A Lesson In Cheesemaking

I am fascinated by the art of cheesemaking. Turning milk into cheese? That almost qualifies for alchemy! A few weeks ago, curiosity got the best of me and I made my first round of chevre gently flavoured with lemon zest and pine honey. It was delicate and fresh tasting though lacking much of the complexity in my beloved cheeses. It was also an exercise in patience. Hours went by with the slow dripping of whey. On the scale of immediate gratification, cheesemaking probably ranks just above gardening.

I must admit though, it was tremendously rewarding to unmold my very own cheese for the first time. The experience reminded me of that distant past when I beamed in excitement at my first batch of muffins. Of course it was far from perfect but there was just something so satisfying about uncovering the mystery of a food I once thought is the domain of professionals only.

Soon after my chevre experiment, I came across The Stop Community Food Centre's cooking classes when I was looking up information on winter farmer's market. An afternoon cheesemaking workshop caught my eye and next thing I knew, I registered for the class. This is the workshop description from the website:

Learn how to make chevre, paneer, blue cheese, cheese curds, yogourt and kefir. Daveed Rotsztain will lead participants through the various stages of the cheesemaking process from culturing to l'affinage (ageing). The workshop will emphasize a sort of 'natural cheesemaking', with a focus on simple, hands-on techniques that can be easily reproduced at home. Daveed will also discuss the history, science and practice of cheesemaking, the politics of raw milk, rennet free cheeses and dairy ferments. Oh, and there will be lots of cheese to eat too.

Bio: Daveed Rotsztain is an organic farmer and farmstead cheesemaker on Mayne Island on the west coast of BC, where he makes chevre, as well as aged goats milk cheeses from a small herd of Saanen goats. He picked up his cheesemaking skills from various teachers, including a brown swiss cow named Sundae on Cortes Island. Daveed has given cheesemaking workshops for many food security-minded organizations around the Salish Sea including the Galiano Food Program, the UBC Farm, and the Sustainable Living Arts School.

Does that not sound exciting?

Last Saturday, I went to Green Barn for our class. I learned lots from Daveed and saw all the mistakes that I made in my previous experiment with chevre. More importantly, the mystery has been removed from cheesemaking. I see that it is something I can do in my own kitchen and I look forward to more experiment in future. Let's take a look at what we learned in class:

The Green Barn was flooded with sunlight. A beautiful space for an afternoon of cheesemaking.   The Making Rennet Cheese (from left to right):

1. A cup of kefir culture was added to a gallon of warm whole unhomogenized cow's milk that is about the temperature of warm bath water. Using unhomogenized milk yields better result and is easier to work with.
2. A quarter tablet of rennet was dissolved in some water before adding to the milk. The enzyme in the rennet will cause the protein in the milk to tighten and eventually turns into gelatinous curd.
3. The pot of milk was covered with a lid and coddled with dish towels to keep it warm. It is important to leave it undisturbed because the forming of curds is a very fragile process.
4. After 30 minutes, we began to see some whey seperating from the curds.
5. After 60 minutes, it became gelatinous. Daveed demonstrated the clean pull method of testing the readiness. He dipped his finger into the curd and lifted it out. If the curd is ready, it should fall cleanly from both sides of his finger. This is not a very reliable test though especially for inexperienced cheesemakers.
6. After 75 minutes, the curd is becoming a little stronger. Daveed demonstrated another method of testing the readiness. He gently put his hand over the top of the curd. If he can pull the curd away from the side of the pot as one unit, it is ready.
7. After 90 minutes, the curd is finally strong enough and was ready for cutting.
8. Curds were cut into large 1 inch cubes. Larger curds are favoured for making squeaky cheese (hello poutine!).
9. After cutting, the curds are "pitched". i.e. rest some more to let them heal and strengthen.
10. Cooking the curds is another lengthy process. The large pot of curds was cooked over low heat to gently bring the temperature up slowly. We only stir them occasionally at first. As the curds got stronger, stirring became more frequent. Cook until squeaky cheese curds form.

  Here is a look at cutting the curds in action.   Heated cheese was the other style of cheese we made. This is rennet-free and the milk is heated to high temperature before curdling with an acid. Paneer is an example of heated cheese.

1. Milk was brought to a boil. Heated cheese must be made at above 80C temperature.
2. An acid is used to curdle the milk. Vinegar is one example but we used freshly squeezed lemon juice in our class that imparts a lovely taste.
3. Pour all the lemon juice into the milk and stir once or twice. You do not want to stir vigorously because the resulting curds would be tiny and the cheese would lose its smooth texture.
4. Milk curdled almost instantly. Using a slotted spoon, gently remove the curds into a strainer to drain out the whey. Do not take the shortcut and pour everything into a strainer! That would break up the curds.
5. Daveed showed us his homemade cheese form. Using two nestling plastic containers, the bottom one is pierced with holes while the top one is filled with water to weigh down the curds.
6. Put the strained curds into the bottom cheese form and set it over a baking pan to catch the drained whey.
7. Set the top of the cheese form (filled with water) over the curds.
8. Adjust the form to ensure the cheese is level.
9. After much draining and waiting, the cheese is pressed into paneer!
10. Unmolded paneer is ready.

  Stirring in lemon juice to the pot of hot milk.   Unmold the paneer in one swift move.   After class, we all gathered around the table for a yummy cheese tasting. Daveed brought a round of Moonstruck ash ripened camembert all the way from B.C. This cheese recently got a nice review in Globe and Mail so it made an impression on me. Apparently, it is not available for sale in Ontario so that was a nice treat. Another cheese that made a huge impression was La Bergerie aux 4 Vents' Geai Bleu from New Brunswick. Other cheese that we tried include Fifth Town's Wishing Tree, Mi Careme, Daveed's own crottin, hung goat yogurt cheese, and of course freshly-made paneer.

For more great reading on cheesemaking, check out this post on cheddar.