WHAT’S NEXT - THE FUN OF MAKING CHEESE - Mastering Basic Cheesemaking: The Fun and Fundamentals of Making Cheese at Home - Gianaclis Caldwell

Mastering Basic Cheesemaking: The Fun and Fundamentals of Making Cheese at Home - Gianaclis Caldwell (2015)

Part 2. THE FUN OF MAKING CHEESE

Chapter 9. WHAT’S NEXT?

IWAS VERY TEMPTED TO INCLUDE a few recipes for some trickier but wonderful cheeses in this book. A Brie-type with its fluffy, white, mushroom-scented rind; a stinky, sticky washed-rind cheese; and a pungent, umamiendowed blue cheese were on my list of recipes to cover. But as I started working on them, I was reminded of how truly complex and unique their processes are — they are not basic cheeses. Each of these categories of cheeses involves some distinctive steps that rely on understanding some fairly advanced cheese chemistry if you really want to ensure consistent success. So what do we do next? Here are my recommendations on what to do if you have really enjoyed yourself thus far.

KEEP A CHEESE JOURNAL

Every good cheesemaker can follow a recipe, but every great cheesemaker keeps a detailed record of every cheese they make. Your cheese journal can include minimal information, or it can be as detailed as your obsessive-compulsive heart desires. The journal will be your only source for looking back and troubleshooting for possible reasons that a cheese didn’t turn out — or your only source for duplicating a happy accident! Here are some ideas for record keeping:

Imag

Just a few of my cheese journals from over the years.

✵Make a copy of the recipe and attach it to the journal pages, or write all of the steps down right in the journal.

✵Note the type of milk, its age, and the source (grocery store, farm, etc.).

✵Include the time that each step was performed plus the actual measurements of culture, rennet, etc., and the type of culture and rennet used (if it varies from the recipe).

✵Include the actual temperatures of the milk and curd throughout the process.

✵Include the room temperature during draining and pressing.

✵Make notes that describe the texture, aroma, and flavor of the cheese (even describing the milk flavor is helpful).

✵If the cheese is aged, keep careful notes of aging times, temperatures, and how the cheese looks throughout the process.

✵If the cheese is aged, open the bag at several points during aging, taste the cheese, make a note in your journal about the texture and flavor, and then reseal the cheese — unless you decide that it is ready to eat!

EXPERIMENT

Repeat any recipes that you particularly enjoyed making, but vary the type of milk used. Try other experiments using different cultures and even different rennets. Compare your notes (in your well-kept journal) and see if you can figure out how the change altered the cheese. I highly recommend not making more than one change for each experiment so that you can identify which element caused the change.

ADVANCED CHEESEMAKING

It won’t take long for you to outgrow this book — and that’s the idea! You may simply want to move on to a greater selection of recipes, or you may want to dig below the surface of beginning-level science. When you are ready to learn more complicated techniques and much deeper cheese science, I hope that my book Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking will be the answer to your thirst for cheesy knowledge. There are many other wonderful books available, see the appendix for a list of some of my favorites, as well, not to mention cheesemaking classes and videos. The popularity of the topic is inspiring.

CHEESEMAKING AS A BUSINESS

If you share the results of your hobby with your friends, neighbors, and coworkers, it won’t be long before you start hearing things like “I would buy this!” “I know a chef who would go crazy for this cheese!” or “You should sell this in stores!” As a part of your cheesemaking journey, you might visit a farmstead creamery; see the lush pastures, adorable animals, and hardworking farmers; and perhaps begin feeling a little wistful for such a life. (I speak of these things from personal experience.) If the siren song of cheesemaker does begin to resonate in your heart, then you may be about to depart on a new journey, but (also speaking from experience) it is only one to be pursued after an exhaustive amount of research and even work-study.

Cheesemaking as a business is rarely a profitable type of enterprise — unless it is on a large scale. Most small-scale cheesemaking businesses are what are considered “lifestyle businesses.” In other words, the lifestyle itself is the goal, not investment and large profit. Most small cheese businesses rely upon another source of income or benefits (such as health care from a retirement or second job) to help make ends meet. The life itself is exhausting and precarious — but don’t get me wrong, there are many joys and rewards, but these are much easier to see from the outside and can lead to the illusion of a far different lifestyle than is the reality.

The Small-Scale Cheese Business and The Small-Scale Dairy, two of my other books, were written to help you better understand the career and make the right decisions — even if one of those decisions is to NOT become a licensed cheesemaker.

CONCLUSION

I hope that by the end of this book you are even more excited about cheesemaking than you were at the beginning. I can’t tell you how much more there is to learn, but I can tell you that each new piece of knowledge and each new challenge has been incredibly stimulating and fulfilling for me. Making cheese never gets old, as long as you remain humble and ready to learn. I wish you many happy hours stirring the curd and — dare I say it — cutting the cheese!