homemade cheese part 3-gjetost

Gjetost is a Norwegian cheese that is made from whey.  It it cooked slowly until it is reduced in volume and caramelized and almost fudge-like.  I have never heard of this cheese but it was discussed in a website comment and since I have the whey I decided to give it a try.  . I actually made this cheese and took the photos the next day after I made the ricotta.  It was an interesting process.  It took longer to reduce down and get thick than the recipe suggested it would so my simmer must have been lower.  It did eventually get thick and caramel colored.  It had a interesting flavor.

in the pan, starting to darken

transferred to a bowl

spread on a triscuit

 Source of original recipe is here

hamemade cheese part 2-ricotta

On the weekend my daughter Nikole and I made homemade mozzarella cheese from the kit that was part of my Christmas present from her and Brad.  So after we finished with our mozzarella cheese we saved our whey.  I remembered reading somewhere about how many beneficial things that could be done with whey and I found a website that described making ricotta from the leftover whey.  While I was reading through the comments I found another commenter talked about using the whey leftover from the ricotta to make a third cheese.  I decided to make the ricotta and then tomorrow I will make the third cheese since that one needs to simmer for hours and I will start it in the morning and have all day. 

Making ricotta was described as foolproof and it certainly was easy.  The whey that we saved was heated to a boil, allowed to cool a bit (to below 140°)  and then strained to separate the very tiny curds from the whey.  That is it.  No special watching the thermometer, nothing to add to it.  It was very easy.  It did not make a lot of cheese but it was easy and fun. 

here is the whey in my large kettle

boiling whey

 The directions suggested straining the cheese in a coffee filter which is what I started with but it was very, very slow so I switched to cheesecloth and that went much more quickly. 

straining in a coffee filter

switched to cheesecloth

 When most of the whey had flowed through the cheesecloth I gathered up the corners and suspended it in the air and allowed for a bit more whey to be released from the curds.

suspending the cloth to drain more whey

While the ball of curds were suspended I did gently squeeze the cheesecloth to remove even more whey.   This is the ball of ricotta curds in the cheesecloth.

ricotta curds

 This is the bowl of my stand mixer that I used to catch the whey from the ricotta.  Still a large amount of whey left over. 

whey from the ricotta

 This is the ricotta.  It filled my 1/2 cup measure perfectly.

Source: original recipe can be found here.

homemade cheese-mozzarella

At Christmas Nikole and Brad gave me a cheese making kit. It came is a cute box that held instructions, three rennet tablets and two little bags, one with citric acid and one with cheese salt.  It also contained a thermometer and some cheese cloth. 

The only ingredient not provide in the kit in order to make a batch of homemade mozzarella was a gallon of whole milk. There is enough of the kit ingredients to make 10 batches.  A gallon of milk will make one pound of cheese.  

The whole process went pretty quickly.  First we put all of the equipment we would be using in boiling water to sterilize.  We used a stainless kettle for sterilizing and for the actual cheese making as cast iron and aluminum are reactive and not recommended.   The rennet tablet was cut into quarters and one quarter was dissolved in water.  The citric acid was also dissolved in water.  The gallon of milk was placed in the pan and we followed the instructions, adding the two dissolved ingredients when instructed and heating the mixture to the correct temperature.

 

The milk starts to form curds and then the curds are separated from the whey.  The curds are microwaved to further raise the temperature and remove any additional whey.  Then the salt is added.  Our final cheese: 

 

We ate our cheese on homemade baguette slices that we dipped first in basil infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It was very tasty.  It will be great this summer with tomatoes and basil from the garden as insalata caprese or bruschetta.  I cannot wait.    .