Adventures in cheese making
for the love of curds and whey.
WRITTEN BY MIKE COLPO
PHOTOS BY DAVID CALVERT
Over the years, our culture has developed a curious belief in dairy’s magical ability to kill us if we look at it wrong. Be it butter, milk, yogurt, or cheese, if we are to believe the unwritten assumptions, the lot of it is perennially close to spoilage and capable of unspeakable digestive atrocities. It is a product to be carefully conjured—preferably in remote factories staffed with legions of white lab coats. Sterilization is critical in its production, and is not something to be trusted to mere mortals, and most certainly not achievable in an average kitchen.
In reality, making cheese is both simple and safe, though the tale of its origin would give a modern day dairy-inspector fits. The story is dominated by different versions of the same myth: A shepherd finds a dead lamb in his fields. At the end of the day, he must make the long walk home. Alas, he’s lost his trusty container and must improvise a means to tote the day’s milk. Being a resourceful individual, he fashions a crude bota from the stomach of the dead lamb. The day is warm, the walk is long, and by the time he’s returned home, the contents of the stomach bag are no longer milk, but the world’s first cheese.
Part myth, part fact, the story captures a key realization in the history of cheese—the discovery of rennet. This enzyme—which naturally occurs in the stomach linings of nursing mammals such as sheep, goats, and cows, and is today available in synthetic and vegetable-based forms –– is what separates milk into its major components: curds and whey.
BACTERIAL BALLET
From here, the story of cheese becomes a bacterial ballet. Mysterious microbes are munificently manipulated within the curds to produce what amounts to a delicious means of storing milk over a long period of time. Indeed, this was the original function of cheese. By removing the majority of the water and sugar (in the form of lactose) from milk and adding salt (and in some cases pressure) while maintaining a constant temperature, the original cheese makers found they could concentrate the nutritional benefits of milk while ridding it of its chief agents of spoilage. The strategic addition of bacteria conferred a further advantage for storage: these “probiotics” would establish themselves within the cheese, feeding off the remaining lactose while fending off other, more harmful, bacteria. The by-product of this lactose digestion is what gives each cheese its distinct flavor.
Indeed, an obsessive sterility is the enemy of good cheese.What this means for those of us who don’t don lab coats and goggles to cook is that a home kitchen is a perfectly suitable place in which to make your own. All that’s required is some basic equipment and the willingness to move at the pace dictated by the process.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
Before you set out on your cheese-making adventure, make sure to do a little research. Reno resident Roxanne Sterr is a new, but adventurous, cheese maker who started off with fresh goat cheeses and has attempted some more-sophisticated, mold-ripened soft cheese.When asked what the hardest part was for her, she replied simply, “Finding good information.”
“I really had to look around before I felt like I had reliable info to work with,” Sterr says. “There’s a ton of websites out there and a lot of books. I read a lot before I even got started.”
While websites do abound, beginners can find everything they need in a trusted source at Cheesemaking.com, the website for Ricki Carroll’s New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, which has been run out of Carroll’s Massachusetts kitchen for about 29½ of the past 30 years that it’s been in business. Carroll is the author of one of the most popular and approachable books on the subject, Home Cheese Making, and is widely regarded as one of cheese making’s most fun and passionate advocates.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Visitors to Carroll’s website also can find a full complement of equipment—from $25 first-timer kits to $300 cheese presses—but there’s no need to send off to Massachusetts to get started. Rob Bates of Reno Homebrewer stocks a full line of cultures, molds, and starter kits. He began carrying home cheese-making supplies about seven months ago and has seen a steady increase in interest.
When asked what made him want to become the area’s first and only provider of cheese-making materials he replied that, “it’s a natural extension of what we do here. Beer and wine are processes of fermentation, and so is cheese. It only made sense.” Shoppers interested in keeping their spending local will be pleased to find that Bates’ inventory is great, and his prices are as good or better than mail-order suppliers.
HOMEMADE MAGIC
The idea of making cheese at home might sound appealing, but a slow, hands-on undertaking such as cheese making would seem to beg for vast quantities of our most precious personal resource: time. Avid home-brewer and father of two John Tull says that’s not really the case.
“When I brew, I use a burner and am not in the kitchen, so I hole up for four to five hours,” Tull says. But making cheese is different, “Because I am in the kitchen, I am able to enjoy being home and talking with the family. Comparing this to beer-making, it is much easier on everyone.”
An added bonus: Some of the most rewarding cheeses to make also are the easiest. Mozzarella is a favorite among beginners and can be made in just about 30 minutes. Many cheeses, such as fresh chèvre for example, are even easier: Simply heat the milk, stir in cultures, and leave it overnight. The bacteria will do all the work for you while you drift off into wonderful, cheesy dreams.
Mike Colpo learned how to make his first handmade pizza in the middle of the wilderness of Wyoming. Pizza remains the center of his culinary universe, providing inspiration to become a self-taught baker and cheese maker.
