Chicken, Feta and Spinach Sausage

I've had in mind for a while now to make some chicken, feta and spinach sausage and finally made the time. They could have been stuffed into casings, but I opted for patties since I don't like the casings I ordered.

I boned the thighs and legs from 4 free-range birds and ran the meat, fat (there wasn't much) and some of the skin through the grinder. I ended up with just over 2.5 pounds.

To the ground chicken I added a half pound of fresh spinach very lightly steamed, then squeezed almost dry, and chopped. Frozen chopped spinach would have worked also, as long as it was squeezed of most of the liquid.

Then a couple of garlic cloves finely minced, some tarragon, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and about a quarter-cup of homemade goat feta, crumbled.

Mix it all together, put some parchment paper squares on the scale, and weigh out patties. I chose quarter-pound patties because I don't eat a lot of food at any one meal.

They look pretty well mixed. My feta was a tad salty from the refrigerated brine so I hope the added salt (reduced amount) and pepper distributed evenly. I should have fried a test patty for seasonings but I'd just had lunch.

Patties on a baking sheet, ready for a quick freeze. I did end up with one small patty but I'll use that one along with a full patty sometime when I'm especially hungry. 

Once frozen, I'll vac-pak them in serving size bags. It will be a nice addition to variety of my main meals. I hope I don't regret not adding more feta, or that I ground up some of the skin with the meat!!

I also hope they hold together when cooking. In retrospect, I should have made and added a panade, or added a couple of egg whites as I do with one of my venison sausage recipes.

Wine and Cheese Tasting

Thanks to a friend, a very small group gathered at a mountain rental cabin near the Blue Ridge Parkway for the weekend before Thanksgiving and an early Thanksgiving Dinner. Almost everyone there (except me and maybe one other person) will get to have another Thanksgiving Dinner on the "proper" day with Family, but since I basically live alone, I appreciated being able to share in the traditional "turkey day meal" with friends, and Giving Thanks for all we have.

It was a great time away from home and everyone brought great food... in fact, an abundance of foods! I may post about all the foods if others send me photos they took, but for now, here's our Saturday adventure...

We loaded ourselves into a couple of cars and went over to the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday to both a winery and a cidery I've wanted to visit for 2-3 years. The Château Morrisette wine tasting was really quite lovely, and very entertaining thanks to our bartender. Other than the omission of any palate cleansers for 12 different wines (including 2 ice wines), it was both professional and great fun.

One wine I would normally have never tried actually surprised me by being quite tasty; it was made from Scuppernongs, aka Fox Grapes. I generally shun sweetish wines but this was nicely complex rather than sickeningly sweet. (The winery gave us the glasses with their name etched on them that we used for tasting and several of our group bought multiple bottles of wines to take home, so their excellent presentation and marketing paid off!)

The Foggy Ridge Cidery (hard ciders) tasting was disappointing. Being just 3 miles down the Parkway from Château Morrisette, they probably need to do a better job of marketing at the cidery site itself if they continue to be on the "tour". You never know just who may drop in for a taste!

It was the same cost to taste 5 hard ciders as 12 wines from Château Morrisette, but the cider samples were barely a teaspoonful and the bartender was not fully educated on the products (at least not on the fortified ciders, nor did she present how any of the ciders could be served or used in recipes)... also she was not very personable. I will excuse her as she may have been having a bad day from many tastings earlier, but if that's the case they should have a back-up plan.

I did like the Pippin Black, a brandy-fortified cider made with Arkansas Black apples and Newtown Pippins.

The Thos. Jefferson / American style cider was tart but not dry, but I liked the English-style cider better as it was dry and not too tart. I wouldn't even taste the sweet cider one. The fresh raw cider I bought and fermented last fall was too sweet for my taste after it fermented, even with no sugar added. To be fair, that fresh cider I bought was made from eating apples whereas good hard cider is a mix, but other than sweet, it was good. I just don't like sweet drinks as a rule. (We didn't get a cidery glass etched with their name to keep, either.)

 

Once back at the cabin, we had our own private cheese tasting with wines everyone had brought along for the weekend. All three of my homemade cheeses (gorgonzola, farmhouse cheddar and a young Caerphilly) were well-received, plus we had about 8-10 imported cheeses our friends had ordered online.

I have to brag a tiny bit and say I finally made an edible blue cheese... the gorgonzola dolce shown above, which the blue cheese lovers deemed a success. (Remember I had to toss out my first 3 attempts at making a blue cheese?)

The imported cheese varieties (which I had helped choose from a short list of cheese specials) were tasty and interesting but not great, excepting the very stinky and well past it's prime Tomme Crayeuse we had to re-wrap quickly... but the selections didn't contain any cheese that I think any of us would particularly order again except possibly the 2 year old Avonlea Extra Sharp raw milk Cheddar from Canada (very dry/crumbly almost like Parmesan because of the age, but would be lovely grated on certain dishes). 

I guess it's my fault for not knowing the vendor who is not a cheesemonger... nor did I know anything of the creameries/artisans for each cheese. I take full responsibility since several were cheese types I wanted to try in case I wanted to try to make one.

One of the imported cheeses was a Welsh Caerphilly [cheddar], and VERY different from the ones I've made so far. It was a lot softer, creamier and not as traditionally salty; it was rather more like an American mild cheddar. But at leasdt now I know I need to work on "creamier" in general when I make more cheese.

 

As a surprise gift for me personally, our organizer had ordered a wedge of Rogue River Blue straight from the Creamery because I had said rather emphatically I wanted to try it sometime. (Is that a great friend or what??) I put it out to share along with the other cheese, and everyone who liked blues raved over it. If you like blues at all, you really need to try this cheese sometime when you have a special occasion; IT IS OUTSTANDING!!! No wonder it won Best in Show in combined American, Canadian and Mexican competitions for 2 of the last 3 years.

Little Black Box for my New Cheese Vat

Hooray, I now have a means of accurately controlling the cooking temps of curds when making cheese! Some recipes call for increasing the temp of the curds by a mere 1º over a 10 minute span, something my kitchen stove definitely will not do!

As a side benefit, the "vat" will hold twice as much milk (at least 4 gallons) as my biggest pot, which means I can make larger wheels of cheese (which age much better).

The "vat" is a new Oster electric turkey roaster, large enough for a 22 pound bird. It has a fixed pan which will hold water, and a deep removable pan to heat the milk.

PID and Temp. Probe

The "Black Box" my friend Dyson put together for me has a PID temperature control on the outside, connected inside to a solid state relay wired to the temperature probe that inserts into the milk. On the opposite end is a receptacle that accepts the plug from the vat, and a plug to power the whole thing by plugging into the wall.

I bought the electronic components several months ago after reading a similar set-up on the cheese forum, but really had no tools nor know-how to put it together. Dyson came to the rescue!

Instead of wiring the PID directly into the turkey roaster controls (which would have meant taking the roaster apart), he made a separate box for the controls, leaving the roaster fully intact. All I have to do is plug the roaster into the black box, and plug the black box into an electric receptacle. The PID will let me increase curd temp by as little as one degree, something I could never do on a house stove.

So my cheesemaking tools are slowly accumulating! I now have a temperature-controlled aging cave I made from an old refrigerator this past summer, and a small wine cooler "cave" for blues given to me by a friend. Now I need to build a Dutch-style press, and get some decent cheese molds. Of course, a cow would help too.

Hopefully by this time next year I will be making some really good cheese!

Making Gorgonzola Dolce

I haven't had much time for cheesemaking lately, but I did start a Gorgonzola Dolce. I've tried to make a Stilton 3 times so far, and none have succeeded. The first 2 Stiltons accidentally got bug infected while I was out of town, and the third is just bitter. That turns out to probably be a function of the pasteurizing temps of the milk.

For the gorgonzola, I was able to buy some fresh goat milk (real milk!) for the make. The recipe I used is from here.  The only problem I've had so far is that the initial molding calls for removing from the mold and turning every hour for the first four hours. Since I didn't start making this cheese until 2PM, the last turns were long after my bedtime.

Because I couldn't stay awake, the very last turn of the cheese when the alarm went off resulted in it being hung on the top of the mold, which I didn't see at the time. The next morning the cheese was not only lopsided, but part of it was stretched when the mass hung up on the top of the mold. So, it's funky looking! I cut off the top wedge although not quite as level as I thought.

Here are the curds ladled into the mold. I only had a gallon and a half of milk although the recipe called for 2 gallons. I just scaled back the cultures and rennet appropriately.

Here's the cheese after the overnight, lopsided molding. The top of the cheese in the photo above looks like a lack of curd knit... that's where the cheese stretched when it hung up on the top of the mold. It will be okay, just not pretty!

The cheese is in the cave now, at 55ºF temp and as close to 95% humidity as I can get. The photo above and at the top of the page shows the cheese just beginning to grow the blue culture (penicillium Roqueforti) before it went in the cave to age. I will pierce it after a week or ten days so the interior can grow some blue...

Update
Pierced this cheese yesterday, 10/5. Blue is growing nicely, and the paste didn't feel soft enough to close up the pierced holes. The wedge is also growing some nice blue mold. I'm hoping I can scrape some of it off later for another blue cheese.

Wish me luck... I am determined to make a blue cheese!

I have goat milk!

Photo Courtesy of Just chaos

I finally bought a goat share now that I know I really like making cheese. Plus, I contracted to buy a doe and companion wether (Nubians) when as I get fencing up, which will be at least spring with the way our economy is going.

So for now I'm learning to make goat cheese. Learning goat care, feeding and milking will come later.

I expect many cheese failures along the way, pretty much as I've had with cow's milk, although I AM getting better at making cheese in general. Along the way I've learned how fat percentages in the milk affect the cheese, how important controlled heating temps are, and what rennet works best. I've learned there is a whole lot more to know about all the various cultures and adjuncts and how to use them. I've also learned that many recipes are vague and inconsistent with their instructions for the 'make'.

No, the cheese was not made with Bragg's ACV!

My first firm goat cheese attempts are some Caerphilly wheels, because it's a recipe I've made several times successfully once I got the rennet right. 

Milky Whey

First off the bat, a couple of things are different. One is the milky whey after draining the curds (rather than clear), which may be something I'm doing wrong... but I don't know a goat cheese-maker to ask right now. The ones I know only make soft cheese spreads and feta. The weight of the wheels are comparable to cow milk so I don't think I'm failing to convert enough milk solids to curd.

Another difference is how quickly the milk becomes curds after adding rennet. I'll need to work on slowing it down a bit, to improve texture and taste. 

Here's the first goat Caerphilly above on the left (9 quarts/2.25 lbs.) and the 2nd one two days later (1 gallon/1 lb.) on the right. The second make didn't get pressed very well overnight; apparently the weights slipped sideways after I went to bed. I'm trying several combos of ways to salt (add salt, brine, or some of both) as well as different mesophilic culture combinations so there will be several small batches.

One cheese I really want to make (with both with cow and goat milk but not mixed together!) is a gorgonzola dolce. It's a softer, sweeter blue than a Stilton but I need to order the right penicillin roqueforti strain to culture it.

Friends Pay it Forward!

Thanks to the generosity of a dear friend, I now have a new 22 cu. ft. refrigerator! (New to me anyway; it's 6-7 years old.) What it means is that now I can keep on hand a larger quantity of milk for making cheese, rather than making a separate 60 mile round-trip for milk every time I want to make cheese. 

I have been sharing the house refrigerator with my sister and her 23 year old daughter, allowing me space for only 2 gallon jugs of milk in addition to my normal refrigerated stuff. Now I can easily store 6-8 gallons.

I had to drive to North Carolina to fetch it, a 2 hour drive across the mountain from here, but well worth my time and gas. I had thought to use it either as a second cheese cave, or more likely a curing chamber for sausages and other charcuterie (which cannot go in the cheese cave due to potential cross-contamination of cultures)... but it is one inch too wide to fit in the root cellar. 

It's really too large for my cramped living quarters too (I had to put it in the small room that I use as the "office"), but it will do... and the price was right: she paid it forward!

Finally! Turning an Old Fridge into my Cheese Cave

This is about the most frustrating project I've ever tackled, partially because the refrigerator I got is very old and was nasty with mold and rust. The photo above (taken in front of my root cellar) was snapped after I removed the doors, the door gaskets, door storage panels, and wet fiberglass insulation from the doors.

Many of the newer refrigerators have a door sealing gasket that either pushes into a slot in the door, or is magnetic. Not so this old model. The gasket was held in place by preformed galvanized metal strips and a gazillion rusty sheet metal screws.

The carcass body got scrubbed, bleached, exterior sanded, and spray-painted. The main reason I went to all this aggravation and trouble is the cooling mechanism in this old refrigerator. Notice the aluminum grid at the back of the main compartment? It is much more efficient than having the coolant run through tubing in the walls like newer refrigerators do.

Here's the naked door panels after I sanded rusty spots and spot-painted Rust-Oleum on the insides. Somehow I have lost the photo of the metal strips that hold the door gaskets in place. Sorry.

I trimmed the soggy fiberglass insulation away, and added new insulation. I am very disappointed that I could not get the rust stains off the flexible door gaskets, even after soaking in a strong bleach solution. An old toothbrush and a powdered bleach cleanser scrubbed all the mold out of the folds in the gaskets but wouldn't touch the rust stains. However, at least I know it is clean and sterilized!

My original plan was to reinstall the original inside door panels but I had so much difficulty getting the cleaned gaskets back in place that for now I opted to just add a vapor barrier over the insulation. My sister works for a company that makes reefers (refrigerated food trailers) and I got a 30' x 8' roll of FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) that's approved for food use. When I have time, I'll cut flat panels to fit inside both doors under the gaskets.

 
Much of the work took place either on the covered front porch (all of the work on the doors), or after putting the refrigerator body in the root cellar to protect it from rain. I think I spent more $$ on all the various screw replacements and spray paints than I did for the refrigerator!

I had to remove the door to the root cellar to work on getting the refrigerator put back together because the old door opens the wrong way. So now I'm looking for a used exterior wood door with the opposite hand, and will put up with the inconvenience in the interim. I'd love a new insulated metal door but the height of the opening in the concrete block is too short, and only a wood door can be cut down easily.

Here's the shelf I built next to the refrigerator to hold the mini wine chiller I'm using to age blue cheese types, plus other storage items.

And here's the "Blues Mini-Cave" above with a Stilton aging in it.

And here's some of my cheese, now in the cave. The jar on the top shelf is Feta cheese, and the wood shelves are kiln-dried cherry. Sorry the photo is poor quality; I was standing in the root cellar doorway and that's as far away as I can get.

This is the digital control I got to keep the big refrigerator at "cave aging" temperatures. Now I need to work on a humidifier! For now the cheese aging in there is all vacuum-sealed so humidity control is not a problem, but when I start to do natural rind cheese wheels it will become very important.

I finally ripped more cherry to extend the shelves most of the way to the door. I had to drill a hole in the door to insert the temp. probe, as it was leaking air if placed over the top of the door and deforming the gasket.


All that remains now is a replacement door, cleaning up the mess inside the root cellar, and the hope the refrigerator works a few months or more. (If it doesn't, I now know exactly how a refrigerator is constructed and could probably build one!)



Update 7/15: It's all working just fine and I don't even need a new door to the root cellar. A neighbor helped me get the refrigerator up against the wall by using a crowbar to get the back feet up over a lump in the concrete around the incoming water pipes.

Making 'Stilton' Cheese

I say I'm making 'Stilton' because Stilton is a "protected name" cheese and by law, can only be made in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire in England. A similar tasting cheese made elsewhere cannot really be called a 'Stilton'.

As I'm writing this, I am starting on my third try to make a 'Stilton'. The photos are from the first two tries, both of which unfortunately ended up in the garbage bin due to being out of town longer than I expected.

The process of heating the milk with added cream, adding cultures (with blues that means including penicillin roqueforti to give it the blue veining), adding rennet, allowing the curds to set... is pretty much like making most types of cheese. The temperatures and time are a bit different, and so is the draining of the whey and the steps following the draining.

The first attempt was the night in late April when the tornadoes hit close by. I was following the instructions online when the cable went out, so I did the best as I could remember of the instructions until we got service again in 2 days. I decided to keep the cheese, partly because of the cost of all the ingredients and partly as my "practice" blue cheese.

Within 5 days, my 'Stilton' had developed the beginning of a nice blue fuzz on the surface and it was time to put it in the cave. There is a step I didn't do, which is smoothing the rind before putting it in the cave. By the time I got online to the instructions again, the cheese was too dry. (You may be able to see some evidence of the chunky rind in the photo above.)

This photo above is my second try at Stilton, this time with the recipe and instructions printed out! The photo taken after smoothing, but shows a bit of blue growth even through the smoothing which smooshed most of it down... and it's now ready for the cave. Looks a bit like a birthday cake, doesn't it?

If you have never made a 'Stilton' you may not know the rind usually develops a tan-ish color after a few weeks as the blue dies off at the surface. The photo above is my first 'Stilton' attempt, photo at 26 days, and it was developing nicely. You can really see by the chunky look how it was not smoothed early in the process, but in the end it probably would not affect the taste. At this point, it is ready to be pierced, which allows oxygen to travel to the interior so the blue veining can grow. A close look at the photo should show a couple of the pierced holes.

When I came home from my recent over-extended trip and checked the 2 'Stiltons' in the cave, they had become contaminated with bugs because I accidentally left the lid slightly ajar. Both wheels went into the garbage, but first I sliced the one I had pierced, to see how the veining was progressing. I was very pleased!

In fact, I was pleased enough that I'm now working on my 3rd attempt while I'm writing this. I finally have adjusted the mini wine cooler a friend gave me to the temps needed to age blue cheese, so I should have no more worries about contamination or bugs.

Stiltons require aging at about 55ºF for 90 days, and humidity around 90% or higher. Keeping the humidity high may be a problem in the wine cooler; it doesn't seem to go up even with a pan of water in it, so the wheel may have to be in a closed tupperware container inside the cooler, and come out and allowed to breathe once a day. (The blue veining needs oxygen to grow,)

Here it is, ready for the "cave"... it is still pretty soft. Wish me luck!

Mini Retort for Charcoal/Ash

I'm in the planning stages for making a variety of cheeses, and getting my list together of ingredients like starter cultures, aroma-producing bacterial and yeast additives, colorings, and even some ash used in a goat cheese like Humboldt Fog. (Who could resist a name like that?) Ash is basically activated charcoal, and easy to make at home in a semi-retort. One less thing to buy!

In the chemical industry, a retort is an airtight vessel in which substances are heated for a chemical reaction producing gaseous products to be collected in a collection vessel or for further processing. A retort is also used to make charcoal to burn in a small forge. I have a homemade retort for making charcoal, which I inoculate and use as biochar for my garden. However, it is a 30 gallon drum inside a 55 gallon drum... far too large for making ash for cheese, and I really does not capture the gases to use as fuel for the burn in process. (That type of process is described here.)

What I want for making food-grade ash is a miniature retort-style container that will drive off the gases and totally char the wood inside. Then I can grind the char into a powder via a spare coffee grinder for later use in my cheese. 

I bought a new, clean paint can, quart-size. (I may need to upgrade to a gallon size after I see how this works.)

The wood of choice for this type of ash is a fruit or nut wood or grape vines, and I had some branches available from pruning an apple tree. They do not have to be totally dry although that is best; green wood cuttings just have a higher moisture content that will still be driven off, just requiring more time and fuel for the fire itself. The retort needs to be stacked as tightly as possible to eliminate a lot of oxygen (which creates pressure inside the can when heated) from the get-go. Then the lid needs a small hole to let the heated gases escape (and prevent the can from blowing up!). I made a 3/8" hole, which may be too large, but I won't know until I try it.

Now it's prepared for the next time I build a fire, when I will put the tightly closed can on the fire/logs/coals so that I can watch the vent. When the can contents get red hot, the vent hole will start to smoke, and soon the smoke will turn to white. The water content will start to be driven off at 212ºF, and the wood will start to char at around 500ºF. After some time, maybe an hour or more depending on the temp of the fire and the moisture content inside the can, the white smoke will stop entirely, indicating all the volatile gases have been driven off.

The next step after you think the wood had charred sufficiently, is remove the can from the fire with fireplace gloves or tongs and set on a fireproof surface to cool at least 24 hours. Now it should be ready to crush and grind to a powder.

Later: I finally 'fired' the can of twigs, with only moderate success. Here just above you can see the fine smoke beginning to trail out of the hole in the can lid.

I apparently did not have either a hot-enough fire, or too small a fire... the twigs charred appropriately on the bottom, but not all the way up to the top, even though I left them on the burning briquettes and embers overnight.

Now that I'm thinking about that particular fire, I remember I used briquettes from the same bag last fall for my first cold smoking, and they produced only a very short-lasting heat. When the briquettes became covered with ash, they cooled considerably. To fully char these apple twigs, I'll apparently need build a hot wood fire to char the apple twigs.

If all else fails, I can always buy ash, but I'm NOT giving up yet!

Making Neufchâtel Cheese

Actually it is American Neufchâtel, which is a low-fat cream cheese. I plan to make cheesecake with my American Neufchatel, but it also makes a good base for adding herbs or garlic to use as a spread. (Real Neufchâtel is a soft, slightly crumbly, mould-ripened cheese made in the region of Normandy in France. It looks similar to camembert, with a dry, white, edible rind, but the taste is saltier and sharper.) 

The recipe is very simple:

2 gallons of skim milk

1 cup cultured buttermilk or yogurt or raw milk clabber (I used non-fat buttermilk)

1/4 tsp. liquid rennet (or half a rennet tablet dissolved in 1/4 cup cool distilled water)

Whisk buttermilk until thin, and whisk in the rennet. Then whisk the mixture into the milk. Allow to set at about 72ºF for 10-12 hours. I started mine in the evening so it could mature overnight... otherwise I'd be doing the draining well into the night!

Curds after overnight maturation. Notice the yellow whey gathering on top.

Soft Curds (partial amount) Draining

The next morning, ladle the curds into a butter-muslin (or fine cheesecloth) lined colander and allow to drain. You might have to scrape the inside of the muslin as the curds will form a film that slows or even stops the draining.

When it has drained the consistency you want, put the curds in a big bowl and add salt one teaspoon at a time, tasting until you get the flavor you like. I added just 2 teaspoons of salt, which is barely salty enough for my taste. (I will adjust if necessary when I make the cheesecake.) Salt keeps the cheese from tasting too bland, and helps it keep longer. 

Wrap in waxed paper or recycled plastic food containers and refrigerate. My 2 gallon batch weighed 53.3 oz., or 6½ packages of store-bought cream cheese only better, and without additives to thicken it.

Feta, Take 3

I am determined to make good feta! Actually the 2 batches I have made previously have tasted just fine, but melted into the brine after just a day or three in the refrigerator. That is NOT how feta should store!

I didn't do anything different with the 'make' of this third feta, it is the same recipe as here. What I did do differently (based on input from other cheesemakers who initially had the same problem) was twofold. For one, I let the curds drain for 24 hours in the bag, as opposed to 3-4 hours in most recipes.

Secondly, after the cheese was cut into slabs from the hunk above, I salted it and left it at room temps for 3 days to harden. (See photo at top.)

Half-gallon jar with feta slabs, ready for chilled brine

Then I made a batch of light brine with whey as the liquid, and covered the cheese. I added 3 mL calcium chloride to the half-gallon of brine, in addition to 400 grams of salt.

So far, so good! The brine is not clear because I used whey and not water, but if my 'advisors' are correct, this feta should keep for months if I don't eat it all first (which is likely with warm weather produce coming on; I love feta on salads).

Update: I made the feta on April 22, and put in the brine April 26. So far it is holding well!!

Cheese Glue

The one really nasty part for me about making cheese is the clean-up. Not only are there a lot of pots, utensils, colanders, strainers, molds and cheesecloth... they are incredibly hard to clean if the whey or any of the bits of curd are allowed to dry on them.

Thus I began to wonder about the glue possibilities using cheese, and discovered cheese glue been around for centuries. In fact, casein (milk proteins mixed with lime) is known as the strongest natural glue! The Egyptians used it for furniture joints, and the Romans used it for gluing broken statuary back together.

There is, however, one caveat: Do not use it in damp places. Under prolonged dampness, the glue begins to soften, and smell like very ripe camembert. (It can become a liquid, smelly mess and seep out of the joints if enough moisture is present.)

As I understand it, the process of making cheese glue is very similar to making milk paint, but finding any real recipes proved hard. Some say to use the curd, others say to use the whey. Here's a man looking to make a cheese glue for violins.... and here's a recipe for a non-toxic glue from powdered milk.

Making Cheese again...

My newest cheese!

After a long 2-3 weeks with bronchial pneumonia and feeling like crap, I'm beginning to think I may live and I'm starting doing a few non-arduous tasks, like making cheese.

I had visitors from Maryland today, very old friends I have not seen in many years. The visit was too short, of course. I didn't feed them as I had planned (due to no energy), but I did drag out 3 of my new homemade cheeses from the cheese cave... they absolutely raved about the Thyme Caerphilly (top photo above), and liked the Lancashire (shown just above) a little better than just okay (but it really needs to age another month to be decent) and the lemongrass Caerphilly didn't get warmed to room temp to taste, so it went home with them (as did the others).

They also raved about the Humboldt Fog (goat cheese, shown on the right in the photo above), which came from California. I bought a slice to try when I went to Roanoke last month, to taste before deciding if I wanted to make it, and I have to agree it's one of the very best store-bought cheeses I've ever tasted. (so far!)

To date, everyone who has tasted my thyme cheese has raved, so I needed to make another wheel. I thought it was pretty good myself, but I just figured I'm prejudiced since I made it. Faye thought I ought to be selling it... pretty good accolades from someone who lives just outside DC and has every kind of food imaginable at hand, plus a fairly sophisticated palate to boot!

Here's the newest Caerphilly thyme wheel I started yesterday after my company left. It's just out of the overnight press, on Easter morning as I'm writing this. Now it goes in a salt brine for 6 hours, then air dries before going in the cave. Currently it weighs 2.5 pounds, so it should cure/age out around 2 pounds.

I also started yet another batch of feta several days ago. My first 2 batches tasted fine but didn't hold up to storing in brine in the refrigerator. They should keep well for months in a refrigerated brine, but mine turned to mush. I've talked with several cheesemakers who had the very same initial problem, and I'm following their remedies with this newest batch.

As my health and spring weather both continue to improve, I'll get my garden off to its late start and squeeze in cheesemaking when I can.

I plan my first 'Stilton' soon, a repayment for the friend who gave me the mini wine cooler to use as an aging cave for blue cheeses. I will likely post in detail about making it, as it will be my first blue cheese!