Whey to Go

This is the first attempt at making cheddar, which I miss. It's expensive to buy here in Germany and I haven't found any native equivalents. I started at about 6.30 on Saturday evening, which was far too late, because you actually need a lot longer for this kind of cheese. I knew this, but circumstances prevailed against me. I had a lot of other things to do as well, so things got a bit drawn out.
So this is 5l of raw cows' milk heating up slowly in a sterile saucepan to 32°c.

I then added a teaspoon of animal rennet (bought online because although I was told I could buy it from an Apotheke, no-one wherever I inquired even knew what rennet was. Incredible how ignorant we all are these days) in a small cup of cold water. Stirred the milk. It was nearly midnight by this time.

I sat the saucepan on the night storage heater for 30 minutes, after which time the milk had coagulated and turned to a thick junket, providing a clean break when I stuck a finger in to test it. Getting really excited now, I then cut the curds with a palette knife -to 1cm wide, and stirred with a whisk to separate curds and whey. I'm not quite sure what the point is of cutting the curds in the first place, if one has to separate them even more with a whisk afterwards. Perhaps it's supposed to make it easier to cut them really finely if one does it with a knife first. If anyone knows, please tell me..

You can see the cut curds here. It works!! All the info and videos

on the net couldn't quite take away my anxiety that I maybe hadn't done everything correctly.






Then I heated the curds and whey up to 38°c and stirred slowly.
It is fascinating how different the
curds are this time, compared with how they look when I coagulate the milk with lemon juice or vinegar. They are so creamy, as opposed to clumpy. Then I poured off the curds slowly into a cloth over a bowl, keeping some of the whey for cooking. Making a cheese this big, there's so much whey left over, that there's no way (pun unintended) we could use it all, so I am ashamed to say that I pour a lot of it down the sink. I know this is awful, but I don't know what to do with the rest. While the children are not at home, no-one eats cereal in the mornings... We haven't a dog or cat or livestock. Ideas welcome.
I then added three teaspoons of salt to the curds and mixed it in thoroughly.

Here I placed a bowl under this strange looking metal stand - I can't remember what it's for, originally, but it has some very useful holes in the top, which the whey can drip through while the cheese is being pressed. The curds are in a cloth, in the old biscuit tin, with my husband's weights on the top. They stayed like this in a cold bedroom (thanks Ben) overnight. Went to bed and dreampt of cheese.
(The cake in the background is a carrot cake for Sunday.)

This was the next morning after the first pressing. I then turned the cheese over and pressed it again in the same way for another 24 hours. When I took it out this morning it was much firmer and uniformly smooth all the way round. I turned it once again to press for a further day. Tomorrow morning I'll take it out to put it in the fridge to mature. I don't know if I have to cover it with cheese wax - I don't have any and I don't have the necessary equipment to melt enough with which to cover the cheese. So I'll see what happens. All very exciting.

This is the results of the third effort at making cheese using lemon juice /vinegar as a coagulating agent. You need more of either for a cheese of this size, which was made from 4,5l of raw cows' milk. I formed the curds in a cloth in a bottomless biscuit tin, which works perfectly. My husband's 5kg weights fit neatly over the cloth and tin bottom which cover the cheese and press the whey out through the cloth, (and a metal stand with holes in it - which has been sitting in the cellar for years, and whose proper purpose I can't for the life of me remember) - into the bowl underneath.
The last cheese I made using this method, (see last cheese entry) I soaked in a salt bath over night. It was tasty, (creamy yellow rind on the outside and a firm white soft cheese on the inside) but perhaps a little too salty. So this time I only salted the curds slightly and salted the outside. I made this three weeks ago and since then it's been sitting in the fridge, gradually giving off moisture and developing a firmer yellower crust. Can't wait to try it.

Next Cheese-making Adventure

This time I used 3.5 litres of fresh milk straight from the farm. Heated it up slowly and at just before simmering point, added lime juice (didn't have any lemon left) and finally a bit of white wine vinegar. The moment everything suddenly curdles never ceases to astonish and delight me. Huge great lumps of white curds. Poured everything into a linen tea-towel and hung it up on a hook on the ceiling to drip all night into a bowl. This morning I pressed the resulting lump (a good 750g, at least) in the cheese pot, (under my husband's lifting weights) for a few hours. A short while ago I took it out again and put it into a salt water bath. It's sitting in the fridge. Not sure how long I'll keep it in there, but perhaps for a few days, after which I'll take it out and have it sit in the fridge to mature a bit. I'm not sure what kind of cheese it'll be; will have to look it up.

Am starting to think about this year's seed planting; what, when and how much to sow ... Swiss Chard, (Ger. Mangold, 'Lucullus') Lamb's Lettuce ('Feldsalat, 'Rapunzel') and Curly Kale (Grünkohl).
It's a start. Have brought in some 'Mel's Mix' in a plastic tub to start some seeds off early for transplanting out later. Have to warm up the soil first. I'll wait until tomorrow before sowing.

Draught Excluder, Cheating and Funghi

Am very pleased to say that I have managed to sew ourselves a draught excluder for the front door - and thereby save anything from 7,99 to 48,00 Euros, as well as the diesel and time used for otherwise looking around town for one. I used a long piece of left-over dark red corduroy and sewed a long sausage. I then sewed another long sausage using a piece of old, white sheet, cut up an old garden chair cushion for the foam bits inside, which I stuffed into the white sausage, including any odd scraps of material left over. Sewed up the white sausage, stuffed it into the dark red one, (which can now be washed on its own) sewed velcro at the end, and hey presto!
What is particularly pleasing though, is that I didn't have to buy one of those revolting long fluorescent dachshund/frog/snake/reindeer draught excluders which are as cheap and less effective than they look.

I was so inspired by our friends' rows of canned vegetables, that I bought a couple of big jars of pickled gerkins (1,25 each for two huge jars) (I'll use the jars once the gerkins are gone, of course) and soaked off the lables. ...a. they look nicer that way and b., I can pretend I canned them myself. Couldn't wait for next summer. ;)))
Now they're sitting in the cellar next to the jars of Sauerkraut, which I cut up this morning.

I've had so many ceps that we can't eat them as quickly as they grow, so I'm drying a row of them on a thread stretched between a couple of beams on the kitchen ceiling. I'll put them in a glass jar once they're dry and they'll reconstitute beautifully in water when I need them.

Hannah found an absolutely massive Cauliflower Funghi a couple of years ago at the foot of a pine tree in the woods behind the garden. After we'd cut it up, washed all the bits out of it - pine needles etc, we dried it on threads in the same way. We then packed it into glass jars. I made a goulash a while back and after soaking the remaining funghi in water, used it up (as well as the water) in the stew. It was really good.

Last night we were visiting friends about three quarters of an hour away from here... they're scout leaders and had invited Frank to talk to their youth in the evening. Great time together, but what really encouraged me was that when we were at their place in the afternoon, his wife told me about a talk she had been to where a woman was sharing from a book which she had read by someone in government.
It said that the German government is warning people of hard times to come, and that they should start preparing for them by storing rations, food, grow their own vegetables, even have a bag prepared with emergency items in case one has to leave home suddenly ... (one wonders why...)
Anyway, since I've been hearing similar things on the US alternative news grapeline, this only confirmed my own mind in wanting to become self-sufficient.
My friend is going to find out about the book and tell me so I can read it myself. She told me about her parents' upbringing in Romania and how they produced everything themselves. It was brilliant. She then took me over to her sister-in-law's house, where they had made Sauerkraut last year, (they do it every year) and showed me the cellar there.
There was this enormous green plastic barrel with a little tap at the bottom, (not so sure about the plastic - but there you go) which they'd bought from the local DIY store, over-half-filled with liquid with herbs and bits of horseradish root, floating around on top. A huge stone was keeping some untreated planks of wood held down under the surface of the liquid, and under the planks were the cabbages. Whole, with their cores cut out, into which they'd then poured the salt, packed the cabbages into the barrel, filled it up with water, herbs and spices, and then once the liquid had begun to ferment, it was tapped out and poured on top over again a number of times.

On the shelves of the cellar were lots of large glass jars filled with pickled gerkins, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, preserves of all sorts. Tomato sauce, aubergine, pepper and tomato spread, honey from their own bees, jams.
Amazing.
I've made our own jams, jellies and chutneys (see above) for a long time and we rarely buy our own. (The picture on the right is of our own Elderflower syrup, which Hannah helped me make last year.) I've never thought much of it - have done it for fun, rather than as a necessity, probably because my mother did it, but apart from making piccallili once, I've never been a great one for preserving vegetables. But this has really inspired me. I'm even thinking of preserving meat. Chickens, from the local farm. The confit method sounds scrummy. I like the idea of potted meat too, as well as salting - it's called 'Pökelfleisch' here - I love the sound of that.
I think I'll ask for books on preserving veg, meat, and making my own cheese, for future birthdays.

Raclette, mark 2

No, this is not about my second attempt to make cheese ... I just thought I'd post something about how I'm getting on with the sequel to 'Raclette and the Siege of Mont 'Or' which is awaiting the attention of the 12th publisher (I hope to hear back from them in 3 months).

Raclette and Chester are married and living uncomfortably at Innperlenburg Palace in close proximity to Raclette's parents, King Géramont and Queen Emmental. The latter is as silly, controlling and manipulative as ever. They'd like to get a place of their own, but snooping out the murderer of Raclette's Aunt, the Dowager Duchess Mozzarella di Buffala is a lot easier in the palace, as any suspects must live or work there too.

Edam and Petrella are also married but owing to the reconstruction of the country after Morbier's invasion, times are hard. Edam is working on his father's thyme farm and Petrella has a job on 'The Daily Grind', the main Innperlenburg newspaper.

Pecorino, Petrella's younger brother, is champing at the bit, hoping to win the National Wheeling Championships, which are due to take place shortly. Petrella has to do a write-up on the contest.

It has been decided that the Palace Trap Gang will do some hunting for the elusive iron box, thought lost when Großkäsingen (Cheesing Magna) House burnt down, which contains proof of Morbier's crimes and which, it is hoped, will finally put Raclette's wicked Uncle behind bars. However, in the meanwhile, Morbier, undaunted by the death of his 'Baby', Gorgonzola, is up to no good, continuing his genetic experiments on rats, and has succeeded in breeding a succession of mutations for which he has found a ready market; more about that another time.

New characters so far; Norbury, another journalist on The Daily Grind, currently out in the East investigating some fishy business involving the Sultan of Ghazi and a depopulation programme. Grinding Manchego, the Chief Editor of The Daily Grind, greedy, unsympathetic and down on his employees like a tonne of bricks.
The 9th Baron de Roquefort and his wife the Baroness Delice (who happen to be Queen Emmental's parents) and their son, Albray, the 10th Baron-in-waiting, commonly known as Baroque. Later to appear in the story, Mortadella, King Géramont's banished sister.

I have to get on with some writing. Excuse me.