The ABCs of homemade cheese

Nov 05, 2009

Suzanne Clarke (far right) salts her homemade cheeses at the first ever Country Know-how sharing workshop

The first-ever Country Know-How workshop initiated by the column of the same name (which appears regularly in these pages) took place on Oct. 29 in the kitchen of Suzanne Clarke.

A small but inspired group of cheese lovers gathered to find out how to do it themselves.

Suzanne began making her own cheese this past spring after acquiring two Nubian goats, and she shared some of the fundamentals that she had recently acquired at a cheese-making workshop by Margaret Peters-Morri, whose book, The Cheesemaker's Manual, is a reliable tool.

The beauty of making your own cheese at home is that:

1. It is not rocket science. Suzanne admitted at one point during the workshop, “I think I failed every single chemistry experiment in high school but I have had success with every single batch of cheese that I’ve made.”

And 2. It tastes sooooo good.

Like most good food, all you need is some time, the right tools and fresh ingredients.

Suzanne took us through the step-by-step process of making a fresh Swiss cream cheese.

For equipment, she used: one large canning pot, a stainless steel pot, and a container for catching the whey; a ladle, colander, a cheesecloth bag or clean linen towel, measuring spoons and cups, a cooking thermometer and bleach or iodine for sanitizing the tools. Specialized tools can be purchased from Glengarry Cheesemaking and Dairy Supply (see contact info at the end of this article).

All tools are washed and sanitized before using and the kitchen should be spotless to avoid unwanted bacteria.

Suzanne makes her own cheese with goat’s milk she gathers twice daily, but for this workshop we used regular bagged store-bought cow’s milk, as fresh as Suzanne could find. Whole milk is best. If only 2% is available you can add additive-free cream. With homo milk you need to add calcium chloride.

The milk needs to be pasteurized (or heat treated) unless one is making cheese that will be aged for 60 days.

Suzanne began by slowly heating up the milk in a stainless steel pot to exactly 24 ° C. Just before it reached the temperature she turned the element off and lightly sprinkled in the culture evenly all over the surface. Once the culture was dissolved she demonstrated how to gently stir the pot in an up and down motion from bottom to top 20 times. Rennet is added next and the milk is stirred the same way. If needed, calcium chloride is added before the rennet.

The milk is then left to sit in the covered pot for 14-16 hours. It is ready to drain when the surface bounces back when lightly touched and when a knife inserted shallowly along its surface and lifted will leave a clean break line.

Next you put the curd in a colander lined with cheesecloth and let it drain for 20 minutes. At this point the cheese can be put in specialized individual cheese molds that allow the whey to drain out, or the entire batch can be put into a cheesecloth bag and left to drain for roughly 24 hours or until it reaches the consistency that you prefer.

On the previous day Suzanne prepared a batch of cheese so we could see what the near-to-finished product looked like.

She opened a lidded box that housed six specialized whey-draining cheese molds, each containing one fresh cheese. She removed each individual cheese and demonstrated how to salt the outer surface. And that was it. Voilà. The freshest cream cheese you’ll ever taste.

At this point fresh herbs or garlic can be added or whatever suits your fancy. Suzanne invited us to sample the cheese and a cheese cake she made using her fresh cheese. Both delicious.

Anyone who missed the workshop and who would like to explore the wonders of cheese making can visit glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca or call them at 613-347-1141.

At the next Country Know-how sharing workshop on Nov. 5 (today) at 7pm, Jochen Mueller will be demonstrating bread making. He can be reached at 613-479-1966.