'O Glorious Summer of Cheese, part deux

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I had a little freak out. A child-like tantrum. Burned milk, too much rennet? No, it was over my inability to count to 8. 8 litres of milk. It was pretty sad. But making cheese is stressful! Especially when you’re making a cheese you’ve never made before, you’re doing it by yourself, you have nobody to consult with, and you can’t just run out to the store and get more milk if you mess it up. Like a child, I also recovered almost instantly. I realized that I just had to chill out. However, when you’ve been building something up in your mind, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But I’m cool now. I survived. I’m okay and so is the cheese. So for any would-be cheese makers out there, I’d say: approach it like a big experiment, don’t beat yourself up and try to enjoy yourself! It’s not nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be once I just relaxed a bit. That was the feta. Now that I’ve got one batch under my belt, I think I can tackle future batches with more confidence. 

In any case, I won’t go step by step to explain how I did the feta because what you need to know is already online. I used this kit to make my feta: http://www.makecheese.ca/products/feta-kit-make-10-batches-of-homemade-feta 

If you’re more curious about the process, the instruction sheet that accompanies the kit is here: http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0172/8570/files/Recipe_MAKE_CHEESE_Feta_1.pdf?67

Here are some pix:

Milk has reached 93 degrees F (33 degrees C). Put down the camera and add the feta culture & calcium chloride!

Cover and keep warm while the culture ripens giving it that feta flavour!

Add rennet, let it sit again for another hour then slice it up.

Look at all that curdy goodness!

Stir, let it settle then transfer to molds lined with cheesecloth.

Two chunks of feta draining overnight. One is being weighted down.

Looks like feta

Cut, salted, & draining/drying.

Feta stored in brine. Ready to eat! Yum!

The mozzarella making was much more smooth. I followed the instructions from the cheese making course. See Goats Do Roam post. All was well. The only thing about the mozzarella was that when we made it in the class we wore gloves. When I made it at home I didn’t wear gloves. When you’re stretching the cheese, it’s VERY hot. I think the gloves absorb some of the heat. Next time I will track down some gloves for my poor little fingies.

Five little discs of mozzarella ready for the freezer. One ready for eating!

My only issue with cheese making in general is that it takes a heck of a lot of milk to make a fairly small amount of cheese. That’s fine for cheeses like feta where you generally only use a little bit at a time. But mozzarella? I could eat what I made in one sitting! Anyways, I froze the mozzarella in an attempt to slow down my consumption. If I ration it out a bit, maybe it’ll last longer? I think the feta will be fine in the brine. They are both so fresh and delicious. I'm convinced it's even tastier because I know exactly what is in it! Guess I need to get some more goat’s milk.