Ruby and I went apple picking at Wasem fruit farm with a group of my friends this afternoon. She seemed to enjoy herself, and I got to come home with a big bag of apples!
I brought my Nikon camera with me since I don’t take enough pictures. It was really sunny all afternoon, so I used a UV filter to take these photos. Note that you can click each picture to see larger versions.
Wasem Fruit Farm
Checking out the pumpkins at the front!
Ruby made a friend 🙂
Row upon row of apple trees.
In addition to apple picking, they also had pick-your-own raspberries.
Lai crouched down to pet Ruby, but Ruby had other ideas …
Cheddar is the most time-consuming cheese that I’ve made so far. I’ve made two now, and both times required about 9 hours of work before I could let it sit in the press.
What sets Cheddar apart from other cheeses is the “cheddaring” process, which pushes out as much whey as possible out of the cheese curd. This process makes for a very firm, dry (hard) cheese. Here is how it works: formed cheese curds are cut into “slabs” and layered on the bottom of the pot. The slabs are flipped every 15 minutes to push as much whey as possible out of the bottom of the stack. After 90 minutes, the stacks are milled into 1/2 inch cubes and heated again to push out even more whey.
Cheddar “slabs” stacked, but not criss-crossed.
Slabs are stacked on top of each other, doubling their height. They are flipped over every 15 minutes for the next 90 minutes.
The layers knit together as they are cooked and flipped.
Slabs cut into strips before cooking. I should have gone one step further and cut everything into cubes. Maybe next time …
At this point the cheese curds are very firm and rubbery, and must be pressed for about 36 hours to remove more whey and so the cubes can merge together. The exterior of the cheese was bumpy, which I’m not used to seeing. I’ve decided not to worry, since the interior was fairly smooth and solid. Cheddar needs to age for at least three months, so I won’t know how it really turned out until the beginning of December.
Cheddar cheese curds before pressing.
Cheese under 40 pounds of pressure. The weight pushes whey out of the cheese, making the final cheese both dryer and firmer.
Cheddar cheese that has been air dried for about 24 hours.
I had a new floor installed in my home to give me a chance to fix some water damage I had noticed (I’m pretty sure that’s how the chipmunk got in!). I needed to pull up the carpet in the dining room to patch the hole, and I decided to put down laminate flooring since carpet is a really good crumb trap. The install went well – I was completely floored by it! :P. Photos are in the slideshow below.
I blended everything together and heated the resulting “cashew goo” on my stove. This mixture was then poured into my cheese press to give it shape. Finally, the cheese was air-dried for a few days.
Cashew goo
Vegan cheddar “curds” in the cheese press
Vegan cheese that has been air dried for about three days.
I was happy with the turnout, but I would do a few things differently the next time I make this:
I doubled the recipe from the book, and I don’t think all the cashews were ground up in the second round of blending. Next time: I won’t double the recipe.
The yogurt I used was thinner than I was expecting (see Part 1). Next time: I’ll either buy soy yogurt from the store or spend more time focusing on the cashew yogurt so it thickens a bit more.
I noticed that I cooked some of the cheese to the bottom of my pot while heating. Next time: I’ll use a double boiler setup to distribute heat more evenly.
I only “pressed” the cheese on one side, leading to one smooth side and one rough side. Next time: I want to press for a few minutes on both sides.
The book told me to rub salt on the cheese before air drying, but I think this led to the cracks you see on the sides. Next time: I want to apply salt with a brine solution instead (I would normally do this with a dairy cheese)
