A few days ago Mom showed me how she makes mozzarella cheese. Yesterday she and I used up six gallons of milk in an afternoon making it. We started doing two gallons at a time (instead of one like the recipe calls for) in a bigger pot to save time and it seems to work just as well that way, not saying that it works well every time though. Now I'm looking forward to making other types of cheeses!
We do most of the heat treating in the microwave because it is faster and less messy but I did one double batch with the method of dipping it in the whey. The cheese turned out just as well for me that way as with the microwave but it took more time.
After I had done a few batches, Mom did one that turned out perfect! Really tasty. We've been keeping a record of how each batch turns out and what we did different so we can look back. There is still so many variables that it is hard to say what made the difference for sure, but Mom used less citric acid and one drop less rennet.
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A neighbor stopped by this afternoon and talked with us for a while. He likes to talk, but he did have something interesting to show us.
He works out in the oil fields in western ND and had brought back a little bottle of oil straight from the ground. It was runny, not thick at all or lumpy, and he said it stays runny even at negative 30 degrees.
He said it takes a month and three million dollars to drill an oil well but after that the money just rolls in. Somebody he met was making $1200 dollars a day from just letting an oil company put three rigs on their land and pumping. He also said that there is so much pressure in the ground they don't really do any pumping it just sprays out of the pipe system into their tanks.
The sample he had brought, he said would run in some tractors straight without any treatment needed. That would be nice! North Dakota doesn't really refine much oil so we don't get any lower gas prices by all the pumping.
Time to go get ready to milk,
Peter
4 comments:
Interesting Conversation you had with the oil person.
Can't wait to try your cheeses.
Gp B
You guys have a microwave? That doesn't seem very Bartlettish, let alone microwaving your milk for cheese - that destroys all the goodness of your raw milk.
Hi Heather,
Yes we do have a microwave. It sits most of the time un-plugged and unused. We are trying to get the cheese to turn out the same every time before we add another variable to the recipe.
For a while we had the microwave packed away with skull and crosbones marked all over the box after we found out what it does to the food, but we took it out again for some reason or other. When It's out it gets used!
Peter
LOL - I love the skull and crossbones on the box as that is what I feel about it too. :) I have to admit that I can't have one in the house or the simple convenience of it gets me lazy and not using my little oven, so I know what you are talking about.
You guys have done such a good job on the barn, the animals, the fencing, the house, electrical and everything else - how far you have come in those things!
HEather
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