Danger Duke had been kind enough to send me some acorn flour he had made, I stuck in the freezer and it's been sitting there talking to me every time I open the freezer door, begging to be used, so I decided to make some cheesecake with it, first though I needed to make the cream cheese to make it
so I grabbed a gallon of raw milk, rennet and mesophillic starter
I poured the milk into a double boiler and inserted my candy thermometer, you only want to heat the milk to 80 degrees, well the candy thermometer starts at 100, so you kind of want to eye ball it
once you have the temp you want, sprinkle the starter on the milk and let it set for 3 minutes, then gently stir the milk
put 2 drops of rennet into 2 tablespoons of luke warm water
and pour it into the milk
you do not want to stir, use a up and down motion with a spoon to incorporate the rennet
put a lid on it and let it set at room temp for about 16 hours
I checked it this morning and it had firmed pretty good, need to let it set another 4 or 5 hours
to be continued
so I checked the setting and was happy with it, it's almost like yogurt
so I set my straining cloth into a pot
and scooped the curds into it
and tied the corners of the cloth around a metal spoon
and set it across a 5 gallon bucket and placed it in the pantry, time to wait another 12 hours
so the drain cloth was a little to tight weaved to gravity drain the cheese, it works good for pressing, but not for this method, so I picked up some flour bag towels, you really can't use cheese cloth, because the cheese is so fluid it can drain right through, butter cloth would be acceptable though, so anywho, I lined a a pan with flout cloth
and untied the drain bag, it smells awesome
and moved it over to the flour sack
and tied it back up and stuck it into the pantry
I made some more bagels today in anticipation for tomorrow morning
*cues greenie for picnic table bear gif*
So this morning I got up and pulled the cream cheese out of the pantry
I mixed in a little bit of salt and stuck it in a container to go in the fridge to firm up
of course I had to have some on a bagel
this is a very raw cream cheese, so if you try and make this, do not think it will come right out of the bag tasting like philadelphia cream cheese
20 Feb ’13
First, I am so excited to have found your site I have already spent several hours looking through your posts and think this is just wonderful! I was wondering (very new) What kind of milk can be used for the cream cheese or any of the cheese recipes? Also can you recommend where I might find cheese making supplies like rennet and mesophillic starter? Also on a side note... how did you sprout your potatoes like that? I know it may sound like a stupid question but I have really found that if you are as "new"" to as many of these processes that I am some of the lingo or instructions that I am finding are for people who have some idea what they are doing? ... lol Thank you!
3 Nov ’12
Hi Pkrincess, you can find a lot of these ingredients on amazon.com. There are specialty stores like New England Cheese (cheesemaking.com) that sell them also. This is a great forum with a lot of good people happy to help out or just share their experiences. KVR is a pretty knowledgeable resource in all things homesteading. Please dont forget to check in at the new members thread so everyone can say hi!
welcome pkrincess, you can use whole milk from the store or raw milk, for rennet and starter check a local home brew/wine making store, they might carry it or a local health food store, you can make your own starter like this
http://bethany.preci.....-home.aspx
or you can buy off amazon
you mean the tire potatoes post? those were from the previous year I had left in the bucket in my pantry over winter
welcome to the forum
20 Feb ’13
Thank you ... and yes I was talking about the tire potatoes, did you just leave them in a bucket all by themselves? I really wanted to try the potato barrel method and right now I have potatoes in jars with toothpicks holding them just within the water. Seems silly if I could just leave them in a bucket. Everyone seems to talk about the planting part but I didn't find too much about getting them ready. Again thank you so much for the help! I am so pleased to have found you:)
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