October 17th, 2005 - Cheese
Wow, it’s been a while since I wrote regularly here. Sorry about that. September was a busy month at work, and October is flying past (it didn’t help that I was out of work most of last week).
A couple weeks ago, I tried something new: I made my own cheese! First, I signed up for a cheesemaking class through Extension. But it was cancelled. So I looked around the web and found a cheesemaking kit for the same cost as the class. It’s a bit more difficult that I’d thought it would be, so I’ve only done it once so far. I made 1-hour mozarella. And indeed, it took only an hour to make. It came out a little dry, and I don’t know why. But I’ll try again this weekend, I think! We use mozarella almost every weekend on homemade pizza, so it will be fun to do.
I also now know why cheese is so expensive: For firmer cheeses, it takes about 1 gallon of milk to make 1 pound of cheese! So if milk’s over $3/gallon, cheese should be too! Softer cheese make more, but even the mozarella took a gallon of milk. Plus there are other ingredients (enzymes, salt, etc.) and the time. I’m surprised cheese is so inexpensive!
October 18th, 2005 at 3:56 pm EDT
well, in most states milk is the price it is due to price floors — ie, supply/demand would have it at a (far) lower price, but it’s being propped up via legislation. Remember — you live in Wisconsin!
There are some good reasons for this, but let’s not get into that.
Secondly, cheese producers 1) buy in bulk 2) buy wholesale 3) probably aren’t paying the price-supported price for milk
October 18th, 2005 at 3:57 pm EDT
Remember how Dad used to (?) make farmer’s cheese for Christmas?
February 4th, 2006 at 1:54 pm EST
Can you use powdered milk in homemade cheese? I am consideirng trying it, but 3 dollars a gallon is criminal! I pay about 1.50 a gallon by using powdered.