nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Cheesemaking in a water bath

crkoller

@Grant_lee_crilly you mentioned that you have made cheese curds in water baths and CVaps before and I would love if you could elaborate on the process (and as I dont own a CVap - info using a water bath would be the most helpful). ]

As I recently found out making ricotta is easy because you can just bag it and strain it, for more medium to firm cheeses I am assuming you clap a hotel pan to the side of the water bath and go from there to start procuding the curds? I am pretty new to cheesemaking and also am curious if the slow increase of temperature from the bath will effect the final product as well, as opposed to on a stove where you can really put the spurs to the milk until it comes up to temperature.

If anyone has any experience/recipes/warnings that they want to shuttle my way it would all be much appreciated, I am a pizza fanatic and once it warms up I am going to build an oven for my yard and ideally I would be making my own mozzarella for it because living in the south the mozza down here just doesn't really cut it....

Thanks

Chris

Find more posts tagged with

Recipes Q's

Comments

grant

You are on track with the hotel pan in the water bath. The slow and steady heat from the bath is actually much better than hight watt density from the bottom of the pot. Once the rennet starts its work you want steady precise heat with no convection. Then you cut the curds, turn the heat up and mix gently. Your temp, time and bacteria will determine the kind I curds you will get then ultimately eh kindof cheese you will have. But the basic curds for almost all cheeses are the same starting procedure. I will get back into making basic fresh mozzarella and put a how to video together. I think that is 3 weeks out as Chris and I are traveling to the Carolinas next week.

crkoller

Sweet, thanks so much @grant_lee_crilly! I just order a PS Professional from the ChefSteps shop so once it gets here in April I will give this method a try. Where and what are you guys doing in the Carolinas?

Chris_Young_80640

@chris koller — Grant and I run a course for the faculty of Johnson and Wales University. We're working with them to bring this content into their classrooms.

crkoller

Oh that's awesome, glad to hear that the south is receptive to new food technology. Maybe you can also bring some warmer weather with you?

Chris_Young_80640

Like we have warm weather in Seattle to bring with us??

crkoller

In all the video it looks pretty bright and sunny to me...but point well taken haha

Jack_Mayer_85396

low 80's in Dallas the next few days! but we really pay for it in the summer ...

Tim_Sutherland_52834

... the joy of Dallas weather. My first winter here 78F on Sunday getting a suntan on the deck, Tuesday 2" of snow on the ground, city shut down for two days.

Jack_Mayer_85396

yup @Tim - when the winter weather hits, the approach is "just wait, it'll warm up!"

crkoller

you guys are killing me haha

ParkerCook_66639

Come to Rexburg, Idaho. 3 feet of snow and school doesn't get cancelled. That'll put hair on your toes.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I grew up in Calgary. I have had 3 snow days total growing up. Move to Virginia, there's snow days if the forecast calls for more than 2 inches. Go figure.

tuckatodd

I live in MN. What's a snow day!!! HaHa!!

seijoed

I don't think I've ever had a snow day in Sweden...

We usually didn't break out a snowblower until it hit 2m or more.

I know they closed school once when someone "experimented" with smoke and esters in the ventilation system, I still have no idea who came up with that clearly dangerous idea.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I bet it got chilly in Sweden. I think the coldest I remember is about -30C and i'm not sure what the wind chill would have brought it down to.

seijoed

Stockholm was often cold, around -15-25C - the humidity with it being on water was worse, -40 wasn't uncommon where my grandparents lived, isn't that bad inland since it is dry, you want to cover up well and it is harder to breathe but it isn't horrible if you dress right - like in military snow gear.

Brendan_Lee_56950

yeah, I always tell my wife you can always put more layers off but when it's 102F outside and 99% humidity you can only take so many layers off until you get arrested.

seijoed

Last summer we hit 116 in ATL when I was there, I discovered the sheer joy of driving a car with in seat air-cond and oversize cargo shorts.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I would just stay inside. I'm miserable in the dead of summer here.

seijoed

I like our summers here, we tend to stay around 90-95 but high desert so zero humidity, with my long flowing bangs I need to wear a hat though, you get a tan insanely quick at altitude.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Yeah, I miss the dry heat. Humidity kills me.

seijoed

The climate here is "funny" we had a snow storm 2-3 days ago, I was out riding the bike today, you can actually go skiing in the morning and golfing in the afternoon. Hiking is just plain fantastic, so much to see, so much to experience and do. I miss the coast a little bit but mountains really do make up for it.

jimbasara

I tried mozz in the sous vide supreme and the curds came out great. I think I'll make it this way from now on.

seijoed

Those look great!

jimbasara

Thanks. It worked really well. Curds were very light and fluffy and didn't come apart at all. Whey was very clear. I think having precise control on the temp made a huge difference. At least I'll have a use for the Sous Vide Supreme after I get a PolyScience:-)

tuckatodd

Maybe this was mentioned, but an induction burner would also work great. Which is my next plan when I make Mozz.

crkoller

@tucker, don't think its been mentioned, but that is a very smart idea

Sumit__65166

@chriskoller

i've an incubator. it's made by seb, and i bought it from amazon france. i make yoghurt every other weekend. it came with petite and cute little glass jars but i use my own 500ml jars and pyerx.

if i remember correctly, it has 2 temp settings 35c for cheese and 45c for yoghurt. i use cheese settings for both yoghurt and cheese. you can fit 1/2 gastronorm containers, and fits like a glove.

i've made mozzarella only 2 times. i've tried both 30mins and traditional mozzarella recipe (almost a whole day).

i think the 30min mozzarella taste was more like a cottage cheese. for traditional mozzarella, i used the recipe from artisan cheese making at home. i omitted calcium chloride because i use unhomogenised organic milk.

keen to hear what other have to say about brine. because the one i used, made the mozzarella very salty unless i stuffed up. however, i was able salvage it by removing the cheese from brine to leaving it in whey overnight.

on a side note, if you haven't already, i'd suggest to get a flora danica culture and you can make cultured buttermilk and creme fraiche at home. you can use creme fraiche to make cultured butter too.

all you need is pinch, and add this to room temp whole milk for buttermilk and pure cream for creme fraiche, and leave this at room temp for 16-20hrs.

jimbasara

Personally, I don't use brine for the same reason you mentioned. I use heavily salted water when stretching/forming and that seasons the cheese nicely.