http://www.democraticunderground.org/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x64855Oh my.
No wonder the primitives are always so unhappy, so wretched, so miserable.
The primitives make things harder on themselves than they need to be.
undergroundnomore (50 posts) Sat May-16-09 05:40 PM
Original message
Making Cheese At Home
I am curious. Right now I'm reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. I loved her book the Poisonwood Bible. (turns out Hillary Clinton listed it as one of her favorite books too). I like her book The Bean Trees, not as much but still I did like the characters. I am absolutely head over heels with this book.
I relate with her so much as she talks about the joys of making meals from scratch.
During the summer months and over the Christmas holidays when school is out I love cooking from scratch. It's not a chore but a joy.
We are working on growing our first kitchen garden and I can hardly wait to start actually fixing our own "organically grown" food. It gives me a real sense of oneness with the earth and how important it is to take care of it.
One thing Barbara (if I may be so bold as to call her by her first name) talks about is making cheese at home. She made it sound relatively easy. I have never done that. Have any of you ever done that? How difficult is it? Where can I find the best resources about how to do this?
The empressof all (1000+ posts) Sat May-16-09 06:04 PM
Response to Original message
1. I make Ricotta and Mozzarella regularly
I totally recommend getting a kit to start off with. It will give you all you need to make your first few batches.
http://www.cheesemaking.com /
We've had several cheese making threads in this group over the years. The trick is finding the right milk. Raw milk is hard to find and illegal to purchase in some states. It will give you the best results. I've had success in using Organic whole milk that is not ultra pasteurized. This gives you a better curd development. I've had product failure with using milk that is ultra pasteurized and everything I have read cautions you against using this kind of milk.
Raw milk is illegal in some states, and should be illegal in all states, because it's unsafe.
franksolich wonders if any of these unsafe-milk enthusiasts on Skins's island have ever seen a person with tuberculosis, as he did in the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants with free medical care for all; hundreds of them.
undergroundnomore (50 posts) Sat May-16-09 06:47 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Yes
kingsolver talks about that. Honestly I knew about BGH but I didn't know about UHP. Shows how dumb I am. I have been trying to get my school to stop using milk with BGH but they continue to use it because of the cost.
When I go to the store this weekend I will see if I can find that kind of milk. thanks for the link. I really appreciate it. I'm just really nervous that I'll mess it up big time.
Grandma's good friend:
sazemisery (1000+ posts) Sat May-16-09 10:48 PM
Response to Original message
3. empress said it all
Mozzarella is the easiest to make. You will not want to eat store bought after though.
I dunno. When franksolich went to town to get some cigarettes, he noticed packages of real mozzerella (Kraft brand) were on special, $1.29 for eight ounces.
I'll bet it takes a lot more money, in terms of ingredients, toil, labor, sweat, time, dirty dishes, to make it oneself. This is what I mean, by primitives making their lives harder than they need to be.
eridani (1000+ posts) Tue May-19-09 06:04 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. I effed it up, though
I looked at their FAQ, and one common problem is "What if my mozzarella comes out more like ricotta? Answer--don't stir the curds too much after you slice them.
