Real Cheese Home Made

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 874, 4 May 1956, Page 22

Real Cheese Home Made

UITE a spirited reaction resulted from my reply to a letter from Mrs. B.M.S, asking how to make real cheese at home. I said I thought this would be almost impossible, and that cottage cheese was the usual home-made variety, which is simply curdled milk well drained and pressed (so that the whey is all taken out), and then salted to taste and used as a spread. This is very pd@pular, too, because it uses up all sour milk, which can still be found in districts where bottled, pasteurised milk is not-in universal use; and it is healthy and nourishing because it retains so much of the calcium and protein of milk. But real cheese-that is another matter altogether. Cheese is a traditional food-dates from 1400 B.C.-and all the Old World countries have made their own varieties ever the centuries, using milk from sheep, cows, goats, reindeer, camels, or mares, whichever happened to be the mother animal. They all knew that milk was one of their chief necessities, and therefore they made it into cheese because they could thus keep it and transport it. Many countries and districts are known by their special cheeses: Swiss

cheeses, little round ones, as Well as the famous Gruyere; Italian cheeses, including the hard Parmesan; the French

Camembert; English Cheddar (Somerset), as well as Yorkshire, Cheshire and Leicester; for the acquired taste, one called Gorgonzola, and the Danish blue. It’s almost an infinite variety. I understand that Switzerland has a "Cheese University," where you may qualify for a diploma. As the goodness of cheese is related, by custom, largely ‘to its age, it seems we cannot make at home such a perfect product. But here are some letters which have been sent in by very well-informed and interested readers of our Page, which will stimulate many of you into trying your hand; and please do write to me about your results. (1) Latvian Cheese "In connection with» Mrs. BM.S.’s letter, I take the liberty of telling you that home-made cheese is very popular in Latvia, which is my native country. For making home cheese, curd is necessary. It may be obtained from full or skim milk, mostly from skim. Fill up 2-3rd to 3% of a bucket with fresh milk, let it stay in a pretty warm room (65 degrees to 70. degrees) till it curdles

and forms an even clot. (It may take one to two days.) Stir the mass. Put the bucket into a vessel with warm water (120 degrees to 130 degrees) and heat slowly. When the contents of the bucket have become warm, add some fresh milk (one-fourth to one-third part of the quantity of the sour milk), stirring slowly and heating until all the curd has risen to the surface. If the curd is supposed to be used as a spread, the heating temperature must be lower -the curd will be soft. If the curd is wanted for making cheese, the temperature must be higher, the curd will be crisper. Put the mass into a thin cloth, let the whey run off. Put on sgme weight and leave till all liquid is gone, Well-made curd (cottage cheese) is soft and sweet; it may be used as a spread along with butter after some cream and salt is added. "Making Cheese: Heat water and full milk in a kettle till boiling temperature, add well broken up curd, and heat until whey separates. The curd may be more or less solid clot, so before being put into the hot water and milk, it must be broken up or minced completely, so that there are not any bigger pieces left. Instead of being broken up by hand, it may be put through a mincer-it will bé even more uniform. If the whey does not separate it means that curd was too sweet, In such case, some whey which was obtained when curd was made should be added. Put the mass into a bag or a piece of thin cloth, shake till the whey has flown down, tie up, place

on a tray, put on some weight and keep until it becomes quite cool. Untie the cloth, spread both sides of the cheese with salt and leave it in the same cloth till the salt has penetrated. Well-made cheese will be soft and yellow. "Eggs may be added in three ways: (1) They may be kneaded into the curd. (2) They may be put into the kettle when the milk is near the boiling point, before the curd is put in. (3) They may be mixed into the mass after it has been taken out of the kettle and the whey has been drained off. I prefer the second method, for in this case cheese has a peculiar pattern. Some butter, salt and caraway seeds (if wanted) are mixed in after the whey has been drained. "Proportions: Curd 3lb., full milk 5 quarts, water 1 pint, eggs 4, butter 2 to 3 oz., salt, caraway seeds as desired, Some housewives would butter the cheese after some days and bake it in oven, then it acquires nige brown crust. If it is necessary to. keep the cheese longer, more eggs and butter must be added."-Mrs. H.G., Auckland. (2) Northland Cheese From R.F., Northland: "I remember my father telling of making real cheese at home in the early days, and of it keeping for a long time. As he later worked in a cheese factory he probably knew what he was talking about and didn’t confuse it with cottage or cream cheese. I was given an English recipe some time ago, but so far have

not had enough milk to try it out. Maybe B.M.S. would like to try it, and I for one would be very interested in the result, as I also would like to make my own (if I were sure it wouldn’t just go bad!). ' "Heat fresh whole milk to 84 degrees and add rennet in proportion of 1/2 teaspoon to each gallon of milk. Stand for an hour, and then cut into cubes in the pan and raise the heat to 88 degrees, stirring now and then. After half an hour pour the whey off and collect the curd in a cheese cloth. The curd is turned 3 times, and then add an ounce of salt to every 4 Ib. of curd. Press into moulds and put a pound weight on each for the night. Turn cheeses daily until they slip from the tin, then their outsides are scraped smooth and fourinch bandages pinned around them. After turning for a few days their surfaces will dry and are. ready for the last process-flour paste brushed over them and finally re-bandaged. Ready for use in 3/weeks and will keep for several months." (3) Wensley Cheese (Yorkshire) "When I was Home last in.Yorkshire my friend where I was staying made many cheeses, having lots of milk over. So I had a go, and made a really lovely cheese, and the only drawback was we did not give it time to really ripen. I never tasted my friend’s cheeses, for she had a long waiting list at the Stockton Market. Here is the recipe (rather a long affair, I am afraid): "A bucket full of milk. Gradually raise the temperature to 84 or 85 degrees, Stir with the thermometer until you get the 85 degrees. Put 2 teaspoons of cold water into an egg-cup, adding 14% teaspoons of rennet, and add to the bucket of milk. Leave 20 minutes, first having stirred rennet and water in with the hand, Now test the curd with little drops of cold water dropped from teaspoon; if water stops on top it is ready. | Cut curd right down to bottom of pail across, and then across; cover for 2 hour, then reheat by standing in tub of hot water or by a fire. The cuts are one lengthways, two crossways, three lengthways and then around. Break up curds with hand for 5 minutes, and leave to warm by fire for 5 minutes more. Pour into cheese cloth or butter muslin and hang up to drain one hour. Then cut into four, hang again 30 minutes (if a big cheese cut again), then smash with fingers into little bits and add 1 dessertspoon of salt, cover and. leave all night. Then put muslin in your tin and fill with curd, pressing well down at sides; put on lid, put heavy weight on and leave until tomorrow. Take out of tin, and turn, press again for another day. Then cut bit of muslin for sides and two round bits for top and bottom; turn every day for a week, see that cheese is tight in muslin. This is a lot of trouble, but mine was beautiful, and real cheese. Wanted, a tin with holes in bottom and sides, but none on top: but must be small enough to go into a bigger tin for pressing."-C.P., Nelson.