Sammy getting a belly rub

(Only a couple of parts to the DYO Sous Vide kit have arrived so far.  Looks like this weekend will be dedicated to garage clearing and making cheese.  I was always taught to have dessert last, so the cheese making will probably be Sunday.)

Clean some more junk out of garage: large ongoing project.
Get some extraordinary milk and make cheese out of it.
Get some Purina Pro Plan for my little furry feline friends.
Go to Pendery’s in Fort Worth for many incredible chili powders.
Smoke some meats because it is fun: chicken, turkey, beef brisket.

Update 6/14/2011: Unfortunately I only did 4 of the 5.  I failed to go out and get some great milk to make cheese.  The smoked meat is wonderful, my spice cabinet is refreshed, my cats are well fed and I made great progress on cleaning my garage.  Next weekend I will trim the list to just these: work on the garage and make cheese!  Ok, maybe I will add a low priority item to try sous vide sometime soon.  Ok, who am I fooling?  It looks like I need to start making one of these DIY Sous Vide kits.

Update 6/15/2011: I have ordered most of the parts for the DIY Sous Vide kit and will start building it soon.  It looks like the kind of thing that takes a few hours spread over several days.   I will post progress here on the blog!

HoganFarms blogging has been non-existent for some weeks while I was preparing for and executing a large hardware migration at work.  I offer my sincere apologies!  I did make a firm cheese a few weeks ago from regular pasteurized milk and am still aging it.  It looks pretty good, so I may need to cut into it tonight.   I need to restore lost calories from last “weekend.”  “Weekend” is in quotes because it was all work.  I also had another attempt at a firm cheese fail but it makes a nice spread on morning toast.

I did register for the American Cheese Society meeting in Montreal in August and have explained to all at work that early August I will be out of country and focusing on cheese rather than information technology.  If you are going too, I will see you there!

I cut into the Cheddar from the All-Natur_L milk and was pleased with the results:

Sorry about the really old cutting board.  My nice new one had some chopped veggies for dinner on it at the time.

For this cheese I used 3 gallons of All-Natur_L raw milk and slightly less than 1/8 teaspoon of double-strength microbial rennet.   I filled the 1/8 teaspoon measure, and then poured two drops back into the bottle.   Even so, it appears that I can cut back on the rennet a little more for the next cheese.

Tasting notes:

• The cheese is a little firm but is not at all crumbly.   This is a big improvement in texture from my last cheddar.  The cheese was squidgy, by which I mean that as my teeth sank into it I could hear it squeak faintly.  Neither the recent Edam nor Gruyere had that particular texture.
• This cheddar is a bit too mild in flavor, though the taste is clearly cheddar.  It could probably stand to age quite a bit.
• I liked the salt amount, which was about 2 and 2/3 tablespoons of sea salt for the 3 gallons of milk.  I had been using 3 tablespoons, but some of my friends had said that the cheeses had been too salty.  The CheeseWife™ thought this one could use more salt, but she has admitted to being a little too fond of salt.  I will eagerly note other taster’s comments on the salt balance.
• I put a few slices on Triscuit crackers and briefly microwaved them.  This cheese actually melted some.  My prior cheeses would only soften a little.  I attribute this to getting closer to the right amount of rennet.  The melted cheese was more bold flavored.  I can’t wait to try this on a hamburger!
• There were some holes in the cheese that I attribute to needing to mill the curds finer before pressing.  I do not have a cheese mill, so I use a knife and cutting board.
• There was a little fluid weeping from the cheese when I first cut it.  This looks like extra whey that I should have expelled before waxing the cheese.   Real cheesemakers have a drying area and age their cheeses longer.

Yes I am making real cheese, but I still consider myself a newbie at this hobby.   I understand that professional cheesemakers are only eligible to attempt to be certified as a master cheesemaker for a particular type of cheese after they have been making that cheese for more than 10 years.  Cheese longa, vita brevis!

Sammy and the CheeseWife™