Raw cheese recipes from raw milk?

[cherimoya_kid]

But the cats weren't on the cooked diet for thousands upon thousands of generations like the bacteria and yeast in kefir would be...

Well, if you're really curious, get some raw lineage grains and some cooked lineage grains, raise them on the same milk, and compare the difference. I doubt there's much of a difference, but you can try it if you're curious.

[dariorpl]

Good idea. Although I don't know if I'll be able to tell by taste which is better, but I'll try.

[dariorpl]

Well I tried to make another simple rennet cheese. This time a lot of fat was oozing out of the curds, like with the lemon juice+rennet experiment (it's the same batch of milk, maybe it was more fatty than the first time I tried, I don't know). I kept the temperature more stable and made sure it didn't go past 35.5C (96 F). I may have used a little less rennet than the first time. In any case, after pressing for 30hs, what came out was the best of the three. It has a cheesy taste but unlike the other two, it's much less sour. The other two weren't very sour, just a bit, and this is less so. Also, the consistency is very spongy, just like a thick omelette which needless to say, is amazing. I used a lot of layers of cloth this time for pressing, which I didn't do the first time. I did it to absorb all the ridiculous amount of fat that was oozing out. I could have eaten it like that to avoid losing all that awesome fat, but it was too wet and probably sweet still (I think I forgot to taste it before pressing and just assumed it'd be sweet, I'm not sure).

I'm gonna try kefir next, with the damaged DNA grains. And I will also try allowing milk to separate and curdle on it's own without any additives, the way CK and eve said.

[dariorpl]

I know what I'll do, instead of throwing away my skimmed milk, I'll try doing kefir with that, to advance the bacteria and yeast generations on raw milk, and then I'll just keep harvesting the grains and throwing away the kefired skim milk.

EDIT: It seems that using skim milk actually increases kefir grain production a little.

[marcuspaleo]

Put it in the dark at room temp with the lid loosely on. You'll get your cheese in 3-6 days, roughly.

If you want a specific type of cheese, you're going to have to replicate the cheese-making method that produces that cheese type.

Ive done this, and now what i assume is curds at the top, is solidifying with what i assume is liquid whey at the bottom. Now what do i do? Do i separate them and put the curds in the fridge to sit?

[dariorpl]

You need a cheese cloth or any kind of cotton cloth to strain the curds (solids). That's cheese. Some people use metal strainers. It'd work but you'll probably lose some of your solids. I also hear metal will disturb or kill the bacteria in the whey (liquids).

[marcuspaleo]

You need a cheese cloth or any kind of cotton cloth to strain the curds (solids). That's cheese. Some people use metal strainers. It'd work but you'll probably lose some of your solids. I also hear metal will disturb or kill the bacteria in the whey (liquids).

Thanks!

And then what? I leave it for a few weeks to make it harder? I put it in the fridge?

[dariorpl]

It depends on what kind of cheese you wanna make and how it came out. Usually you want to hang it for an hour or two in the cheese/cotton cloth, allowing more of the whey to drain out. Putting it in a glass jar in the fridge with some air space will harden it somewhat. You could also press it. And you could age it after pressing. There's a lot of things you can do.

I haven't done it this way yet, but I'll be trying in the next few days probably.

[marcuspaleo]

It depends on what kind of cheese you wanna make and how it came out. Usually you want to hang it for an hour or two in the cheese/cotton cloth, allowing more of the whey to drain out. Putting it in a glass jar in the fridge with some air space will harden it somewhat. You could also press it. And you could age it after pressing. There's a lot of things you can do.

I haven't done it this way yet, but I'll be trying in the next few days probably.

What do you mean age it? Just leave it? In the fridge?

[dariorpl]

Yeah, there are many ways to age it. Some age it in the fridge, some at room temperature. I haven't aged mine so far. If you're gonna age them, they need to be pressed first. You can make an improvised press with items you'll have in your home, but if you get serious about it then you're probably gonna want to either buy one already made, or manufacture a proper press if you're skillful like that.

Many people who age their cheese add wax at a certain point to air-seal the cheese and prevent it from losing moisture and from getting mold on the outside. But in most cases this mold would be good for your cheese and for your health, and the wax wouldn't be. But it's up to you what you want to do.

[dariorpl]

Have you tried using kefir grains? They work in unheated milk, whereas most other commercial cultures want you to kill off the natural bacteria and enzymes in milk by heating it (for consistent results). Kefir can be strained to make a cheese which can be eating immediately or aged.

I've been using my leftover skim milk from making cream, to grow my kefir grains on raw (to advance the bacterial and mold/yeast generations on raw, since the person I got the grains from was growing them on pasteurized milk). I was throwing away the skim kefir, but the last time I made it into a soft cream-like low-fat cheese and tried it. It was good, a little strong, but that may be because I allowed it to ferment for quite a while before straining. Although I was already expecting a stronger taste from the molds/yeast that are a part of kefir. I'm not a fan of strong cheese like blue cheese (though I've never had the raw types), but this was good. I had it with chopped garlic and parsley. I still like regular cheese better, but that might just be because I'm making it with full fat milk.

[eveheart]

People use a long fermentation time (more than just overnight or 24 hours) when they like a sour dairy taste or when they want to get rid of all the milk sugars (lactose). Sour dairy is an ethnic food for me: even though I do not tolerate dairy well, the odor and taste say, "Comfort Food!!!' to me.

[ciervo-chaman]

i have tried the next:

making cheese with natural bacteria of milk.

then straining and pressing that cheese.

then eat a piece of that cheese, and chew and ensalivate it totally, until is totally disolved.

then spit that mix of saliva and cheese on another batch of milk.

repeat with 2 or 3 pieces of cheese.

make cheese again with new batch of milk+cheese+saliva

and the result is magnific, i'm getting a really soft and creamy cheese, like "queso cremoso" in argentina.

i recomend you to try it!

[cherimoya_kid]

Interesting.