Scurried around looking for my cheese making supplies which were stored in a variety of places amongst my other hobby supplies. Collected everything into one pile and reviewed what I had. Compared my supplies to those in the Basic Chèvre recipe found in Mary Karlin's excellent book "Artisan Cheese Making At Home"; the bible for this little global endeavor called Cheesepalooza.
Discovered that I didn't have the starter Mary recommends so did some cross referencing in my other cheese books, the Glengarry Cheese website where I bought my starters and a web search. I found a recipe for "Cheese craft: how to make Pangaea’s creamy chèvre at home" which was a good fusion of what I had read.
Got the milk heating on the stove watching the temperature with my yoghurt making thermometer and as it approached 86 deg C realized the recipe called for 86 deg F.....ahhhh! First slight error; now had to wait for temp to drop to 86 deg F while making large note in cheese log book to double check temperature scales before beginning!
The rest was uneventful, placed pot in oven overnight till I got home from work, about 18 hrs later. Checked for a clean break..... Looks good to me!
I placed the curds in cheese muslin and drained in a colander overnight till I got the consistency I was looking for.
The big test was the first taste.....creamy and smooth with a nice delicate flavour....success!!
I followed Mary's direction and wrapped most of the cheese with charred grape leaves from my garden. I will bring some for the Cheesepalooza tasting on Friday.
Awesome job! You seem like you have quickly mastered this cheese. Can't wait for your next Cheesepalooza post.
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