An Intro to Cheesemaking

by jessicaherbig | Aug 5, 2022 | Recipes

An Intro to Cheesemaking

An Intro To CheeseMaking

History of Cheese

If you think about it, people have been making cheese forever…. back when they didn’t even know why their milk turned chunky and delicious when they poured it into animal skin carrying bags. When you look at it that way, it makes modern day cheesemaking a little more accessible.

As you know… my style of cooking in general is “Measure with your heart.” Cheesemaking has come a long way in terms of there now being a standard process to provide consistent results, but there is still room in cheesemaking to measure with your heart!

The first cheeses were discovered because some traveler was carrying his lunch of fresh milk in an animal skin bag. In my head I imagine this traveler with animal skin clothes, riding on a camel, somewhere hot. (Hot because cheddars culture at approximately 90 degrees). When he stopped for lunch, he discovered that his delicious fresh milk was chunky… I’m betting he didn’t drink it. Or maybe he was hungry and rolled the dice. I don’t know. The point is, sometimes there are very delicious accidents. The milk cultured because the inside of that animal skin had rennet in it. When you mix fresh milk, rennet, and either a thermophilic or mesophilic starter culture, you get delicious magic.

Don’t get me wrong, cheesemaking is an art. The subtleties of each variety and the different aging techniques and times, as well as all the various types of milks you can use to make cheese lead to as many varieties as people on this earth. What I’ve found is that I’m an impatient cheesemaker. I tend towards cheeses with short aging times so I can enjoy the fruits of my labors faster. Farmhouse cheddar is my go-to, though I do make fresh cheeses as well. (Ones that don’t require aging like ricotta and cream cheese)

Below I’m going to outline my process for cheesemaking, but please keep in mind that I’m still learning along with everyone else. I like things as simple as possible, so you might not agree with my shortcuts and that’s ok. This is what works for me.

Supplies

The freshest milk you can buy. (I prefer raw from local dairies whenever possible but have been known to buy whole milk from the grocery store as well.) Just don’t buy super-pasteurized or it won’t work out well.
Rennet (I get this delivered from Amazon. Bonus points if you can find a local cheese shop to support.)
Starter Culture. It will differ based on the cheese you want to make, but for a general Cheddar, get a Mesophilic Starter Like This One.
Big metal pot. I use a Pasta Strainer pot like this one. The strainer portion is great for putting the curds in to drain right back into the pot during one of the steps.
A long knife to cut the curds. It needs to be long enough to reach top to bottom in your pan for as much milk as you’re going to put in the pot. (Did that make sense? Just get a long one. Bread or carving knives work great.)
Cheese press – This one is important to get right. If your press is too small you’ll only be able to handle a gallon of milk at a time and end up with a bunch of 1 lb wheels. That’s not exactly a bad thing but it takes awhile to make cheese, but it takes the same amount of time to make 1 lb as it does to make 5… so in this case as big as you can handle is good. I got this press as a starter kit with cheesecloth and I wish I would have gone bigger. I’ll be upgrading my size very soon.
Dairy thermometer (like the one your barista uses at your favorite coffee shop)

OK – so that’s the basic supplies. You need milk, a pan to put it in, a way to take the temperature and cut it, something to press it into to hold it’s shape.

The hands on portion of cheesemaking is very little. It’s a lot of “hurry and wait” steps. You heat up your milk, add the rennet, wait, then add your mesophilic culture and wait. Then cut the curds and wait, Then stir and wait and stir and wait and stir. Then you drain the curds and wait. Then press the curds and wait. See what I mean? A lot of waiting. You can totally fit this in if you’re planning on being in the kitchen during the day doing other things.

I was a little stressed at all the instructions in the book I bought with cheesemaking recipes. But I’ve realized that they’re more like guidelines. If you don’t keep your cheese at exactly 90 degrees, and it falls below… you’ll still end up with cheese, and it’s not even going to suck. So just measure with your heart and keep working through the steps. You’ll end up with cheese, I promise!

Oh, do you want to check out the best cheesemaking recipe book I’ve seen yet? It’s got EVERYTHING in it. Just CLICK HERE. My favorite like I’ve said is the Farmhouse Cheddar.

UPDATE ON THE CHEESE PRESS. My friend lovingly had her husband make me a dutch cheese press out of oak. Never again will I ever use anything else. Though mine is handmade, it’s very similar to THIS ONE on Amazon. And it’s not a bad price.

Written by Jessica

Crushing That Good Life one weekend at a time.

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How To Make Small Batch Sauerkraut

by jessicaherbig | Jul 29, 2022 | Recipes

How To Make Small Batch Sauerkraut

Small Batch Sauerkraut Recipe

My cooking style is and always will be “Measure with your heart”, but there are a few things that I’ve learned over the past years where it’s actually dangerous to try and wing it. Fermentation is one of those times.

I held off on trying to make Sauerkraut because I always thought that I needed to have room for one of those large crocks on my counter for months at a time, and that it was going to smell, and I didn’t want to wait all that time for it to just not turn out. I’m so glad I decided to find a way that worked for me and went for it!

My phone must have been listening to me one day… you know, how phones do these days, because I started seeing ads for tabletop fermentation lids. I didn’t even know they were a thing! And they were way more affordable for an experiment with fermenting than a huge crock was going to be. That way if I didn’t end up liking it, I wasn’t out a lot of money. That’s a win in my book.

I did a little digging and ended up purchasing these fermentation lids, weights, and a bamboo tamper from the brand A Year of Plenty. They fit directly onto my wide mouth mason jars, and took up minimal space. And my thought was that small batch fermentation would take less time than a large batch. As I went through this process, I realized that these lids also made it hands off. I didn’t have to burp the jars to release the gasses, because the lids have a water lock on them that allows gasses to get out and doesn’t let air in.

OK, now because I hate scrolling through a whole life story before I get to the recipe, I’m just going to dive into it.

Small Batch Sauerkraut

Note: You will need approximately 1 gram of fine sea salt for every 44 grams of shredded cabbage. This is the magic ratio. Doing more of less salt will do two things: either give you too salty of a brine and your kraut will suck, OR not give you a salty enough brine and bad bacteria will be able to survive and thrive in your jars. You don’t want either. Stick with the ratio.

1 medium head of cabbage (approx 800 grams when shredded and weighed)
18 grams fine sea salt (himalayan is ok too!)
3 wide mouth quart mason jars (I prefer Ball or Kerr Jars for my canning, so that’s what I have on hand and use, but I LOVE my vintage Magic jars that I got from my Grandmother)
Fermentation lids, glass weights, and bamboo tamper (pick up this kit and have everything you need without needing to piece it together)

If it’s not already, shred your cabbage into fine strips, either using a mandolin, a sharp knife, or a food processor. Weight it out. Whatever the weight is, your golden ratio is 44:1. So divide the weight in grams by 44, and that will give you the amount of salt you’ll need.

Once shredded, add the salt to the kraut. Here’s where it gets fun and where I like to save some time. You need to massage that cabbage until it releases its juices. Mmhmm, massage it. You can either do this by hand if you have super fingers and forearm strength, OR you can use your handy dandy stand mixer to do the work. I use my 13 year old Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer that’s still going strong. (It’s majestic yellow in case you’re wondering but that color is out of stock or discontinued now)

Let’s pretend you’re just going to use the stand mixer and save some time. It should take about 5 minutes to beat up the cabbage and start releasing its juices. Once it does that, you’re ready to pack your jars.

Fill your mason jars to within 1.5 inches of the top, packing the cabbage in there with the bamboo tamper you’re going to get with your fermentation kit. Push it down pretty hard, because you don’t want any air bubbles in there to harbor bad bacteria. If you’ve gotten your salt ratio right, the brine will go to work on any bad bacteria left in there, eating it for breakfast, and in 7-21 days, you’ll have perfectly fermented sauerkraut full of good probiotics for your family to feast on!

OK, back it up a step. After you fill the jars, make sure all of the cabbage is covered by liquid. If it is not, you need to make up a little more brine to pour on top. A good salty brine is 2% salinity, so 100 grams of water to 2 grams of salt. Mix it up, and then pour enough of that brine on top to cover your veggies.

Pop on the lids that come in your fermentation kit, Fill the water reservoir on top like the directions tell you, and plug them into the top of the lid. This lets gas out of the jars (self-burping) without letting any air in. Remember, air is bad for fermentation.

Store the jars either on your counter if it’s not too warm, or in a cool cupboard. After 7 days, you can open the top, and taste the sauerkraut. If it’s not sour enough for you, put the lid back on and let it sit for longer.

Signs that it’s working:

You will start to see air bubbles rising to the top of the jar and releasing their gasses. The top of the brine will start to get foamy. If you’ve overfilled your jars, it could pull liquid up into your water reservoir. If this happens, you need to open the tops, spoon out some liquid, then refill the water reservoir. Your sauerkraut will be done when the bubbles stop, and it tastes delicious.

You might get some white powdery stuff that settles on top of your glass weights. That’s normal and nothing to be concerned about.

Signs that something has gone wrong:

If you get mold on the top of your liquid…. you need to toss the batch. Some old timers say you can scrape it off and keep going, but I don’t mess around. Just toss it. $1 worth of cabbage isn’t worth introducing mold into your body. If it’s just the white powdery stuff that’s settling onto the weights like above, keep going. Mold will float on the top of the liquid.

If it smells rank, and not like normal sauerkraut, your brine ratio might not have been 5-star and you could have bacteria growing in there. Best to toss it and start again.

Written by Jessica

Crushing That Good Life one weekend at a time.

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Introductions Are In Order

by jessicaherbig | Jul 28, 2022 | Uncategorized

Introductions Are In Order

Hi! I’m Jessica.

I’m into crushing the good life one weekend at a time, so I created The Weekend Homesteader, where you can find my real-life tips and tricks for achieving your homesteading goals and building that perfect life you don’t want to escape from. Because the reality is, sometimes we need to work a job during the week and chase our dreams in bite-sized pieces on the weekend!

I live on some property in the Inland Pacific Northwest, with my family, and a few different farm animals. I’m into making things easy and approachable, otherwise I’ll lose interest and there go my dreams of sitting around on my property all day playing with animals. I also have a very black thumb, but through trial and so many errors, I’m growing things!

My cooking style is “measure with your heart” so when I post my recipes, I’ll have notes in there about what is and isn’t important for you to pay attention to when making them. Cause not everyone loves garlic as much as me!

You can expect a healthy dose of sarcasm, mom-isms, chicken photography, honeybee wonder, coffee, weekday business tips, and food in this space. Those are all things that make my world go round. I’m so glad to have you here!

Written by Jessica

Crushing That Good Life one weekend at a time.