by Jerri Have you thought about making feta? You CAN do it! Gather your supplies, including the culture for Feta Cheese from NWFerments. This is not an all-in-one direct set like some cheeses, so you'll need to get animal rennet or vegetable rennet as well! Mine is made with a portion of the vegetable rennet tablet. The process is straight forward, but be sure to get our directions and read them thoroughly several days in advance. You do not want to get started and then have a hiccup. Heat the milk very slowly on low heat to 86ºF. Add culture to surface of milk, wait a few minutes, then stir well. Let it sit for 1 hour at room temperature....
by Jerri I was in a hurry. I thought, I've done this a million times, set the timer, and walked away from the stove to do another part of the yogurt project. My cow's milk was slowly warming over medium heat for a rebatch of Greek yogurt. It was only supposed to reach 160ºF, so 15 minutes in when steam was rising from the pot, I freaked. As the numbers on the thermometer rose beyond 160 and up into the 180s, I held back the tears, and remembered I had lemon juice. Lemon juice! I poured the overheated milk into a bowl, grabbed the lemon juice, and as I dumped it in while stirring I thought, How much lemon juice...
by Jerri I am certainly no expert, but I love experimenting. So the intro picture resembles cottage cheese, and ended up tasting sourly divine, but did I really make cottage cheese? In another blog post, cottage cheese was attempted using the MA 11. Did that truly work? It can also be made with the Flora Danica and the Aromatic B. This time I opted for Aromatic B to see how it compared to the MA 11. I followed our same directionsexcept when my stove didn't cooperate I slowly heated it to 72º (which happens fast, even when done slowly). After removing it from the heat, I added the diluted Calcium Chloride, since I used storebought pasteurized milk and this helps...
by Jerri I get giddy when I get a chance to make butter! It's hard to find good cream that is not Ultra Pasteurized or a heavy whipping cream, so when you do, you'd better make something GOOD with it. When my kids were younger we'd have a weekly raw cow milk drop, and I would immediately scoop off the cream and we'd have a shake-shake-shake party to make butter. After the butter was made, my kids would do drive-bys with a spoon and it'd slowly disappear before even being applied to a food! And now I have learned that you can culture the cream FIRST, and then make butter “ LOVE that idea! You can use just about any...
by Jerri The Aromatic B Cheese Culture* can be used for many cheeses, like goat milk chevre, or cow milk for Havarti or Baby Swissbut until I get my hands regularly on Non-Ultra Pasteurized or raw goat milk, or a cheese press, and cheese cave to age the more difficult cow milk cheeses, I can use the Aromatic B Cheese Culture for cottage cheese and sour cream. Let's do sour cream! To make sour cream is fairly easy: Heat 1 quart regularly pasteurized cream to 72ºF Sprinkle Aromatic B Cheese Culture on the surface of the cream and let rehydrate 1-2 minutes Mix in the culture Maintain 72ºF and culture for 12-24 hours My friend said it might take longer...
