Moldy

Things are getting a little hairy in the cheese aging room. Although the Stilton styles are getting pretty green, the other cheeses seem to be infected too. I start to wonder whether the combination of moldy and non-moldy cheese in the same room is a good thing. I am also concerned about the possible contamination with Penicillium roqueforti of the aging room. I don't want to create a Rocuefort cave. I have sought online consultation and am awaiting response.

Ramps

Yesterday I set out in our woods in upstate New York for our weekly harvest of ramps. This member of the onion family (Allium tricoccum) grows here abundantly from April through May. It is often referred to as wild leek. Although I only harvest some for our personal culinary use, they are brought to the farmers markets around New York City by many vendors. There it is sold to the market goers, including many first class restaurants where it is served as a seasonal specialty.
As you can see, the ramps are hard to get out. They seem to prefer to grow around the base of trees in the root system or among the rocks which are plenty here. This combined with their strong rope like roots (they are heavy feeders), it sometimes feels they are holding on to dear life.

Cheese Aging Room

Finally ready, the cheese aging room. This cave like space, under the Brooklyn sidewalk, is connected to the basement where I do some of my wood turning. As shown on the first photograph, I never utilized it. It was just a useless space filled with junk. Being about five feet high, four feet wide and seven feet deep, it wasn't very use full. But wondering where to store my cheese, I realized that this space might be well suited for this purpose. Not many apartments in Brooklyn have a cold cellar and I did not want to store it in a refrigerator. So I cleaned it out, stuccoed the walls and tiled the floor. Hopefully, it will keep a constant temperature and humidity over the summer to keep my cheeses. Right now it is about 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12 C) with a humidity of 80 %.

Stilton style result

Well, here it is, the cheese after five days. Pretty moldy already, I think the cheese has to much air in it. The curd was probably to dry when I put it in the form. I should have pressed it a little. If the mold keeps growing at this rate than it will soon be a big green glob.

Stilton style cheese

This is an attempt to make a Stilton type cheese. The recipe I used, came from Ricki Carroll's book "Home cheese making, recipes for 75 homemade cheeses".
The milk (3 gallon) is raw cows, bought clandestine on a farm in upstate New York. I used Flora Danica, (mesophilic) as a starter, and Penicillium Roqueforti as a mold. This sat for 30 minutes in the milk at 30C (86F). I then added the (animal) rennet, determined the flocculation time to be 16 minutes, multiplied this by 4 and let it coagulate for 64 minutes. Then I scooped the curd in a colander lined with cheesecloth. The curd sat for 9o minutes in the whey after which I tied the cheesecloth into a bag and let it drain for 30 minutes or until it stopped dripping. Next the bag was placed on a board and pressed overnight with about 10 pounds of weight on top. Ambient temperature was about 68F.
The next morning I broke the curd into 1 inch pieces and salted them in a clean bowl. Finally the curd was scooped into a 6 inch open end form, sitting on a cheese board with a draining mat on top. The from was turned over every 15 minutes for the first two hours and twice a day for the next 4 days. No mold has started growing as of yet, but I will post a picture when things start to get excited.

Gallery 2

Pine, 7 x 14-3/4 inch


Black Walnut, 8-1/2 x 19-1/2 inch


Maple, 7 x 14-3/4 inch


Ash, 13-3/4 x 4-3/4 inch


Spalted Maple, 12 x 3-3/4 inch


Spalted Maple, 11-1/2 x 4 inch


Spalted Maple, 11-3/4 x 4 inch

Gallery 1

Spalted Maple, 10 x 4 inch


Sycamore, 9-3/8 x 3 inch


Sycamore, 14 x 5 inch


Black walnut, 7 x 5 inch


Cherry, 10-1/2 x 2 inch


Spalted maple, 12-1/2 x 4 inch


Black walnut, 10 x 3 1/2 inch


Maple, 10 x 3-1/2 inch

First cheese

And here is the first result. It has been two weeks since I made it. It has just been waxed and is ready for aging.

Cheese making

A while ago I was overcome by the sudden desire to make cheese. Milk had gone "bad" in the fridge and started to smell like cheese. I love cheese. Suddenly I was intrigued by the process of fermentation. I was urged by the desire to uncover the mystery of the making of cheese.

Well, here is the first attempt. I followed the directions from a recipe from the site of David B. Franhenhauser Ph.D. : http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese98.htm

I used raw cow's milk from Connecticut. It can be bought there legally. Here in New York state it is difficult to get because it can't be bought legally. I did find a source since and am excited for my future cheese making endeavor.

The temperatures in this first attempt were a little higher than in the recipe, so I ended up with a harder cheese. Since I now understand the importance of the temperature I have been more careful in my later attempts.


The curd in the whey



Draining the curd



The milled curd

The cheese in the press

The cheese is salted to cure the rind

Plenty of shavings...

Vases

Recently I have been trying to turn some vases. I was curious to turn end grain, which I had not done yet.
So far, I am managing. This is a piece of sugar maple, about 18 inch long (45 cm) and 8 inch in diameter (20 cm).


















This is black walnut, about 22 inch long (50 cm) and 8 inch in diameter (20 cm).

My first gouges

These are the gouges I started turning with. I made them from the ends of some old HSS drill bits.
I simply ground a flute and a bevel with a grinder. They cut fine, but were a little short. I turned quite a few bowls with them.