Cheesepalooza - August Challenge

Well, that says it all, doesn't it? ;)

For Cheesepalooza we're using Mary Karlin's book, Artisan Cheese Making At Home.

I used her Whole Milk Ricotta recipe, but instead of using Citric Acid I used lemon juice.
2L milk, 1 cup cream, 1/4 cup lemon juice.
The lemon juice was added AFTER the milk was brought to temperature.

That is important to note as the citric acid is added before the milk is heated.

Here is my milk and cream slowly coming to temperature.

I heated mine VERY slowly, it took close to 40min before it was ready to add the lemon juice.



Now, usually when I make cheese I use the freshest ingredients I can find.
Which usually means fresh lemons and Vital Greens milk and cream.

Not this time. Why?
Budget and time.
The best that I could find isn't what I could afford this month.
And I'm out at my parent's acreage for a bit working in the garden, so I'm using what I have at my disposal.




Does that mean the cheese I make isn't going to taste good?


Of course not!
In fact, it's quite tasty! A little lemony, but very good - fluffy and rich (I used extra cream).



But as much as we all try to eat the best foods we can, sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. Don't worry about it too much. Really :)

One of the greatest things about fresh cheeses is that you can enjoy them right away.
When my mom came home from work it was finished draining and immediately spread on it on some crackers :)

She didn't care that it wasn't farm fresh milk (she grew up on raw milk, by the way).  In fact, most of the milk you find in big box stores in from Alberta.  There are a lot of dairies here. 

So, for a cheese that is little more than milk and lemon juice, it is both light and rich; fresh and tangy and all around delicious.

Save your fresh milk for the cultured and aged cheeses.  Ýou'll be sure to notice a difference in quality for those :)







Tasting Notes:
Appearance: White, lightly textured
Nose (aroma): slightly lemony
Overall Taste: rich (due to extra cream), slightly lemony
Sweet to Salty: neutral to slightly acidic
Mild (mellow) to Robust to Pungent (stinky): mellow
Mouth Feel: (gritty, sandy, chewy, greasy, gummy, etc.): smooth but slightly textured

And if you're wondering what was so important I had to make a trip out to the farm for....

They needed to be picked over the weekend (or last week) but I didn't have the time then.
Can you guess how many different kinds there are?

Don't forget to leave comments and let me know how your cheese making goes!  Be sure to include a link to your site :)

Happy Cheese Making!