Book reference: Making Artisan Cheese: Fifty Fine Cheeses That You Can Make in Your Own Kitchen by Tim Smith
Cheese attempted: White Stilton with dried raspberries
I tried making this cheese this past weekend and it was a failure. I was a little bit behind the eight ball for time, so instead of going over to the barn for raw milk, I used store bought. Two gallons of whole milk + 1 pint of Half-and-Half (not Ultra pasteurized) as called for in the recipe.
Added the CaCl as well as additional 1/4 C. distilled water as called for. Temperature was spot on throughout. I knew I had a problem at curd cutting. No clean break really, looked a lot like cottage cheese, and a white scum with small particles of curd. I moved ahead anyway and ladled the curd into my draining bag. The over night sandwich did solidify and was able to break the mass into 1 inch cubes as called for. Salted and placed the cubes in the mould.
This morning on removing the wheel from the cheesecloth, I found a wheel of stacked cubes. Nothing went into a smooth consistency wheel mass.
In conclusion, unless someone can tell me they’ve had great success with recipes from this particular book, I can’t really give it a good recommendation at this point.
Secondly, I’m very disappointed in using store bought pasteurized milk, I get a much better cutting with raw milk.
Nabil, since I started out my cheese making endeavor, my only experience was with using raw milk. I find now that it is indeed my preferred milk of choice.
Perhaps I’ll try the same recipe again using raw milk.
I’m still interested in hearing from anyone that might have this same book and has tried some of the recipes contained in the book. It seems at this point in time, everyone on the site uses the cheese book written by Ricki as his or her go to source. I have this book also in my reference collection.
I have Tim’s book too, but have only used it to cross-reference recipes with Ricki’s. It seems that there is a lack of detail (omissions and undeveloped index) to his book that I find just a little bit irritating. The next recipe I am going to use (goat crottin) is from his book so I’ll let you know how it goes.
I just have carols book and I find myself not always following it to the letter. Basically with all the reading i did and the experimenting, I end up with a generalizing way to make cheese that has worked for me, just use the references for the specific temps and processes. One has to remember also that the same recipe will not work for everyone because of were they live. I live over 2000’ from sea level so the cooking effect will be dif from someone that is at sea level.
So it boils down to experimenting and experience with what u have available for your area.
Heathers, I understand where your comment is coming from. The book does indeed seem broken up. Yes, the book does talk about having to add CaCl to processed milk, but there is no reminder of this in the specific recipe. You have to pick-up on this fact from previous reading.
Another point I found was with the salt measurement. The recipe called for 2 Tablespoons or 36 grams. I do as a rule, weigh out my components. Just and old sausage making habit. I can tell you that 36 grams of the Diamond brand canning salt, is far more than 2 Tablespoons full. So the question comes down to the importance of the amount of salt when mixing it into the curd, is too much okay or not? If not, then I guess I’d go with the lesser measurement which would be the Tablespoon amount rather than the gram amount.
In regards to the White Stilton recipe, the write up mentions that this is a type of desert cheese with added fruit. It does, by the picture appear to be a semi soft cheese of very fine texture.
I think that for my second attempt, I’ll use raw milk and forget the added 2 cups of light cream. As raw milk straight from the bulk tank has more cream content than whole milk purchased in the store. This is especially true if the agitator has been off for a period of time allowing the cream to rise.
I was also concerned with the rippening time called for. Ninety minutes before cutting and then an additional ninety minutes for allowing the curd to sit in the strainer in the whey bath at temp. Seems excessive.
I would certainly appreciate any related experience with this particular cheese from those of you who have this book and have tried it.
Dif salt also have dif strengths. I found one uses less sea salt then pickling salt so I had to be careful with that. Blue cheese funny enough is a desert cheese, it is commonly used in sweet deserts like ice cream (gourmet chefs at least). When they say 90 min, I just use that as a guideline because the curding is not consistent always, strength of rennet, how old is it, did it reach the proper PH. As I mentioned in another thread, I wait till the curds start to separate from the pot and clear liquid starts to show. I dont know what the ph is however I know its consistent. I have also seen shows were they mentioned the aspect of the curds separating from the tank, it may have been specific for that type of cheese that they were making, but for us without the PH measuring equipment, a visual indication of a change is a nice reference
Your mention of the addition to the cream, this is what i found the best, 2% milk is far less processed mater since theirs less chance of separation, then the added cream brings it up, I like adding the 18% cream, most cost effective from were i am.
Neil, again I have to default to Heathers statement about this book being broken up. The recipe calls for 2 gallons of milk and 2 cups of light cream. It is possible that somewhere else in the book it talks about using 2% when adding additional cream. Unlike Ricki’s book and also her website that allows one to email questions, this book as far as I know doesn’t give an email address to this author just for this type of situation when a little clarification is needed.
I used reckless abandon and addded full-on cream in the addition to raw milk for the stilton…I didn’t see anything that mentioned using 2% but that might have been a good idea. We will see.
The 2% is from my experiments, not from what I read. I did get “Making Artisan Cheese” from the library but I put it aside because came across as not being direct (hope were talking about the same book) thats why I accumulate dif recipes and then create a generalized version.
I did like that in Rickies book i could email them, took a week but they did reply.
I own both of these books and I find that both are lacking in many areas. It’s obvious that 1) They were both edited or proof read by someone who has never made cheese and 2) It appears that someone is guilty of plagerism because many of the recipes are word for word identical.
I’m hoping to learn from this community as I’ve gotten all that’s possible from these two books and would like to see what others have created.
I tried my second attempt at this cheese this past weekend. I used Ricki’s book instructions on Stilton with just a glimpse at the other book to ensure commonality. This attempt turned out 100% better using raw milk. It’s now in the fridge after sitting out in the kitchen for two days. I’m happy so far with the progress I’m seeing.
, hopefully I’ll get something out of it.