Dah dah - cheese making

Well am I good or am I good?  No don't be truthful!  Just go with one of those two options.  What you see just to the right are the results of a perfect afternoon.  

OK let's be totally truthful... an afternoon and the greater part of the evening.  

Funny isn't it ... I know that making feta cheese, that's the square block in the background, takes a minimum of three and a half hours for the first part and then it needs to be turned over every half an hour for the next two hours and then every two hours for the next six hours and then left to sit and further drain overnight on the sink.  

So let's add those figures together and what do we get? 11 and a half hours plus the overnight drain.... OK so that suggests that a good time to start making feta cheese would be sometime in the morning.  The theory sounds all well and good but what needs to be added into this equation is the use by date on the milk carton.

Although I have been pestering Paul for a cow ever since I completed the cheese making workshop last June, it has not eventuated.  He feels that if people object to battery hens there is certain to be greater protests over a battery cow, although I feel our backyard would not constitute a cage!

 Just look at the photos of our yard. The first is our backyard.  In the back is our vege patch to the left the 1m garden bed, which edges the back patio area.  It may appear to the trained or even the untrained eye that this is too small a space for a cow, but you are forgetting our front yard, which you can see clearly in the next photo has a large expanse the size of a foot path. 

Anyway as I don't have a cow I have to buy the milk.  Now the best milk to use is organic unhomogenised which usually costs an arm and a leg.  so when I spied seven litres of this last week in the reduced for quick sale section I just had to nab it.  Being RFQS means it has to be used quickly.

Now you can see why there was the need for making the milk during the week rather than making it on the weekend.

Anyway as can be seen I had success.  Not just with the feta but also with the ricotta, front right and back right, which for the first time in ages actually turned out really soft and light.... dah dah! This really amazed me as the previous two batches have been tough enough to resole your boots with... I really need to NOT make cheese when I am stressed:) 

The final piece de resistance (not sure how that is supposed to be spelt but you know what I mean) is the mascapone on the front left.  This isn't really an achievement as I have always had success with that but it is lovely and is always a by product from my cheese making as there is always left over cream.

The mascapone was made into tiramisu yesterday and made a delicious desert lunchtime today.