cut the cheese into approx 1 inch squares and salted with 1 Tbs of cheese salt.
Put into glass bowl and covered with plastic wrap and into the refrigerator.

Joan described the cheese squares as "like tofu". They are firm and slightly plastic. It already has a fairly strong goat flavor.

Looks a success so far. The picture at the top of the page is the results after sitting overnight in the fridge.
Yield = 1lb 11.5 oz

Mozzarella Hearts with Feta Center

I used the half gallon of 1% milk from Friday and made some Mozzarella on Sunday. I used 3/4 tsp of citric acid in 1/2 cup of water and 1/8 tsp of dbl strength vegetable rennet in 1/4 cup of water. The curds set up in 10 minutes and held together very well during the heating and stirring process. I heated and stretched it three times and left it in a rope when I finished. I cut it into 1/2 oz pieces and put them in ice water for twenty minutes.

Now for the fun part. I recently purchased a mini heart muffin pan, the individual cups are 1 1/2inches. Using a large frying pan with hot water in it I heated the muffin tin. Then I heated some of the mozzarella in the microwave and rolled it out into a sheet. This went over the muffin tin and the heat helped the mozzarella stay stretchy as I filled the hearts with goat milk Feta I made last week. I made another thin sheet of mozzarella and placed it over the tin and used a rolling pin to seal the hearts. After 20 minutes in the fridge, I turned them out onto the cutting board and trimmed them to shape. (I'm not so good with that as you can see in the pic.) I picked some small sweet basil leaves and put them on top. The mozz actually looks like white chocolate when you first look at it. The taste is amazing especially if you take a little basil with it. I'm thinking that it would be nice to put some chopped basil in the heart before sealing them.

This was actually a "proof of concept" project: Trying to come up with the technique to fill mozzarella with a semi soft filling. Now I'm thinking: Key lime mascarpone, Ricotta with herbs, Yogurt Cheese with honey, strawberry preserves, grape tomato with Italian dressing, even mini burrata. Oh, the possibilities.

The Feta Cheese

Feta Cheese

The first time I made Feta (using fresh goat milk) it turned out well except I didn’t care for the amount of salt on it. I made it according to the recipe in the book and one gallon made 1lb 4oz of curds. After cutting it into one inch squares I salted it with the lesser of the amounts recommended (2-4 Tbs. of salt). It all fit into a 4 cup container with lid and into the fridge it went for 4 days. And it was good. I noticed that the taste changed over the 4 days as it should. The fresh curd is very light tasting before salting with just a hint of goat. Over night it takes on a much stronger goatyness (not sure if that is word or not). This is not a bad taste, it is what makes it Feta. (-:

Sunday I started making the Feta again from one gallon of milk (less two cups I used to make yogurt cheese). After draining overnight, I had 1lb 3oz of curds. I split this in two and took half and put it in brine solution for four hours. It was then put on a reed mat, covered with clean cheese cloth and into the fridge. According to instructions, this piece got turned over twice a day. The instructions also say that it may be stored in a 6-8% salt solution for up to 30 days. The longer it stays in the salt the saltier it gets. (no Duh!) The other I cut into one inch squares and salted with 2 tsp of salt before putting it in plastic container in the fridge. Tomorrow, Friday, is the day of tasting.

BTW I added a few pictures to my previous blogs.