Parmesan (Recipe and Instructions)

Hello Everyone!

Today I'm going to show you how to make Parmesan cheese!

What we call "Parm" or "Parmesan" is based on the authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese made in the Parma province of Italy. Appellation Regulations prohibit any cheese maker from calling this style of cheese a Parmigiano-Reggiano unless it's made in Parma, Italy; and unless certain ingredients and methods are used.

Now I don't think the Parma police will find me if I call it a Parmigiano-Reggiano, but I will follow the rules and call it a Parmesan! :) A great example of Appellation Regulations is sparkling wine. Though it may taste like a champagne, if it's not made in Champagne, France - it's illegal to call it a champagne. :) If Scotch whiskey isn't made in Scotland, it can't be called a Scotch, but it can be called a "Blended Whisky" etc...

You get the idea! Let's make cheese!! (Click here for printable instructions)

Parmesan Cheese
(Recipe courtesy of Gavin Webber)
Yield: about 1/2 kg wheel

Ingredients:

7 liters 2% milk

Half of: 3/8 tsp Thermophilic B Culture

1/16th tsp Lipase

Half of: 3/4 tsp Calcium Chloride

Half of: 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp Double Rennet

Cheese Brine

Note:  The ingredients have funny measurements because I had to halve the recipe. I didn't have a pot big enough to hold 14 liters of milk!

I've divided the process into 4 steps:

1. Mixing the ingredients

2. Caring for the curds

3. Molding, Pressing and Brining

4. Drying and Aging

Stage 1: Mixing The Ingredients

1. Heat milk to 33C or 91F. I heat mine in a double boiler on the stove, then transfer it to my "sink double boiler". I find it so much easier to regulate the temperature when the pot of milk is sitting in warm water.

2. Add the culture and let sit 5 minutes. After the five minutes, stir well, cover and let sit for 45 minutes.

During the entire process of mixing the ingredients, you need to hold your temperature at 33C or 91F. Milk will do a great job of holding the temperature on its own, but if you have the pot in the sink, you can add hot or cold water to regulate your temperature. It's a lot easier than keeping it on the stove. 

3. About 20 minutes before your milk has finished ripening, prepare your Lipase by stirring it into 1 tbsp cool filtered water. You don't have to use Lipase, but it's highly recommended for certain cheeses because it gives the cheese a sharper flavour. It also helps to break down fat molecules.

I'm putting this out there: My Lipase is two years old and I bought it from a less reputable cheese making organization...so when it comes time to taste the Parm, I will have to remember this!!

4. Add your Lipase after the milk's 45 minute ripening period. Stir well and let sit 15 minutes. Meanwhile prepare your Calcium Chloride by stirring it into 1/8 cup cool filtered water; prepare your rennet by stirring it into 1/8 cup cool filtered water.

5. Add the Calcium Chloride, stir for 1 minute. Add the rennet, stir for 1 minute. Cover and let rest 45-60 minutes.

Stage 2: Caring For The Curds

6. Check for a clean break (mine took 55 minutes). A clean break happens when you insert your finger (clean!) or a knife, lift it out and hardly any residue is on your finger or knife. Kind of like doing a toothpick test when you bake a cake.

7. Cut your curds with a whisk, moving up and down slowly and gently then using a scoop-like motion. They should be about the size of little dried peas.

8. There is no rest time for Parmesan curds. Start to heat the curds to 51C or 124F over ONE HOUR, constantly stirring. Don't rush this!! Be gentle with your curds and really keep an eye on the temperature. Cheese fails are devastating, so really follow instructions to a T!! :)

9. After one hour, test your curds. Take some in your hand, if they form a ball and you can press them apart with your thumb, they are ready to press. (Sorry no photo!) Turn off the heat, cover and let the curds sit for 5 minutes.

3. Molding, Pressing And Brining

10. Drain through a cheese cloth lined mold. Cover the top of the curds with the cheese cloth and then with your follower. Pull the cheese cloth up to make sure it's nice and tight under the follower. My standard mold is about 7 inches in diameter by 3.5 inches high. I don't have a smaller one yet, so my Parm will be very thin compared to cheeses that I make that use 10 liters of milk.

**A tip is to spray the cheese cloth with vinegar so the Parmesan curds won't stick to them.

11. Press at 24 pounds for 30 minutes. I love the water bottle method! It's so easy. Here's a link to my Cheese Press post that describes how I press my cheese.

 Note: Check to make sure your whey is clear. If it's too cloudy, use less weight.

12. Gently remove the cheese from the mold and cheese cloth. Turn, re-dress and press at 50 pounds for 12 hours. This is what the wheel looks like after one hour of pressing.

13. After 12 hours, remove your cheese from the mold and the cheese cloth. It already smells so good at this stage! See what I mean about it being thin?

14. Brine your wheel for 18 hours, flipping at the halfway mark. Keep the brined cheese at around 10C or 50F in your cheese cave. Here is my recipe for Cheese Brine.

4. Drying and Aging

15. Air dry for 3 days, flipping twice daily.

16. After 3 days of drying you're ready to start aging your Parm. You need to age it in a ripening box. This is easy to put together.

I use a plastic box. Because my box is tapered (smaller on the bottom), my cheese wheel doesn't quite fit. To remedy this, I put a bowl in the box, then a plastic mesh piece and a bamboo mat to help with ventilation. I then place the cheese wheel on top. This set up really works well for me. 

Because you need to age Parm at 80-90% humidity, the easiest way to do it is to put a wet piece of paper towel in your ripening box (see the first of four photos). Believe it or not, this actually keeps the humidity at 80-90% with the cover on the ripening box! Just make sure you re-hydrate the paper towel daily to keep the humidity level where you want it. Yes, Parm needs babysitting! :)

17. Age your Parm in your cheese cave at around 10C or 50F, flipping daily for the first week, then weekly for 3 months. After three months you can take your wheel out of the ripening box and vacuum pack it. Keep it in the cheese cave and flip it weekly. It'll be ready any time between 6-12 months. I've read that aging it longer than a year makes it extremely dry.

Yogurt (Recipe and Instructions)

Hi Friends :)

Today I'm going to show you how easy it is to make yogurt at home. (Printable Recipe Here) Though yogurt is not a cheese, it is a cultured milk product, which means it's been fermented with lactic acid bacteria - so it definitely belongs here!

By the way, a new feature of my blog is that I've made printable recipes available! In each recipe post, I'll include a link; and on my side bar, there is a gadget with all of the posted recipes and another gadget with the printable recipes that you can also download.

So back to the yogurt! My recipe makes 1 liter (4 cups, 1000 grams) of plain yogurt and costs me $1.90. The yogurt at the grocery store costs about $4.99 on sale for 650 grams. If you eat a lot of yogurt, it's so much more cost effective to make it at home - and of course, homemade is always better!

These are your ingredients:

- 1 liter (4 cups) of the milk of your choice

- some leftover yogurt to act as a starter culture

Directions:

1. Heat your milk to 93C or 200F, whisking often.

2. Place your pot into a sink of cold water, whisk often and bring the temperature of the milk down to 40-45C or 105-110F. You can let it cool on the counter, but it goes so much faster in a cold water bath. Keep your eye on the milk at this stage, it takes less than 5 minutes to hit your target temperature.

3. Put about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of your leftover yogurt into a bowl. Add one ladle-full of the warm milk and whisk well. Pour the yogurt mix back into your pot and whisk well.

4. Pour your yogurt into jars. I use Mason jars.

5. Incubate for 8 hours. There are several methods to incubate your yogurt. If you have a yogurt maker, well, it's a no-brainer! I don't, so I use a heating pad on medium heat. I wrap the jars in tea towels to keep them warm. You could also wrap them in towels and leave them in the oven with the oven light on. Eight hours later, put your jars in the fridge overnight to allow the yogurt to set.

I make myself a Strawberry Yogurt Shake every morning. Not all yogurts automatically contain probiotics and I'm sure that mine doesn't. I did use Activia as my starter many moons ago and I know that particular brand contains probiotics. But I've been using the leftover batches over and over continually for years and honestly, I'm quite sure there are no probiotics left so I add a little probiotic powder to the blender too.

Jack and Leo, a.k.a. Hound Dog and Hound Cat - the two pigs of the pack - LOVE yogurt!

For video instructions, please check out my video How To Make 2-Ingredient Yogurt From Home!

Cheese Brine (Recipe and Instructions)

Hello Friends :)

Let's make some cheese brine! (Click here for the printable recipe)

In cheese making, all cheeses are salted for various reasons. You can either mix your curds with the salt, rub your wheel with salt or brine your wheel. It's important to salt your cheese because:

1. It slows down or stops the bacteria from converting lactose to lactic acid. Too much lactose in cheese prevents it from ripening.

2. It helps to inhibit certain moulds that are attracted to your cheese.

3. It pulls moisture out of the wheel to help it develop a good rind.

4. It adds to the flavour!

It's a very simple recipe and the brine will last you up to two years. I made 3 liters of brine, which was a little overkill! I think 2 liters would be fine for most wheels of cheese. You just want to have enough in your container so that your wheel floats. In the first photo at the beginning of this post, you can see my Parmesan floating.

Cheese Brine
(Recipe courtesy of Gavin Webber)

Ingredients for 2 liters of brine:

2 liters water

450 grams (or 1 pound) of cheese salt or non-iodized salt

(Iodine will kill your bacteria cultures!)

1 tsp Calcium Chloride

2 tbsp white vinegar

Directions:

1. Bring your water to 25C or 77F.

2. Stir in your salt.

Note: If you look at recipes for brine, a lot of the time you'll see that you need to reach a PH level of anywhere between 4.9 to 5.3. Most of us don't have a PH meter (or in my case a functioning one!!); so I borrowed a tip from Gavin Webber on how to reach an 18% brine solution:

Toss in an uncooked egg. If it floats, you've hit 18% - which is a good solution for brining cheese!

3. Let sit about half an hour then add your Calcium Chloride and vinegar. Mix well and you're ready to use it.

This is my Jarlsberg floating in brine. To get an even brine, you should always flip your wheel over halfway through the brining time. I've read that it's good to sprinkle a layer of cheese salt over the top of your wheel too. I top the wheel with a piece of plastic mesh, just so it doesn't stick to the top of my container. It's recommended that you put your brining cheese in the cheese cave during the brining time, keeping it around 10C or 50F.

A New Cheese Cave and Mould On The Cheddar

Hi Friends and Cheese Lovers! :)

How do you like the new look of the blog? I took a lot of old posts down that I found were a bit confusing. You see, when I started out cheese making in 2017, it was very challenging for me to find good information. I think that my old blog was all over the place! If a new cheese maker visits my blog, I want he or she to find clear and sound information! 

So...Murphy's Law anyone? 

Murphy's Law: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

Not only did a Traditional Mozzarella fail on me the other day due to my BROKEN PH meter (not worth blogging about!!)... the old fridge, a.k.a. the cheese cave, DIED ON ME. I was so upset! I was afraid I'd lose all of my cheeses! It was only 12 years old, but as we all know, nothing is made like it used to be anymore...everything is made to be disposable so it seems!

Luckily one of the stores in Canada (Canadian Tire) had a similar fridge on sale $80 off so Alex and I drove the day after to pick it up. I think I saved my cheeses.

It's a decent size and at the lowest setting, it hits 9.9 Celcius. The ideal cheese aging temperature is between 10-12 Celcius, so I'm happy with 9.9! May the new Rainy Day Cheese Cave have a long and healthy life!!!

When I was putting the cheeses back into the new cave, I noticed some mould on my 3-Month Cheddar. Here is a video I took showing how to remove the mould off your cheese using homemade cheese brine. I'll post a recipe for cheese brine soon!

Boursin Style Cheeses (Recipe)

A lovely delicious cheese plate is a thing of beauty!! :)

The other night, that's what we had for dinner. I bought the Brie and the Oka, but I made the three Boursin style "cream" cheeses. The recipes are super easy! (Click here for a printable version of this recipe)

1. First make some Sour Cream. I double my recipe.

2. Next, divide your finished sour cream into 3 portions.

3. And lastly, add your flavouring, here's what I did:

Green Onion Boursin: I took one whole green onion, sliced it and mixed it into the sour cream.

Cherry Boursin: I mixed about 2 tbsp of my Cherry Coulis into the sour cream.

Herb Boursin: I mixed about 1/2 tsp dried:

- parsley

- oregano

- thyme

- basil

- sage

- dill

I then added fresh chives, a few dashes of salt and a minced garlic clove - next time I will OMIT the garlic clove...omg...hard to digest, but if you can digest raw garlic, it's an AMAZING taste!!