Lasagna Cheese – All in one pot recipe for Mozzarella and Ricotta While writing an article for Culture magazine on how to make Burrata, I realized how easy it is to make both quick mozzarella and ricotta at the same time, literally within one hour. An email from a reader mentioned that it was her … Continue reading One pot Lasagna Cheese
Cheesemaking General
Stretchy Secrets – Pasta Filata Cheeses
If your Quick Mozzarella doesn’t always turn out perfectly, despite many recipe's suggesting that it is “so easy”, stop blaming yourself! Stretched curd cheeses, often referred to by their Italian name of “pasta filata”, depend upon some pretty precise chemistry occurring in order to turn out well. In this article I have extracted a bit … Continue reading Stretchy Secrets – Pasta Filata Cheeses
Do Aged Cheeses Contain Probiotics?
Probiotics. The new darling of health and advertising. Do cheeses really contain any of these amazing, essential microbes? While I have no letters after my name (unless I capriciously add them), it doesn't require a university degree to understand that bacteria, both beneficial and hurtful, can only live under certain contidions. I am a cheesemaker … Continue reading Do Aged Cheeses Contain Probiotics?
Chasing Coliform Counts
I was recently visiting England to attend “The Science of Artisan Cheesemaking” conference and had the great additional luck to visit an amazing farmstead creamery- Hill Dairy in Somerset. Not only was the facility quite possibly one of the most well thought out and constructed small creameries that I have ever visited, but owners Will and Caroline … Continue reading Chasing Coliform Counts
Fresh Ricotta Balls with Roasted Grapes
I thought I would never get into posting recipes, but I had a lot of fun customizing this recipe for an upcoming class, so hey, why not share with you all? I got the inspiration for this recipe online, but it was pretty bland, so I took it up a notch. I also didn't have … Continue reading Fresh Ricotta Balls with Roasted Grapes
Using 3M Quick Swabs to Build a Food Safety Program for the Farmstead Creamery
Environmental testing of food contact surfaces and other surfaces that workers might easily touch and then cross contaminate a product can help you quickly find gaps in your food safety program. If you read an earlier post I did on the subject, then you may remember that here at our tiny farmstead creamery, we do … Continue reading Using 3M Quick Swabs to Build a Food Safety Program for the Farmstead Creamery
Pressing Cheese without a Form
If you've ever seen a whole wheel of the iconic US cheese, Vella Dry Jack you might have noticed that the cheese is irregularly shaped and has an indentation on the top that the Vella family fondly dubbed "the belly button". This cheese, along with several other aged cheeses, are pressed while wrapped in cheese cloth- instead … Continue reading Pressing Cheese without a Form
Preliminary Assessment FlowChart for Future Farmstead Creameries
Here is another flow chart I created that will walk you through the many considerations you should face before deciding to build a farmstead or artisan cheesemaking business. The red boxes signify a step at which you should stop and assess several factors for suitability, costs, and possible income. If you follow this path, you … Continue reading Preliminary Assessment FlowChart for Future Farmstead Creameries
FlowChart- Steps to Licensing a Creamery
Here is a flow chart that may be helpful in seeing the many steps of licensing and permits involved with building a cheesemaking facility. I have focused this chart on California, as it is one of the more "permit heavy" states, but most of the steps will apply in other states as well.
All ‘Bout Bloomies- Secrets of Making White Mold Ripened Beauties
When you talk about French cheeses most of us immediately think of Brie and Camembert. These two surface ripened cheeses are easy to love and are, arguably, the most imitated cheeses in the world. They seem to represent sophistication of palate and are therefore the gateway cheese to a whole new world of taste. Camembert … Continue reading All ‘Bout Bloomies- Secrets of Making White Mold Ripened Beauties