CHAPTER 2: Ingredients
CHAPTER 2: Ingredients
“Cheese from the ewe, milk from the goat, butter from the cow.”
— Spanish proverb
The wonderful thing about making creamery items such as butter, yogurt, and cheese in your home is you only need one ingredient: milk. That being said, the kind of milk you have access to is very important. Also, you will find that having access to other ingredients will greatly aid your task, especially when it comes to making cheese. But this chapter will begin by discussing milk.
Milk
If you were to read in a recipe, “add a cup of milk,” what would you do? You would more than likely go to your refrigerator, take out a plastic jug, and pour a cup of milk. Now, stop and ask some questions about what you just poured. Did you just pour a cup of cow’s milk? Is it skim milk, 1 percent, 2 percent, or whole milk? If it is whole milk, what is the fat content? Is it farm-fresh, pasteurized, homogenized, or ultra-pasteurized — a combination of these options?
Milk is actually quite complex. The assumption that you poured cow’s milk comes from that fact that you more than likely got your milk from a local supermarket in the United States. However, you could have poured goat’s milk (that is fairly readily available in the United States), sheep’s milk, water buffalo’s milk, camel’s milk, reindeer’s milk, or moose’s milk. You can even use porpoise’s milk, which has a whopping 45 percent fat content compared to the just under 4 percent of cow’s milk. You might find the notion of porpoise’s milk funny, but you would be surprised at the variety of animals people have experimented using milk from.
Most of the recipes in this book call for cow’s milk, but some of the recipes call for goat’s milk. This is not to say that you cannot use sheep’s milk, but you will have to make a few adjustments if you do. Sheep’s milk is much higher in fat content and in total solids than cow’s or goat’s milk. According to George F.W. Haenlein, professor emeritus of dairy science at the University of Delaware, human, cow, and goat’s milk are all fairly similar with regard to the amount of solids and fat they contain. Sheep’s milk, on the other hand, has a much higher fat and solid content. Because it has less water, more fat, and more solid, sheep’s milk will produce a greater yield of cheese than goat’s or cow’s milk. Because it is so high in fat, you need to adjust the way you use it. When you get to the chapters on making cheese (Chapter 10 and beyond), this will be explored in greater detail.
Goat’s milk is the preferred material to use in many cases because it is easier to digest than cow’s milk because of smaller fat globules — the small fat globules are more readily dispersed in the milk. However, the smaller fat globules in goat’s milk make it more difficult to produce butter. Though it is not impossible to make butter out of goat’s milk, you will have to take a couple of extra steps. This will be covered in greater detail in chapters 4 and 5 on making butter.
Cow’s milk is the overall milk of choice when making most recipes in this book because it is the most easily available and, for the most part, the easiest to work with. Most cheese recipes can be made with whole milk, though a number of them can also be made with skim or low-fat milk. The only kind you should avoid when you buy milk to make cheese or yogurt is ultra-pasteurized milk. Ultra-pasteurization is the extreme heating of milk to destroy what might be considered bad bacteria, but this process also destroys many of the basic components of milk — enzymes, organisms, and protein structures. Milk producers treat milk this way to give it a longer shelf life, but it is bad for the home creamery.
Homogenized milk is milk that has been heat-treated to break up fat globules. This produces a milk product that makes for a smoother curd. Also, homogenization evenly distributes the fat globules in the milk, which means that they do not rise to the top.
You may be in a location where you have more places to obtain milk than your local grocery store. You may have access to raw milk, which is not pasteurized or homogenized, so it is higher in vitamins and richer in flavor. If you would like access to raw milk, you might be able to find a close source via A Campaign for Real Milk on the Web at www.realmilk.com/where2.html. Click “Where” in the left-hand column, then click “Sources of Real Milk in the USA,” scroll down, and click on your state. The rule of thumb in obtaining raw milk is to make sure it is free of pathogens, which are disease-causing bacteria. Reputable dairy farmers know the state of the health of their stock. Overall, there is strict oversight of raw milk producers, and most states monitor the safety of raw milk production on a monthly basis at minimum. If you are dealing with a reputable farmer, you will probably be all right. It helps to know the farmer’s operations, and if in doubt, pasteurize the milk yourself.
How to Pasteurize Milk
Whole milk is milk that has all of its fat content. You can, in some places, still buy whole milk that has cream on the top. Cream will be discussed in more detail a little later in this chapter. Whole cow’s milk has a butterfat content of between 3.5 and 4 percent. Milk that is labeled 1 percent or 2 percent has that corresponding amount of butterfat. Skim (nonfat) milk has a butterfat content of less than 1 percent because most of the butterfat has been removed. You can still make cheese or yogurt with skim milk, even though it has had most of the fat removed. Skim milk will give a lower yield of cheese, but you will still be able to make fine-tasting cheese and yogurt from skim milk.
Dry milk powder, or dehydrated milk solids, can be used to make a number of creamery and cheese products. A common use of dry milk powder is to thicken the milk to be used for yogurt, buttermilk, or sour cream. You can also use dry milk powder to make a number of soft cheeses. There are directions on how to do these things in the specific recipes found in chapters 5, 7, 8, and 9.
Cream
Cream is the fat that rises to the top of whole cow’s milk. For nearly all recipes that call for cream, you want the best cream available, which is heavy, pasteurized cream. Heavy cream means the fat content is about 40 percent. Whipping cream has a fat content of about 30 percent; light cream has a fat content of 20 to 30 percent; and half and half has a fat content of 10 to 18 percent. Half and half will not whip, but the other creams will. Learn more about cream in the chapters on butter (chapters 4 through 6).
There are a few creamery items that can be made using only milk or cream. You can make butter and true buttermilk with only cream, and soured milk can produce several types of cheese, such as pot cheese and farmer’s cheese. See Chapter 11 for more on how to make these cheeses. To make the rest of the products in this book, you will need a few more key ingredients: cultures, rennets, and acids.
Cultures
When making dairy products, cultures refer to milk bacteria. You will often hear them referred to as starter cultures because the milk bacteria are used to start the growth of the bacteria that turns milk to cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, and a number of other creamery products. The bacterium, when added to the milk, makes the milk more acidic and consumes the lactose, producing a by-product called lactic acid. The longer the culture grows, the more acid is produced. This acid sours the milk and allows curd to form, which is the first step in producing cheese.
There are two types of starter cultures in making cheese: mesophilic
and thermophilic.
Mesophilic cultures are low-temperature cultures that can survive up to 102° and are usually used when the curds are not heated above that temperature. Buttermilk, Gouda, Colby, and feta are examples of items made with mesophilic culture.
Thermophilic cultures can thrive up to 132° and are usually used when the curds are not heated over that temperature. Yogurt, Mozzarella, and Swiss cheese are examples of items made using thermophilic cultures.
When you use a culture, you will use it in one of two manners: as a mother culture or as a direct-set culture. A direct-set culture is a prepackaged culture you can purchase from a cheese-making supply house. It eliminates the need to go through the lengthy process of making a mother culture. For the beginner cheese maker, it is simplest to purchase packets of a direct-set starter culture. These will come as pre-measure starters that are kept frozen and are good for a single use as you make cheese. You will use either mesophilic or thermophilic starters, depending on the kind of cheese you are making.
Once you get into advanced cheese making, you may consider developing your own mother cultures. Using mother cultures is the traditional way of making many creamery items like buttermilk, yogurt, and cheese.
How to Create a Mother Culture
Not all mother cultures are created equal. Some cultures are serial cultures and can be kept going continuously if handled properly. A good example of a serial culture is a buttermilk culture. Once you properly culture buttermilk, the product you make will become the mother culture, and by re-moving a small amount of the buttermilk each time you make it, you will be able to create more buttermilk. Other cultures, such as kefir cultures, can usually create about seven generations of kefir before you will need to re-culture a new batch.
Below you will find directions on making several different types of mother cultures. The first couple of steps are the same for each culture.
Buttermilk
You now have about 1 quart of cultured buttermilk; this is your mother culture. You will use ¾ cup to make your next quart-sized batch of buttermilk. You should use the culture within a week’s time to keep the culture active.
Mesophilic starter
Thermophilic starter
Follow the first two points as described above (obtain starter and
sterilize jars).
Rennet
Rennet is an enzyme that aids in the coagulation of milk. It comes in several forms and is derived from an animal or vegetable source. You can use liquid rennet or buy it in tablet form. It is believed the earliest cheese making began when people stored milk in the stomachs of goats. They noticed the milk would readily curdle when stored in this manner due to the rennet that is naturally found in the stomach. The animal rennet available for use today is generally from calves and is a by-product of veal production. Vegetable rennet is derived from any one of a number of plants such as nettle, butterwort, mallow, or yarrow. You can find many of these plants at a local garden center, and you can make your own rennet by crushing the plant with a large mortar and pestle, and straining the resulting liquid. Most vegetable rennet you can purchase today is from the mold Mucor miehei.
There are benefits and drawbacks to each type of rennet, and as you progress in making cheese, you will discover which one works best for you. When you first start making cheese, you will probably want to choose vegetable rennet in tablet form because the tablets have a longer shelf life than the liquid form. If you store the tablets in an airtight container in the freezer, you can count on their potency for a couple of years. Liquid rennet is measured more precisely than tablets and will keep in the refrigerator for about a year. The tablets usually come marked to be cut into quarters. You will find you will rarely use an entire tablet with any batch of cheese you make (usually you will only use ¼ or ½ tablet). The tablets often will fall apart as you cut them, and there will be some waste.
If you or anyone you will be sharing cheese with is a vegetarian, you will want to opt for the vegetable rennet. As you advance in your cheese making and learn how various rennets may alter the taste and consistency of your product, you may choose animal rennet, but as a beginner, the vegetable form in tablet is best, as it is easiest to measure and will keep longer in your freezer.
To use rennet, whether you are using a tablet or the liquid, you should dissolve the tablet or dilute the liquid in about ¼ cup of unchlorinated, cool water. (Chlorinated water can destroy the enzyme action of the rennet.) The water allows the rennet to be well-dispersed throughout the milk. If the rennet is not evenly distributed, you will wind up with a curd that is not properly formed, as it will be uneven and lumpy. If you are using powdered or tablet rennet, allow the powder or tablet to sit in the cool, unchlorinated water for 20 to 30 minutes to be sure that the powder or tablet is completely dissolved.
Calcium Chloride
Calcium chloride is an optional ingredient in cheese making but is quite beneficial to settle the curd. If you are using farm-fresh milk, you will not need to use calcium chloride. Calcium chloride is used on store-bought milk that has been through the process of homogenization and high-temperature pasteurization. These processes harm the calcium balance in the milk and have a negative impact on the enzyme action of the rennet used to form the curd. The suggested use of calcium chloride is about ¹⁄₈ tsp diluted in ¼ cup of cool, unchlorinated water.
Molds and Bacteria
These are what make blue cheese blue and make the holes in Swiss cheese. Some bacteria are mixed into the ripening milk, and some are sprayed on the surface of cheese and allowed to creep into the cheese over time. Mold is a parasitic life form that requires a host to survive, and cheese (because of its large amount of protein and moisture) is a perfect host. Making mold- and bacteria-ripened cheese is the most time-consuming and advanced stage of cheese making. It is better if you are well-studied and confident in basic cheese making before you venture into this area.
Some of the basic bacteria used to make cheese are:
• Penicillium candidum – This a white mold that is most commonly used as a surface mold on Brie. This is the mold that gives Brie its white coat. The mold helps the flavor of the cheese as it ages and gives it texture as well. If you tasted Brie made without Penicillium candidum, it would be extremely sour and rubbery.
• Penicillium roqueforti – A blue mold used in such cheeses as Gorgonzola and blue cheese. Penicillium roqueforti is a surface mold that creeps into the cheese during the aging process.
• Geotrichum candidum – This is another white mold that is used together with Penicillium candidum in the aging of Camembert and Brie.
• Brevibacterium linens – A red bacteria used on cheeses that are surface-washed. Surface washing is a process that some cheeses must go through on a regular basis as it ages. The washing helps distribute the bacteria evenly over the surface of the cheese. Cheeses such as Muenster, Limburger, and brick are aged using Brevibacterium linens.
• Propionibacterium shermanii – This is the bacteria used to give Swiss cheese its smooth flavor and holes. Propionibacterium shermanii is blended into the milk early in the cheese-making process.
There are many other molds and bacteria you can use in this advanced cheese making. As you learn and become more knowledgeable about the techniques and processes of aging cheese, you will come to know many more specialty molds and bacteria. Most of the molds and bacteria listed above can be kept in the freezer for up to six months, except for Penicillium roqueforti, which cannot be frozen but can be refrigerated for up to six months.
Lipase
Lipase is an optional ingredient that is used primarily in making Italian cheeses such as Mozzarella, Parmesan, and provolone. Lipase is an enzyme that will make a stronger-flavored cheese when added to milk. Lipase comes in powdered form and can be stored in the freezer for about six months.
Cheese Salt
This is a flaked, non-iodized salt that is used to enhance the flavor of a number of different cheeses, such as Mozzarella, cottage cheese, and Parmesan. You can also use cheese salt to make the brine for soaking cheeses that require a brine, such as Mozzarella. You do not need to use specialty cheese salt; a good, non-iodized kosher salt will serve the same purpose. Do not use an iodized salt, as iodine will inhibit the growth of the bacteria necessary to make cheese.
Unchlorinated Water
If you live in an area where your tap water is chlorinated, you will want to buy unchlorinated water. Chlorine will affect the action of the rennet, and your milk will not coagulate; that is, it will not form into a thickened mass.
Acids
You will usually use only rennet to promote coagulation in your milk, but there are times when you can rely on various acids to do the trick. Citric acid, vinegar, tartaric acid, or citrus juices such as lemon juice are used in various cheese recipes such as lemon cheese, mascarpone, and Mozzarella.
You can find most of the specialty products listed above at cheese supply stores and Web sites that are listed in the Resources section at the back of this book. Now that you have all the ingredients necessary, we will discuss the process of making butter.
Case Study: Caitlin Owen Hunter
Appleton Creamery
www.appletoncreamery.com
Appleton Creamery is a small-scale family farm located in scenic mid-coast Maine. Caitlin and Bradley Hunter tend a herd of Alpine dairy goats, handcrafting cheese daily using traditional methods and marketing it throughout the mid-coast area through farmers’ markets, restaurants, and stores. Caitlin has been making cheese and raising goats since 1979. She and Bradley started running Appleton Creamery in 1990, first as a hobby and then commercially in 1994.
“We make cheese from goat’s milk, sheep’s milk from EllsFarm in nearby Union, and cow’s milk from Grassland Dairy in Skowhegan. We make butter when we can source the cow’s cream, and yogurt from the sheep’s milk. Most of our sales are directly to our customers, and we don’t distribute out of state,” Caitlin said.“We were both back-to-the-landers in the 1970s, when raising your own livestock was part of small-scale farming. When you have goats, you need to find a way to support them, and cheese making came naturally to us. We aren’t interested in showing and don’t have the land base to pasture raise surplus animals for meat. We are also fortunate enough to live in an area rich with farmers’ markets and good restaurants, and the annual cycle of demand matches the goat’s seasons.”
“I love tending the animals that provide the milk for our dairy products. I love the entire farm cycle: animal to product, to bringing it to the consumer. I love the magic of transforming the same raw material, milk, into a dazzling array of cheeses simply by manipulating time, temperature, and curd,” she said.
Caitlin said the hardest part about making cheese was trying to learn from a book. She encourages hands-on experience, either by interning with a dairy or cheese maker, or taking classes. She said she will never stop taking classes. Her favorite cheese to make is chèvre, but she enjoys eating a nicely aged, bloomy-rind ashed goat cheese.
“For those who are just getting started in making cheese: Keep practicing. Get chickens to eat your mistakes. Give cheese to all your friends to try. Educate yourself about cheese by eating a lot of cheese.”