Tuesday 18 August 2020

Using the Cheese Making Kit

The cheese making kit found at the car boot sale a couple of weeks ago cost me £3. It contained a cheese-making thermometer(itself worth £6) a big piece of butter-muslin, a draining basket, organic salt, citric acid, rennet tablets and some dried herbs and most importantly an instruction booklet.




There are instructions for 5 cheeses
Mozzarella
Ricotta
Mascarpone  
Halloumi
Feta
  and I decided to start with Ricotta.


 It would have been OK using just blue top ordinary milk but the booklet says milk with more fat content makes better cheese so as I was shopping I got a bottle of gold top - do you remember school milk with the thick cream  on top of the third pint when the school crate had been sitting out in the sun!?. My gold top looked like that after leaving it out to come to room temperature in the kitchen. I mixed half and half with blue top normal milk and soon got curds and whey. The recipe made 2lb - rather a lot so I did half. It was ever so easy to make and I soon had 1lb. It worked out no cheaper than buying it.......... But Oh My Goodness - the difference in taste between a tub of shop ricotta and my home made - mine was so creamy and delicious and there was the fun of the making too. Worth every penny!

Ricotta freezes best if used in a recipe before freezing so I made a huge spinach and 3 cheese (ricotta in the lasagna and grated chedder and a mozzarella ball sliced on top) lasagna and portioned it up. One to eat and 5 in the freezer.It didn't look very photogenic so no photos but it tasted delicious - very creamy.

Left a little Ricotta to have with crackers and figs -Mmm! How Italian am I?!


Back Tomorrow
Sue



34 comments:

  1. I've enjoyed reading this. I would never have thought you could get a kit like this and what a bargain too! I'd love to have a go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Always a surprise at what there is for sale at a car-boot sale

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    2. Am Laura Mildred by name, i was diagnosed with Herpes 4 years ago i lived in pain with the knowledge that i wasn't going to ever be well again i contacted so many herbal doctors on this issue and wasted a large sum of money but my condition never got better i was determined to get my life back so one day i saw Mr. Morrison Hansen post on how Dr. Emu saved him from Herpes with herbal medicine i contacted Dr. Emu on his Email: Emutemple@gmail.com we spoke on the issue i told him all that i went through and he told me not to worry that everything will be fine again so he prepared the medicine and send it to me and told me how to use it, after 14 days of usage I went to see the doctor for test,then the result was negative, am the happiest woman on earth now thanks to Dr. Emu God bless you. Email him at: Emutemple@gmail.com Whats-app or Call him: +2347012841542

      Delete
  2. Sounds like a fun project, I didn’t know these kits existed and it sounds like a real success.

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    Replies
    1. There are all sorts of cheese kits available - real price is expensive

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  3. Sounds like you were having a lovely time in your kitchen and the cheese seamed has worked out well. Well worth the money. I picked 10 pounds worth of damsons and gave them to a few neighbours and will pick a lot more today.
    It looks it might be a nice day here.
    Hazel c uk 🌈🌈🌈

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  4. It sounds very exciting indeed.
    xx

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  5. £3 well spent on the kit. I can see a few of the cheeses being put into the hampers at Christmas. AND you had fun, which is the most important. I'm a great believer in having fun whatever you're doing.

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    Replies
    1. No wont be putting any in hampers as they need keeping in the fridge and hampers are wrapped before Christmas

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  6. Sounds fun. It's a long time since I made soft cheese - must try again, as I've got a little drainer on stand I found at a car boot sale once. You certainly got very good value for money there and ass you said, no real saving in money on the cheese, but by gum, the flavour is a world apart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used to do soft goats cheese quite often but hard cheese was always a fail whatever recipe I tried

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  7. Certainly seems a better kit than the one I had but that was fine, no basket though.

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    Replies
    1. I wouldn't have bought it full price but for £3 at the boot sale it was worth a go

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  8. I am off to see if I can find a kit! Mind, I can't use rennet so maybe not.

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    Replies
    1. The ricotta used citric acid. I think the rennet is vegetarian.

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  9. Well that turned out to be a good buy didn't it. Is there enough in the kit to make any of the other cheeses or is that it?

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    Replies
    1. There's loads of citric acid and several rennet tablets so enough to try all the recipes with stuff left over

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  10. How lovely to make your own cheese, and have such fun doing it.

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  11. I was wondering the same thing as "A Smaller Life", if you can still make any of the other types of cheese. What you showed in the picture looks very good! -Jenn

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  12. That sounds so much fun. I make my own yoghurt so perhaps I should give cheese making a go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A bit more work than doing yoghurt in the easiyo - but interesting

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  13. What a great buy. Something fun to do and tasty to eat is always a good combination. xx

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    Replies
    1. It was easy to do the ricotta, some of the others are a bit more complicated.

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  14. Years ago when I had dairy goats I used to make soft cheeses - I don't remember the details of how I did it but I DO remember how delicious the cheese tasted! I mixed in herbs and garlic sometimes, but mostly made it plain. Have fun making the other kinds in your kit - what a great bargain!

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  15. Sounds absolutely heavenly! I hope you'll share the other recipes when you've tried them too.

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  16. Last year our Simple living group were lucky enough to have a cheese making demonstration, which I had to miss but the group said the Haloumi was very easy and not nearly as much salt as you would think.Might be a good thing to try next.
    I often have pan fried Haloumi as a bacon substitute or with lots of salad in a wrap.

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  17. If I could make cheese without poisoning myself I'd be appreciated

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  18. I am glad that you enjoyed making your cheese. What are you going to try your hand at next?

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Am Laura Mildred by name, i was diagnosed with Herpes 4 years ago i lived in pain with the knowledge that i wasn't going to ever be well again i contacted so many herbal doctors on this issue and wasted a large sum of money but my condition never got better i was determined to get my life back so one day i saw Mr. Morrison Hansen post on how Dr. Emu saved him from Herpes with herbal medicine i contacted Dr. Emu on his Email: Emutemple@gmail.com we spoke on the issue i told him all that i went through and he told me not to worry that everything will be fine again so he prepared the medicine and send it to me and told me how to use it, after 14 days of usage I went to see the doctor for test,then the result was negative, am the happiest woman on earth now thanks to Dr. Emu God bless you. Email him at: Emutemple@gmail.com Whats-app or Call him: +2347012841542

    ReplyDelete