This morning, while making a cup of coffee at the office, I opened a little packet of half & half and saw that it had curdled.
It looked pretty interesting, not at all like curdled milk. I took a whiff and it had the unmistakable smell of cheese. I couldn’t quite remember which type though.
I found two brave souls that also took a whif and we all agreed that it smelled exactly like blue cheese.
Is this edible?
I have taken another packet of half & half, dated it and am planning to try and turn a corner of my office into a tiny cheese farm. I’m thinking 2 weeks should be enough time to let it curdle.
So how does one go about making cheese out of half & half so that it is edible? Is this possible? Don’t I need to add salt or something?
Thanks,
Yes, cheese would be salted. I had a similar experience with one of those ceramic butter containers that you leave out of the fridge. I wasn’t brave enough to try it either.
Hmm…if it smells like blue cheese, that would suggest some sort of bacterial contamination. Without knowing what kind of bacteria is present, and I somehow doubt penicillium roqueforti decided to randomly decend upon your half and half, I wouldn’t eat it. I don’t think you’ll die or get sick, but I’ve only made cheese from soured milk that doesn’t smell like cheese…it smells like, well, sour milk.
All you do is heat it up a little bit to help the curdling along (add some lemon juice if you’re milk isn’t curdled enough, but don’t overheat it), strain in a muslin cheesecloth, and hang to dry. You will then have something akin to cottage cheese.
I have a recipe from Jeff Smith (the Frugal Gourmet) almost identical to the one above, but using yogurt instead of milk. He likes this because it is lower in fat. However, I’ve been unable to turn up anything using half and half. But I say, eat it! Just don’t eat very much. But, hey, how would we ever get new food if not for enterprising souls like you?
IMHO, there’s a huge difference between strained-curdled-milk cheeses (e.g., panir and queso blanco) and real cheese. The former are easy to make; the latter fiendishly difficult. (My attempts were based on a book, but the info on this website is consistent with what my book said.) As for whether what you made is safe to eat, depends on the critters that curdled the milk. Unlikely to be fatal, but also probably not very tasty. As I say, culturing cheese is tricky, whereas fresh cheeses generally are not cultured.
Making cheese is not at all that difficult. If you can follow directions, you can make cheese. A bit of rennet, a thermometer, a cheese press, and you’re all set. A good place to check is New England Cheesemaking.
You can make a delightful blue-cheesy sauce by thoroughly mashing a few small pieces of roquefort or blue cheese in with a pint of cream, and leaving the covered mix to ripen overnight at room temperature. The cream gets thicker, and tastier, as the mold grows.
There’s a fancy french name for the stuff, but I no longer remember what it is.
As a matter of fact, pulykamell, I think that’s who I used. (Stuff in storage, so can’t check. BTW, the link didn’t work for me.) You’ll have to take my word for it that I’ve done some fairly tricky stuff. Indeed, this is about the only thing food-wise I’ve ever attempted that eluded me. Or perhaps I should say convinced me it was going to be more trouble to master than it was worth. Temperature management was particularly tough. Lack of access to raw milk also was a problem. In any event, I assume you’ll agree that cultured cheeses are more difficult than the panir-type cheeses.
Mozarella (which obviously does not require a mold), gouda (the easiest hard cheese to make, in my opinion), and cheddar. All came out fine. Used regular milk from the grocery. The only cheese that failed for me with Mozarella, the first time I made it. I ended up straining the curds and coming up with a really nice dry, cottage cheese.
How do you control temperature? As mentioned, the steady low-but-not-cold temp (fifty degrees, IIRC) was one of the things that I found very tricky. And, as you’ll notice, I live in a naturally cool climate.
For the curds and all that, I just used an electronic thermometer (you know, like the one Alton Brown uses.)
The temperature for the aging? I just waxed it, and stuck it in the fridge, and waited three weeks (for the Gouda) or six months (for the cheddar.)
Now, both these cheeses use simple mesophilic started cultures which I harvested from some buttermilk. I haven’t tried my hand on any of the blue cheeses or bries or anything that requires innoculation of specific molds, as I don’t have a climate-controlled environment to do those. Otherwise, I would assume one just needs to use a fridge with a thermostat and humidity control, and follow directions for turning the cheeses every once in awhile and wiping them with a damp salty cloth.
Thanks. I meant aging temp. Frankly, didn’t try the fridge. As I recall, the book says it’s too cold, but based on your experience perhaps it’s just not ideal. Maybe I’ll give it another whirl.
This is the Gouda recipe I used. There’s a decent cheddar recipe there, too, if you navigate up some menus. I used a modified coffee can and wood block with some dumbells as a makeshift cheesepress. Give it a shot. Make sure you wax your cheese, though. I didn’t the first time and I got an extremely dried-out cheese (which was usable if you grated it.)
