Caerphilly is a delicious and rewarding cheese to make at home. I am a convert. Ian Treuer says that this cheese is his staple and I remember Ntala from Crazy Mare Ranch also mentioning how they often make it at home. One must then ask why!
Caerphilly wedges being packed in cheese paper for future use
Chèvre has become a staple home cheese for me and the goatiness of the recipe I follow (see here: http://wp.me/p2Dh1k-2Y) makes for a strong character in various situations.
Chèvre stuffed and baked apple topped with homemade caramel ice cream
The ability to achieve reproducible, excellent quality mozzarella is one I am unsure exists with the home cheese maker. I am yet to hear of someone who has had recurring success with this cheese. Here, I smirk upon the term ‘home cheese maker’ as someone who does not have access to a pH meter. With this rather negative view, I embark upon the journey of Chapter 3 in Mary Karlin’s book. My own results were subpar, about a 5/10.
Stretching the curd at 180-185ºF
I’ll be at the Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival this Friday and I have the opportunity to toss a couple tickets your way for a free entrance into the Shaw Conference Center. Of course, once inside, you’d have to buy samplers of wine and food.
Check out the staggering list of participating wineries, distilleries, breweries and restaurants:
http://www.rockymountainwine.com/edmonton.html
To participate for a chance to win two free tickets – reply to this post and retweet my tweet (or tweet about it including my handle)
Stay out late, staying warm with food and wine right by the transit line. Grow old twirling a glass of whisky or shoot that vodka and be a little risky.
Smoky Valley was a great opportunity to learn, in a complete hands-on manner, how to make cheese. They have a huge vat (I think it’s 200L big) and capabilities to churn out huge quantities of cheese. I’m hoping that they really branch out to a variety of goat and other milk’s cheeses.
We were there for an entire day, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and went home with cheese worth roughly $40. The whole experience was great and I can’t wait to revisit the farm on their next cheesepalooza cheese session. Check out the slideshow of our cheese making craze. It was a group of 8 people and we had a terrific time getting our hands “dirty” breaking up curds and doing all sorts of cheese-related things.
For me, feta is a great salad cheese (I’m already thinking of delicious greek salad creations). Halloumi, on the other hand, is a hard-to-like cheese, at least for me. It’s a very rubbery cheese and is usually eaten as a grilled piece of cheese. It’s interesting enough to eat now and then but I don’t see it as a cheese I could get creative with.
Ricotta Salata means salted ricotta. It isn’t a very commonly found cheese and while there are a lot of easy cheeses to make at home, ricotta salata is by far the easiest firm cheese one could make at home. WHY? You don’t need any cheese supplies and you can have this simple, yet delicious, home cheese as a staple for your grilled cheeses and in sandwiches.
Cutting into the ricotta salata – it’s firm on touch but soft inside, almost half as soft as a brie, for instance.
Chèvre is a warrior. Chèvre is a hero. I’m in the chèvre love team.
From a cheese making standpoint, the chèvre recipe is a fairly straightforward one with very rewarding results. An 18 hour slow-fermentation and slow coagulation process (in stark contrast to the rapid coagulation in direct acid cheeses) results in lovely ladle-able curds. A couple of hours of hanging, as opposed to pressing. There you have it!
Making chevre truffles for a porter and stout tasting night
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