Cheese!
My first time, I attempted a number of different cheeses with varying degrees of success. These are the best two!
First up was mascarpone. We go through a lot of mascarpone and it’s not particularly expensive here, but I wanted to try my hand at it anyway. I used a recipe from the amazing fankhouser cheese-making site. Dr Fankhouser uses Tartaric Acid in his recipe but the first time I made it, I had yet to order any so I used lemon juice (a widely used substitute). The second time, I used tartaric acid and the difference was quite discernible, with the second batch having a smoother and creamier texture.
Makes about 500g
Ingredients
900ml light (25% fat) cream
1/4 teaspoon tartaric acid dissolved in 2 tbsp non-chlorinated water OR 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Directions
Day one
Pour the cream into a stainless steel bowl set over a saucepan that has about an inch of water in the bottom. Bring the water to a boil and heat the cream to 85°C, stirring occasionally.
When the cream reaches 85°C, whisk in the tartaric acid/lemon juice – it should start to thicken immediately. Keep the cream at 85°C for five minutes, stirring occasionally, by which time it should thicken to the consistency of runny yoghurt.
Take it off the heat and set the bowl aside, covered, to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.
Day two
Line a strainer with sterile cheesecloth or cotton cloth over a bowl and pour the cream into it. Bring the corners of the cloth together and secure tightly with a rubber band. Suspend over the bowl for about 6 hours to thoroughly drain off the whey.
Remove mascarpone from the cloth and refrigerate until ready to use. It should keep for about a week in a sealed container in the fridge.
Next cab off the rank was my first foray into rennet cheese in the form of cream cheese made with organic sheep’s milk. It was originally destined to become feta (hence the sheep’s milk), but the curd didn’t set sufficiently and I didn’t want to just throw it away so I winged it. It’s not exactly what Dr Fankhouser describes here, but I think it’s a reasonable approximation. It went on to become an absolutely luscious baked cheesecake. 🙂
pizzarossa 
Well done! “Some cheese please”! 🙂
Yes, it was a GREAT challenge as hosted by Sawsan from chef in disguise too! 🙂
It has certainly left me with a desire to try more challenging cheeses! 🙂
Me too! As reading your post today has “inspired” me too! 🙂
Hello Rachael
Hats off to you on being so daring and doing so many different types of cheese
Thank you so much for taking part in this challenge and all your wonderful interaction at the forum
Can’t wait to see where this cheese adventure will take you in your future posts
Sawsan, I can’t thank you enough for such an inspiring challenge. I mentioned it to a friend today and he wants to join me in the kitchen! I have so many plans 🙂
We go through a lot of mascarpone too. My son loves it melted into his pasta. You’ve inspired me to give it a try!
You should, Urmila! My sons love mascarpone melted into their pasta, too, and they loved the homemade version. 🙂
It looks very good 🙂
Thanks so much, Aisha 🙂
Well done, Your cheeses look great. Just so you know you can freeze Chèvre, with little or no loss of flavour and texture. Keep it up.
That’s great to hear! That would make it easy to make bigger batches. Thanks for the tip 🙂
Wow your cheese look so delicious !!! I mirror your thoughts completely that this challenge is converting making cheese into a serious hobby for me.
I so wanted to do the Feta but got a little late trying to source Rennet.
Great going !!
Cheers !!
Gauri
I’m so glad to hear that you’re going to continue cheese-making too, Gauri! I’ll keep an eye on your blog 🙂
great job! Your cheeses all look wonderful
Thanks so much, Andy! 🙂
I make my own ricotta and labneh all the time but I never knew that making mascarpone was so easy! Next on my list of things to do!!
It’s so fulfilling making these things yourself! I think I could happily become one of those people who make everything from scratch! Just need that elusive lottery win 😉
Really lovely looking cheeses – and interesting to know about the difference in texture between the tartaric acid and the lemon juice batches – great post!
I was really surprised by that, I didn’t think it would make that much difference. I also love that tartaric acid would originally have come from the residue in wine barrels (or so I read somewhere) – traditional multipurposing 🙂
What a success! Love the cheese — I did not think of trying ot salvage my curds (or whatever that mess was) and make a cream cheese.
LOL! I looked at my mess and couldn’t call them curds either! But there was so much of it, I couldn’t bear to throw it away without trying to do something with it. It was pure luck that it worked! 🙂