Say Cheese!

One of the biggest blessings of having a cow around has been making and having fresh cheese in the house! Both Joyce and her mother in law Anna have helped the girls and I learn the process of cheesmaking. It has been such a joy to not only learn the art of cheesemaking but also visiting with some of the most lovely women that I have had the priviledge of meeting here in Spanish Lookout.

First step was to heat the milk to 90 degrees.

Then we added the cheese starter.. and waited 3/4 of an hour.

After letting it sit for 45 minutes, we added the rennet and let the milk stand for 20 more minutes. After that we cut the curd with a knife.

(I am always amazed when the milk actually reaches that stage that you can actually CUT it!)

After that we heated the milk back up to 99 or 100 degrees. After stirring and heating the milk, the curds fell to the bottom and we strained off the whey. Anna had my boys take the whey out to feed to her pig! :) That is about all whey is good for. We then broke up the curds with our fingers into walnut sized pieces.

The next step was to put the curds into cheesecloth. Anna had just gotten some new cheesecloth from Mexico. She was so kind as to cut and give me a piece of her special cloth.

Here we are, dumping the curds into the cheesecloth lined sinks. We rolled and squeezed the liquid out of the cheese through the cheesecloth.

Anna then added salt and we were ready to place the cheese in the press and let sit for 12 hours with 20 pounds of pressure.

Do you see our cheese? It is in the cheese press with a dumb bell on top of it.. hiding behind the ladder and out of the way. The elder Anna and her daughter (also named Anna) says it is a bit rustic but for us, it seemed like a great idea! :) .. We had such a wonderful day spending time with some sweet ladies and learning this new craft. Oh and by the way, the cheese was absolutely delicious!