My wonderful husband went to the store last weekend and upon his return he announced that we needed to start making our own cheese. ?This type of?proclamation?isn’t new around these parts. ?He firmly believes that all of our food should be made from scratch. ?I’m with him, but as the chief bread, pasta, tortilla and other stuff maker, time constraints have me subbing the store bought stuff more often than he’d like. ?More often than I’d like, but hey, work is work and I’d rather do the stuff I get paid for.
So he comes home and says that the local market is selling cheese from a creamery in Bow, WA. ?He was going to buy a ball of fresh mozzarella, but at the tune of $14 his cheap Swedeness kicked in and we had chicken as our protein instead. ?This is where we refer back to the earlier statement of him believing we should make our own cheese. ?I (as the stupid lady* I am) agreed.
Now I’ve done my locovore part and read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. ?That’s what started this whole thing. ?I got to talking about it, then he read In Defense of Food and then Omnivore’s?Dilemma and now we only buy cereal and flour from the grocery store. ?When I read the book Kingsolver talks about making your own cheese. ?I thought it couldn’t be that hard, but I’m fairly lazy and forgot about it until aforementioned?proclamation. ?I knew where to get the stuff to make cheese so I hopped on “teh internets” and ordered me up a mozzarella making kit from New England Cheese Making Supply Company.
Yesterday my fancy new cheese making kit arrived and it just so happened that it was milk day. ?Just like the majority of our food, our milk doesn’t come from the grocery. ?We have milk delivery from a local company that gets it’s milk from local farms. ?It isn’t ultra-pasteurized and I do believe that it is organic. ?In a fit of Martha Stewart meets June Cleaver I put my family to the task of making cheese. ?The husband measured everything and the boy stirred. ?I read directions. ?Now this is supposed to be 30 minute mozzarella. ?We got to the part where the cheese is supposed to form curds. ?Um… riiiiight. ?”Let sit 5 minutes,” or so the directions stated. ?20 minutes later I had a sloppy mess of white stuff and whey.
Cheese making attempt #1 = colossal failure $6.00 down the tube (whole milk isn’t cheap)
I was determined to beat the cheese monster so I had the trusty husband bring home more milk. ?This time I did it all myself. ?I blame the boys because this time it worked! ?I made cheese. ?Real live cheese. ?Beautiful hand burny hot** cheese.
Take that Miss Muffett with your curds and whey.
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*stupid because I keep indulging his make it fresh ideas and then we can never purchase the store bought stuff again. ?Because It’s. so. much. better. FRESH!
**the directions say to wear rubber gloves, but I used mine to stain the cabinets so I did it with 2 wooden spoons and my bare hands.
Wow. I’m impressed. How does it taste?
And that is why I think that communal living can’t be all that bad. I think that more people would adopt a healthier lifestyle if they didn’t have to do all the work themselves. Because face it, making sure that your family gets the best food to nourish their bodies all alone is nearly impossible! People should all live close together to share with their friends and neighbors their talents. There could be a cheese making neighbor, farmer, baker, gardener, seamtress, etc.
But when you voice those kinds of ideas, you are labled as a socialist and noone ever respects you again.
You’re awesome.
I’m quite impressed. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone (not on a farm) to make their own cheese. Was it any yummier than store bought?
It was very easy and tasted delicious! Next time I’ll add more salt though. We only used 1/2 of what it called for and I think it needs a little more.
To all the dedicated readers of “elle” . . . having personally sampled THE cheese on Saturday at dinner, I can truthfully report that it is MUY EXCELLENT and really looks like the cheese we all buy at the store! Only this is like comparing my Hyandai Elantra to the newest Volvo – both cars, but not equal!! However, the main reason I’m posting a comment is to say that Liv’s comment made me laff out loud! Way to go & keep the cheese coming, “elle”!!! Luv, the trusty M-I-L. :-)))