Cheesiness

I really wish I had some extra money right now, because I'd love to get some cheesemaking books and equipment. I'll have to make do with library books and regular kitchen utensils for now, but I think I could get pretty serious about making cheese. My first (second) attempt turned out great--very mild soft cheese, sort of like mozzarella (with the texture of chevre) or queso fresco. It's a nice snack spread on bread or crackers, and adds creaminess when melted onto a veggie wrap. On looking over the recipe, however, I realized that instead of the called-for 1 1/2-2 1/2 tbsp of salt, I'd added only a few shakes, so yesterday I made a larger batch with more salt; it turned out tasty as well. It's so satisfying to see the hot milk curdle into recognizable cheese!

Sadly, my yoghurt did not meet with the same success. A friend mentioned that his experiment with yoghurt hadn't worked out so well; it turned out watery, and so did mine. In addition, it was so tangy-sour I could hardly eat it, even when well-sweetened with maple syrup and granola. My mother was quite amused by the faces I made this morning, and declined to taste it herself. I'll try again, perhaps after trying some professionally made the next time I visit New Seasons and checking ingredients to see if there's anything I could add that might help both flavor and thickness. I'd love to find a good book on yoghurt and kefir, but so far have been unsuccessful.

So far the winning experiment has been goat ice cream--the recipe called for 2 cups cream and 1 cup milk, but since we had less than 1 cup (cow's milk) cream, I doubled the milk. Next time I might try omitting the cream altogether, since it turned out wonderfully creamy and delicately flavored. Unlike homemade ice cream from cow's milk, it was better straight out of the freezer than after "ripening"; even so, I suspect we will be eating a lot of ice cream in the future!

Tomorrow's experiment? Another cheese recipe--this time using rennet, I think. Maybe I'll try for a harder cheese if I can rig up a suitable mold and press.