This morning I went straight to the kitchen and started making cheese. I never even stopped to make breakfast! Poor Vince.
I made a gallon of buttermilk last week and we used it all – either for drinking or for making cheese. When I make fresh buttermilk each week, the first thing I do is pour off enough for the next week’s starter. Otherwise, we would drink it all.
Since we bought milk from a different dairy yesterday, I had an extra three gallons this week so that gave me enough to start another batch of buttermilk today. Otherwise, I’d have to wait for the milkman to come tomorrow and bring more milk.
Look at the difference in the milk from the different dairies. The jar on the left is mostly cream that I had poured off for making butter. The jar on the right has a little cream but mostly milk. As luck would have it, Vince prefers the milk on the right and I prefer the milk on the left.
I made two batches of ricotta for recipes I’ll be making next week and I made three batches of a soft, creamy cheese. That’s what’s in the tray above. I’ll freeze dry it, then crumble it into pieces about the size of peanuts. We love eating that as a snack when we want something tasty and crunchy. Our favorite way to enjoy the crumbled cheese is to sprinkle it on top of salads or baked potatoes.
I added herbs and seasonings to the ones I’m going to freeze dry. On the left are two squares with basil, then three squares with Buffalo Hot Wing sauce, the three on the right end that are greenish have Italian herbs added and the two remaining have Cajun Redhead seasoning.
As soon as we get more milk tomorrow, I’ll make one more batch of the soft cheese, add the Italian herbs and garlic and that’s what we’ll spread over fresh sourdough bread with our lasagna on Sunday. Another chance for that “Good Wife Award”. 🙂
patti says
i was so excited when i saw this post! earlier you mentioned “soft cheese” and i asked about the process. am hoping you do a more detailed post soon. i recently made ricotta and am so pleased to add that skill so wondering if your soft cheese might be as easy. we often have cheese and crackers with cosmic crisp apples as a snack in the afternoon or evening. how did you like the cosmic crisp apples?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
The soft cheese I made is almost exactly like making ricotta except I added buttermilk, along with the lemon juice. I think the milk was heated to 175, which is a bit less than the temp I use for ricotta.