Saturday, January 05, 2008

Pizza! Cheese!

Attempt number one at making cheese was a failure. I left happy hour with my rugby friends, to moderate teasing and disapproval of this way to spend a Friday night, and failed at making cheese.

I stared at it sadly last night and finally came to terms with the fact that my curdy water was not going to become mozzarella. I bought a different brand of milk today after yoga and had a successful cheese making session!

At first I thought it was another failure as my mixture did not make giant solid curds. I refused to lose again, though, so I strained the stuff anyway and stuck it in the microwave per instructions. I almost died of a heart attack when I pulled it out, kneaded it around a little and it became mozzarella cheese.

I added the salt, slapped it around, and there it was. A tiny lump of cheese, yes, but actual Katy-made cheese.


That there is one gallon of milk's worth of cheese. Not bad for my first time, though. I'm going to get better at making curds and have less waste. Next time, I realize, I need to heat the milk a little hotter and slap the cheese around more forcefully while I am kneading it. No need to be gentle with that curd! I'm debating trying again this afternoon, but I am not sure whether it's ok to spend $15 on milk in 24 hours just trying to make fatty cheese.

I took my small bounty and made it into a pizza, though not one where I made the dough. Corey protested that I put far too much cheese on the pizza, but as of yet he has not had any lactarded side effects from the delicacy.


If I do buy more milk and go again, I will make string cheese and pack them in lunches during my first week back from vacation. I can't wait!

7 comments:

ninny said...

i'm so proud of my little cheese maker!!

kk said...

My sister use to work for Kraft and we called her "The Cheese Queen" but I think now that title will be passed on to you. So here's to you "Cheese Queen Katy"

JL said...

good work. you will surely be cheese master in a month. hurry roxy lev.

Anonymous said...

You might enjoy Stephen Jenkins' Cheese Primer.

Valtastic said...

I'm soo proud of you! I was telling my friend about it tonight and she was jelous.

Anonymous said...

katy, it might of been the 6.5 pack I had tonight but your posts made me laugh in tears ( i know that is easy for me) but really I enjoyed it and i missed you all (penn state) a little more. oh and how fun was it to make cheese, you can add so many spices.....mmmm can't wait to try some.

Anonymous said...

p.s that was nurse goat there