Homemade milk products
I have a stressful week behind me and it looks as if it isn't over yet. Sunday it was a clogged toilet which I could unclog yesterday and yesterday one of the wolves had a piece of bone stuck between the teeth at the right side. If you ever pulled a bone out of the mouth of a jumping wolf (partly panicking) you know what it looks like (the opening that mouth, keeping it open and using pincers to pull it out (while standing on a leash to control jumping jack).
Before the weekend I tried to make soft cheese and at the weekend I baked cake. Two actually because two fit in and if the oven is on why not use the space to bake something extra.
I made one common cake with lemon (bought 500 grams of tiny lemons and they get easily spoiled if I let them lay around for a few days so better use them) and one with partly cocoa added to 1/3of the dough.
Today I made yoghurt and sour cream. That sour cream I intended to try earlier but the lemon was needed and fighting a clogged toilet isn't the time to prepare food.
If you prepare food, make your diaries some hygiene should be considered. While I'm writing this I wonder if this is true. If you know the history of yoghurt and buttermilk, if you know how cheese is and was made (invented back then) most likely people weren't by far as hygenic as we are or say people have to be.
Cheese
I love cheese but the temps here won't make me succeed in making a piece of great cheese. Something like a good Gouda or one with herbs or Old Amsterdammer. I need something extra for that and a better quality of milk as the watery "milk" is sold in shops plus for 500 grams of cheese, I need at least 4 litres of (fat) milk. The more fat your milk contains the more cheese you will have in the end.
I made my cheese out of 1 litre of milk (cook it), 3 eggs, 175 grams of sour cream and1 teaspoon of salt.
If you cook this for about 4-5 minutes you can put it through a sieve and have cheese. You can add herbs, garlic, pepper if you like.
Instead of sour cream, you can use yoghurt which I will try next time.
Can be I am spoiled but the recipe with the eggs... To my opinion, this cheese tasted like egg. It was a bit dry too. I put what was left in oil where I added garlic (powder), pepper and some herbs too (all dry since fresh isn't available). The longer the cheese stay in this oil the better it tastes. It smells great by the way and will add something extra to the salad I bought.
Yoghurt
I must say "milk" sold by a shop is good enough to make yoghurt. All you need is milk and two tablespoons of yoghurt.
It depends on the milk you use how your yoghurt will taste. Milk with a lower fat percentage will turn into a more sour yoghurt which is the yoghurt I like most.
Used: 1 litre of milk, 2 tablespoons of yoghurt.
Once the milk is about 40°C I pour it into my yoghurt bucket (the bucket where some yoghurt is left in), close it, wrap it into my winter coat and put it into a bucket till next day.
The idea is to stimulate the yoghurt cultures for about 4 hours. The way I do it works so no need to buy an expensive yoghurt machine or keep the oven on for 4 hours as some people suggest. Do it the old fashioned way. If you live in a country with a warmer temp than mine you can skip the coat (or blanket) part.
So my yoghurt isn't for today but tomorrow. I leave it in the bucket for today and tonight and tomorrow I'll take it out. If it stays for another day it becomes thicker.
When it comes to cleaning the yoghurt bucket I did not. Like said I just add the milk to it, close it and that's it.
Sour cream
There's cream (the one you use to make whipped cream), sour creme and 'creme Fraiche. The difference between the last two is the percentage of fat it contains. If you like to cook with it better use a high amount of fat. I don't really cook with cream I don't see any point in it.
Today I made sour cream out of 1 cup of cream a bit (1/4 cup) of milk and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice ( instead of milk you can use yoghurt too) all you need is to mix it well and give it time to get thicker. Since you don't need to watch it it's easy and quickly prepared.
