Hippychick's Gardens

ingredients

• 1 1/2 gallons of raw milk (if available)
• ta61 thermophilic starter – 1/8 teaspoon
• organic vegetable rennet - just short of a 1/4 teaspoon (diluted in 1/8 cup chlorine free water)
• lipase - just short of 1/4 teaspoon (diluted in 1/8 cup chlorine free water)
• home grown, smoked and dried chipotle peppers - ground to a fine powder
• smoked sea salt

• in a clean cup mix 1/4 cup of chlorine free water with 1/4 teaspoon of lipase - mix and set aside. lipase takes a good 15-20 minutes to dissolve in water
• in a clean cup mix 1/4 cup of chlorine free water with 4 drops liquid rennet or 1/2 tablet of rennet - mix and set aside
• in a container larger enough to hold your pressed cheese, add 1 cup of smoked sea salt to 2 cups of water. stir until salt is fully dissolved and set aside. this is your finishing salt bath.
  
• line a colander with high quality cheese cloth (note store bought cheese cloth is too loose a weave).
• place the colander over a larger sized pot or a large sized bowl. the bowl will catch the whey when straining the curds. a good note is to use a bowl or container that can catch as much liquid as you use milk - 1 gallon, 2 gallon, etc.
  
• prepare a hot water bath set up – set a smaller pot (*1 gallon sized) in a larger pot (*2 gallon sized) – place water in the large pot – place milk in the small pot.
  

*use pots sized to those that you have on hand

• heat milk to 90?f - use a cheese or candy thermometer to measure
  
• turn heat off and remove pot from heat
  
• add 1/8 teaspoon of ta61 thermophilic starter
• stir in starter for 2 minutes using a non-reactive spoon
  
• cover and let set for 30 minutes
• stir in lipase/water solution for 1 minute
• cover and let set for 5 minutes
  
• stir in rennet for 3 minutes (If using store bought milk you need stir only 2 minutes)
• stir in 1 tablespoon of fine ground *chipotle pepper - modify amount for your own taste.

*i grow, smoke and dry my own. you can purchase dried chipotle peppers at a local market and grind them down in a coffee grinder. Remove the stem and seeds from the dried peppers. Break the peppers up into penny sized pieces. Set your coffee grinder to the espresso/fine setting, then grind them up.

ps. i am saving my seeds for next year's peppers

• cover and let set for 35 - 45 minutes or until the curd gives a clean break
• with a clean knife, cut the curd to 1/4 inch sized cubes.
• heat the curds to 100?f slowly increasing the temperature by 2? every 5 minutes. slowly stir your curds throughout this process. this is a good time to think or to relax quietly or ponder something deep.
• when the curds reach 100?f, remove from heat but keep stirring for another 30 minutes to maintain temperature and to keep curds from matting.
• set the curds aside for 15 minutes to rest.
• drain curds from whey
• once the curds are fully drained gently mix in the pepper bits to the curds - gently gently
• line a cheese press with fresh cloth and load curds into press
• press curds at 10lbs pressure for 10 minutes
• remove cheese from press, flip it over, reload cloth and cheese into press
• press curds at 10lbs pressure for 10 minutes
• remove cheese from press, flip it over, reload cloth and cheese into press
• press curds at 40lbs pressure for 12 hours
• remove cheese from the mold
• remove cheese cloth
• place cheese into smoke sea salt bath and set aside for 24 hours - flip the cheese every 4 hours or flip the sealed container every four hours - whichever works for your set up
• remove cheese from sea salt bath and set aside to air dry for 3-5 days flipping the cheese each day.*
  

*wrap loosely in a cloth if you have kiddos, pets or counter investigating creatures about. best to place cheese on a wood cutting board. the wood absorbs moisture.

• once the cheese has formed a rind, wax cheese
• allow the cheese to age for 3-6 months
• enjoy

waterbath set up - note the large post hosting the smaller pot - the larger pot is filled with enough water so as to surround the smaller pot but not so much as to over flow. the smaller post hosts the milk.

cut curds now floating in whey - notice the pepper bits mixed into the curds - i am a fan of the golden whey

drained curds now ready for the press

the humble cheese press
the big finish
cotswald on the left and the smokedly chipotle cheese on the right

up next
cotswald herb-ed cheese!