The answer was; as self reliant as possible.
My life so far has provided very few skills in terms of farming, animal husbandry, or self-sufficiency - so I quickly realised I had a long way to go before I could reach my goal.
This blog is intended (at least for the moment) as a record of my steps along this road, so that I can learn from my mistakes, and others can too, and mark my progress.
So to begin, I currently live in the centre of a city, in a basement flat with my sister. I work full time in a cheese sh
op, and enjoy knitting and reading in my spare time.
I took my first step today. Or, more accurately, I'm in the middle of taking my first step.
I'm attempting to make my own goats cheese. I suspect it will all end terribly.
I started with 1 litre of Goats Milk, 1 tub of Goats yogurt and 1 bottle of vege-ren. I'm a little disappointed that I can't start with proper cultures instead of using yogurt, but cost is restrictive. This morning I also bought some cheese cloths - at £4 a sheet I was rather annoyed to be told by my sister that muslin cloth (practically the same thing) is sold for around £1 a metre in the same shop... live and learn...
I should also have bought a sugar thermometer - the majority of the instructions I've read insist on one - but, even though it is jam making season, or perhaps because of it, I failed to find one.
I began by creating a double boiler - that is - I put my second biggest pan inside my biggest pan, filled the bigger with water and the smaller with milk and put it on the hob.
Into the milk I dropped two dollops of yogurt, and started heating.
When the milk was warm I sprinkled 10 drops (the recommended amount) of vege-ren.
It's been warming for about an hour now, and still no sign of curds - I've been trying to keep the milk at about hand hot temperature, with the water just below boiling. I stirred it almost constantly for the first 45 minutes, but I'm afraid my attention span isn't much longer than that.
After two hours the results were clear - I'm not sure if this was just about the time, or about the 10 extra drops I'd put in approximately 20 minutes earlier... (I'd miss read the instructions on the rennet). But I definitely had curds!
So I draped my large piece of cheese cloth over a bowl and poured all of the mixture in - when I'd bought the cheese cloth I'd also bought four small bags made out of the same material. They're meant for bouquet garni or some other such thing - but I wanted to see if they'd work with the cheese. I tried spooning curds and whey into one bag, and realised that this was a sure way to get milky goop all over the kitchen - so I hung the rest of the mixture up for about five minutes over the plastic bowl to drain.
I then realised how little cheese I actually had and decided it would be easier fridge-space-wise to try and put all of the curds in the little bags - they're drawstring, and so I could tie them to the wire shelves.
Theses are supposed to drain for a while now, but I'm not sure how ong for, since they're so small. I also forgot to salt them, which might be interesting. Considering that I know the two most important things in aged cheese that affect flavour are salt and moisture levels, these seem to be the things I've bothered least about. I will be tasting them tomorrow anyway, and I'll be interested to see how these home-made from pasteurised-homogenised-milk with yogurt starter will compare to the £8 goats cheese I shall be selling in the shop!
My life so far has provided very few skills in terms of farming, animal husbandry, or self-sufficiency - so I quickly realised I had a long way to go before I could reach my goal.
This blog is intended (at least for the moment) as a record of my steps along this road, so that I can learn from my mistakes, and others can too, and mark my progress.
So to begin, I currently live in the centre of a city, in a basement flat with my sister. I work full time in a cheese sh
op, and enjoy knitting and reading in my spare time.I took my first step today. Or, more accurately, I'm in the middle of taking my first step.
I'm attempting to make my own goats cheese. I suspect it will all end terribly.
I started with 1 litre of Goats Milk, 1 tub of Goats yogurt and 1 bottle of vege-ren. I'm a little disappointed that I can't start with proper cultures instead of using yogurt, but cost is restrictive. This morning I also bought some cheese cloths - at £4 a sheet I was rather annoyed to be told by my sister that muslin cloth (practically the same thing) is sold for around £1 a metre in the same shop... live and learn...
I should also have bought a sugar thermometer - the majority of the instructions I've read insist on one - but, even though it is jam making season, or perhaps because of it, I failed to find one.
I began by creating a double boiler - that is - I put my second biggest pan inside my biggest pan, filled the bigger with water and the smaller with milk and put it on the hob.
Into the milk I dropped two dollops of yogurt, and started heating.
When the milk was warm I sprinkled 10 drops (the recommended amount) of vege-ren.
It's been warming for about an hour now, and still no sign of curds - I've been trying to keep the milk at about hand hot temperature, with the water just below boiling. I stirred it almost constantly for the first 45 minutes, but I'm afraid my attention span isn't much longer than that.
After two hours the results were clear - I'm not sure if this was just about the time, or about the 10 extra drops I'd put in approximately 20 minutes earlier... (I'd miss read the instructions on the rennet). But I definitely had curds!
So I draped my large piece of cheese cloth over a bowl and poured all of the mixture in - when I'd bought the cheese cloth I'd also bought four small bags made out of the same material. They're meant for bouquet garni or some other such thing - but I wanted to see if they'd work with the cheese. I tried spooning curds and whey into one bag, and realised that this was a sure way to get milky goop all over the kitchen - so I hung the rest of the mixture up for about five minutes over the plastic bowl to drain.
I then realised how little cheese I actually had and decided it would be easier fridge-space-wise to try and put all of the curds in the little bags - they're drawstring, and so I could tie them to the wire shelves.
Theses are supposed to drain for a while now, but I'm not sure how ong for, since they're so small. I also forgot to salt them, which might be interesting. Considering that I know the two most important things in aged cheese that affect flavour are salt and moisture levels, these seem to be the things I've bothered least about. I will be tasting them tomorrow anyway, and I'll be interested to see how these home-made from pasteurised-homogenised-milk with yogurt starter will compare to the £8 goats cheese I shall be selling in the shop!
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