CHEESEMAKING REVISITED

CHEESEMAKING REVISITED TO INCLUDE HERBS

This is a brief update on the Fromage a Trois adventures. Encouraged by the experiment we tried last week, we made a batch of cheese with a gallon whole milk. This time around we doubled the amount of vinegar--four ounces to the gallon of milk--and we added a teaspoon each of marjoram and thyme to the curds after the initial draining of whey. Before unwrapping it, we pressed the cheese between two cutting boards weighted down with a cast iron Dutch iron filled with water. This shaped the cheese into a more appealingly, easier to cut round. After tasting the final product we concluded that its texture was creamier than that of the first batch which was made with half a gallon of a mix of whole milk and two percent. The yield of the second batch was much higher--closer to a pound. This is an easy an economic way to add protein to our diet.