Milk Alchemy and Cheese Queens

Cheesemaking is an ethereal science. You enter into it with a specific formula and enzymes but who knows what direction the chemical reactions will go. My friend Ira and I took up this insane science about a year ago.

We started out with cow's milk but then wanted to experiment with goat. But 95% of what you find in the supermarket has been ultrapasteurized which means the chemical structure of the milk has already been changed so drastically that it is useless for cheesemaking. We tried to find goat farms that would sell us milk directly but the law has it so that people are afraid to sell because of potential liability. We finally found a goat internship where we receive milk for labor.

On sunday, we had a surplus of milk since the goat owner was on vacation. We decided to try making mozzarella which is something new for us.. Ira's friend Kurt in the oakland hills has been making some mozzarella successfully with Cow's Milk so we went over to his place for instruction.

The newest trend in mozzarella is the 30-min version for instant gratification. In theory, you just heat the milk with citric acid and lipase then add rennet. Squeeze out the initial whey from the curd then microwave for a short period which helps extract the rest of the moisture.

But cheesemaking is finicky. You put in too much rennet or you heat just slightly too quickly or any other little variable changes the texture. We didn't end up with anything that looked like the mozzarella we set out to make but it's still tasty. That seems to happen 2 out of 3 times when making cheese. You end up with an unexpected product.

We really need a west coast cheese guru. On the east coast, Rikki Carrol is the cheese queen who seems to have a monopoly on cheesemaking supply and instruction. I'm surprised by the lack of cheese queens in the bay area. Yes, we have great commercial cheesemakers like Cowgirl Creamery or distributors like The Cheeseboard and Farmstead Cheese but no mentors for the homesteader I wonder who will end up with this title. Only time will tell. But we sure need someone to show us the alchemy of milk.