Cheese the Second: Lemon and Orange Curd Cheese

The cheese: Lemon and Orange Curd Cheese (Carroll, p.79)
The milk: 1/2 gallon 365 Organic Vitamin D Milk (label expressly said it is not ultrapasteurized)

This may be the simplest cheese to make.

Although it was probably unnecessary with this cheese, I decided to keep good habits, and sterilize the muslin, a large spoon and the thermometer in a couple of inches of water in the pot I was using. Of course, this went much faster than heating the whole pot of water last time.

After 5 minutes of sterilizing, I dumped the water and let the utensils cool while I heated the milk to 205 degrees. Even though I stirred, a little bit of milk managed to stick to the bottom. I let what was there stay.

The recipe called for 6 lemons and 6 oranges worth of juice. I was halving the recipe and I have rather large fruit on my backyard citrus trees, so I figured I needed 1/4 cup of each type of juice.

The juice got stirred in and curdled the milk, it sat for a bit, then got drained in the muslin. Bingo, cheese.

Yield was supposed to the about 1 pound, my result was 12.95 ounces.

We tasted it on crackers. It was still very mild, with just a hint of the citrus. I intend to make it again, with more juice and plenty of pulp to give it a more pronounced citrus taste. The texture was more 'curdy' and less 'creamy' than I had hoped for.

Cheese the First: Lactic Cheese

The cheese: Lactic Cheese (Carroll, p. 70)
The milk: 1 gallon Lucerne Whole
The starter: 1 packet direct set mesophilic
The rennet: 1 tsp of 3 drops rennet in 1/3 cup water

I set out to make my first cheese of the year, armed with Ricki Carrolls book and a handful of mostly newly purchased kitchen gadgets.

It took a little over an hour to get the water in my large double boiler to boiling. When it finally got to 212, I sterilized the double boiler, large spoon, small spoon, measuring cup, thermometer and tongs for 5 minutes.

I dumped the water in the double boiler, and heated the milk to 86 degrees. Or I intended to, anyway. I looked away and by the time I looked back the milk was at 95. I let it cool in an ice bath until it got back below 90.

Following the recipe, I added the starter and then 1 tsp of a mixture consisting of 3 drops rennet in 1/3 cup bottled water.

By the time I finished it was 4:30 PM. I let it set until bedtime at 2:30 AM and then poured the whey and curds into a muslin lined colander. I tied the muslin into a bag and hung it from a skewer laid across a pot until the next afternoon, around 3:30.

The yield was 13 oz, which was half what the recipe promised. Letting it set for longer, checking my sanitizing protocol, and changing the milk are on my list of changes. (I was eager to get started, and we were near the store that sold that brand of milk).

We sampled the cheese on crackers. It was very mild tasting, soft, and very spreadable.
Tonight I intend to use it to fill crepes.

Edit: Here are the crepes, with strawberry sauce on top. Too bad you can't really see the cheese.