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.

Some logs...

Rolling along

Cutting some Logs

I was running out of wood so I went upstate to collect some. Here I am cutting some sugar maple (Acer saccharum) with my Pioneer 650. A big old chainsaw (103 cc) from the sixties. Plenty of power, even with a dulling chain.

Saving a little bowl

Here I use a bowl coring system which enables me to produce several bowls from a single blank. This is the smallest blade. By moving the tool post to the left and using larger blades, I can cut about four bowls from this blank.

Sharpening the gouge

Shaping the Outside

Ooops...

ROUGH SHAPING A WOODEN BOWL FROM A BURL

A piece of the burl is cut out with the chainsaw. In this case the burl is English Elm and approximately 16 inch in diameter. It still has the bark on it. It is a very fresh chunk of wood and will turn nicely. I love the smell of turning green wood especially Elm.
It is shaped with the chainsaw into a very crude circle so as not to create to much vibration when it turns on the lathe. Needles to say, the lathe will turn slow.
A hole is drilled to mount it on the screw chuck.
The piece mounted on the lathe.

Slowly the outside shape will be turned.











































The outside has been rough shaped.

Now it is time to attack the inside. The piece is turned around and remounted on the lathe.



The rough turning is done, the piece is ready for the next step. It will be coated with anchorseal, a water based wax sealer, to slow drying process. This will prevent the piece from checking and cracking. The drying will take one to two years for this piece. Obviously, smaller pieces with a thinner wall will dry faster.

Bowls coated with anchorseal,

and drying.




Some bowls in the finishing stage.