Making Artisan Cheese (14 page)

Artisan Advice

Working with goat’s milk presents some different challenges because of its unique qualities. Due to the smaller fat globules and the natural homogenization of the milk, rennet alone is ineffective in developing curds; you will always need to add calcium chloride to ensure proper coagulation.

Starter Cultures: Mother Culture and Direct-Set Cultures

When making intermediate to advanced cheeses, you must use starter cultures to initiate the acidification of the milk. As previously mentioned, starter cultures are various strains of bacteria that are added to milk to change the acidity level, thereby allowing the solids to separate from the milk with the assistance of rennet. Two types of starter cultures are available to the cheese maker: mother cultures and direct-set cultures.

American, or Processed Cheeses

Let’s face it: For many of us, our first experience with cheese was eating processed slices from individually wrapped packages. And although there will not be a recipe for this kind of cheese found in this book, for the sake of education, let’s take a quick look at how processed cheeses are made.

Processed cheeses are the new kids on the block in the cheese world. They were first developed in 1911, and are popular with the large cheese producers because they are inexpensive to make, have a long shelf life, and create minimum waste. They are produced by shredding a blend of cheeses and then combining them with water, additional flavorings, and emulsifying salts. The mix is then heated in the range of 158°F to 194°F (70°C–90°C) and poured into portion molds. The emulsifying salts act as a binder to keep the cheeses from losing moisture and oil during the heating process. Although this process provides an interesting look at the world of science, one cannot vouch for the flavor of the end result of this experiment.

Single-serve slices of processed cheese are among the earliest memories of many cheese lovers.

Mother Cultures

Using mother cultures is the traditional way of making cheese. Historically, these cultures were perpetuated by saving a small amount of milk or whey from the previous day’s work and storing it for future use. Once cultivated, a mother culture can be used repeatedly, hence the name “mother.” Traditionally, a mother culture represented local bacteria from where the cheese was was made, giving the cheese a flavor profile unique to that particular region of the world. Think of this in the same way that a type of wine, or its qualities, can change within a particular region of the world, even though vintners in various regions use the same grapes.

Mother cultures are more difficult to use than direct-set cultures because they take time and effort to cultivate. For the beginning cheese maker, it is best to start off using the direct-set cultures until you become accustomed to the cheese-making process. But for the sheer romance of cheese making, there is nothing like the authentic feel of a home-grown starter culture.

Mother culture is a thick, yogurtlike mixture of milk and starter culture for making cheeses. Once made, it can keep for up to three months in the freezer.

PREPARING MOTHER CULTURE

EQUIPMENT

One quart (0.9 L) canning jar

One quart (0.9 L) skim milk

Mother culture starter

Canning kettle, or large cooking pot

SANITIZING JARS

Fill the cooking pot about three-quarters full of water, and bring it to a boil over high heat. Place your jars in the boiling water for five minutes. Be certain that each jar and lid is fully immersed in the water and that there are no air pockets.

PREPARING MILK FOR MOTHER CULTURE

To prepare a mother culture, you will need quart-sized jars. Canning jars work well due to their wide mouth and ease of cleaning. Sterilize them in your cooking pot; first, ensure that they will fit into the pot, so that they will be completely covered with boiling water.

Sterilizing Milk You will need to sterilize the milk used in creating a mother culture to prevent any foreign bacteria from ruining your culture. Place the sealed jars filled with milk into a pot deep enough to cover the entire jars and lids. Put on a slow boil and wait for twenty minutes.

Inoculating Medium Once the milk has cooled to the proper temperature of 75°F (25°C) for mesophilic cultures and 110°F (43°C) for thermophilic cultures, add your starter culture, seal the jar with the lid, and gently agitate. Keep the sealed jars at the proper temperature (75°F [25°C] for mesophilic and 110°F [43°C] for themophilic) for a minimum of fifteen hours for a mesophilic culture and four hours for a thermophilic culture. After that, you should have a jar full of something that looks like yogurt.

Finished Cultures Keep your culture refrigerated for a week and then store it in the freezer for up to three months. After a week, any mother culture that you do not use needs to be stored in the freezer. The suggested method is to use sanitized ice cube trays. The standard size will produce 1 ounce (28 g) portions, which are the perfect size for use. You can use the cubed cultures for up to three months, after which time you will need to propagate again.

Fill the cooking pot about three-quarters full of water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Place empty jars in the boiling water, for five minutes. Be certain that the entire jars and lids are immersed in the water and that there are no air pockets in them.

Direct-Set Cultures

This type of culture is a modern creation, in which the essential bacteria are isolated and cultivated in a laboratory. They have many of the characteristics found in a mother culture, without the effort of having to cultivate and store it. Direct-set cultures are intended for single use only, so they cannot be used for creating a mother culture. However, they are tremendously convenient for the average home cheese maker. All you do is simply buy the culture, store in your freezer, and then add it to the prepared milk as called for in each recipe. Direct-set cultures are available through a variety of cheese-making suppliers listed in the Resources section of this book on
page 172
.

Commercial starter cultures are convenient to use and take the worry out of accurate measurements of starter cultures for the home cheese maker.

Rennet

As discussed previously, rennet is used in conjunction with the starter culture; rennet allows the curd particles to form into a solid mass (see
page 83
). A number of rennet varieties are available, and they typically break down into two groups: animal rennet and vegetable rennet. Generally speaking, the animal-derived rennet tends to work best, providing a solid, tight curd. Vegetable rennet is also very effective for making cheese; however, it will give a slightly bitter flavor to an aged cheese.