#cheese-making

Both.

The Butterwells would have owned cattle themselves, but only as many as they could run on the lands they owned directly. When it comes to land held in tenancy by their peasants, the cattle on those lands would most likely be owned by the tenants, although it wasn't unknown for peasants to rent livestock from their landlords.

Whether milk and cream were produced for market would have depended a lot on how close the farms were to towns and other commercial towns - if you were a day or less' travel away from a major population center, then selling milk and cream made economic sense.

A rustic god of useful arts, including, but not limited to, bee-keeping, cheese-making, hunting, herding, and olive-growing. Also known as “the pastoral Apollo”

Son of Apollo and Cyrene

Comté cheese, made in the Franche-Comté region of France, is one of the most popular cheeses in France.  This cheese in known for its nutty, buttery flavor.  Additionally, because it melts very easily and is very creamy when melted, Comté is often used in fondues.  Because Comté is not easy to find in the United States, many have compared the taste to a mild Gruyère or Fontina and use these as substitutes.  This hard, long-lasting cheese is a perfect addition to a cheese tray, homemade fondue, potato gratin or a gourmet burger.

The process of making Comté is extremely specific, which is one reason for the multitude of complex flavors.  After the cheese is put in a mold, it matures in special cellars for anywhere between four months to two years.  In 1958, Comté became one of the first cheeses to receive AOC (Appellation d’origine contrôlée) certification.  This means that cheese made similarly outside of the Franche-Comté region cannot be legally called Comté cheese.  Additionally, there are regulations on the production and sale of Comté.  The best wheels of this cheese are given a green label and can bare the AOC whereas lesser wheels are given the inferior brown label and can be sold grated. Similarly, this cheese is only produced from a certain bread of cow, the “Montbéliarde”, because fat content is different with various breads of cattle.  By law, the cows must also be grass-fed because the alpine flora they consume imparts the taste of the local land on the milk.  Therefore, Comté is well-known for its distinct terroir, or distinct features such as smell and taste that it derives from the environment and traditional methods of it’s production.

You can learn all about this artisanal cheese, terroir and the AOC system on a Culinary Immersion Sojourn during which you get to visit: the sub-alpine pastures to see what the cows graze on (and the beautiful views), a creamery to watch the cheese-making process, and a maturing cellar where you taste the difference that aging and seasons make on the flavor of the cheese.

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There’s something deeply satisfying about making a food that you previously only bought from the grocery store or farmers’ market. I’m not talking about bread or soup, though they’re gratifying in their own right, but food you simply believed had to be made by someone else with more skill and expertise and courage than you. While living in Europe, I loved visiting the cheese stalls at the farmers’ markets to buy the fresh cheeses offered: logs of farmer’s cheese, wheels of chevre, fresh mozzarella swimming in brine. Surely making it required special tools and years of training. 

My mind was blown when I pulled up a chair at a cheese-making seminar held, in all places, at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle. In less than an hour, Claudia Lucero, author of One-Hour Cheese and founder of Urban Cheesecraft, showed us that we need not fear cheese-making in our own kitchens. To prove it, she whipped up several wheels of what she calls Beginner’s Cheese. The audience was rapt. (I noticed at one point I was leaning forward watching the demo and holding my breath.)

So I bring you the recipe for Beginner’s Cheese below, but first a few notes:

Good cheese starts with, obviously, good milk. Lightly pasteurized is fine, but ultra-pasteurized (common in grocery stores) is not. Raw milk, if you can get it and accept the warnings that come with it, is supposed to be best. I went to the University District Farmers’ Market for a good gallon of locally produced milk.

Beginner’s Cheese is a crumbly cheese, not a creamy one. Crumble it on salads, pizza, tacos, or fresh tomato slices. Smoosh it on bread or pita.

When you’re done with this simple cheese, you can add dried edible flowers, herbs, honey, cracked pepper, spices, olive oil on top. I’m planning to add pesto to the next batch I make. The olive oil will help preserve it while the pesto punches up its flavor.

Beginner’s Cheese

Ingredients:

1 quart (4 cups) cow’s milk, any type (not ultra-pasteurized) 1/8 cup vinegar (white, white wine, or apple cider) or 1/8 cup lemon or lime juice ¼ teaspoon salt to taste (sea salt) Ground pepper and/or herbs of your choice, dry or fresh will work

Supplies:

2-quart saucepan or stockpot Slotted spoon or small mesh strainer 1-quart bowl Cheesecloth (butter muslin, which is finer than the very loose weave cheesecloth commonly found in grocery stores)

Steps:

Pour the milk into the saucepan and heat it on medium as you stir. Look for foam bubbles around the inside edges of the pot and little simmer bubbles—not a rolling boil, but close.

When you see the bubbles, start slowly pouring in the vinegar (you might not need it all) and stir gently until you see coagulation: the clear separation of curds (white solids) and whey (clearish liquid).

When you see coagulation and the liquid no longer looks like plain milk, turn the heat to low and stir the curds very, very gently as you cook them for two more minutes.

Turn off the heat and use the slotted spoon or strainer to scoop the curds into the mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth leaving behind in the saucepan as much whey as possible.

Add salt and pepper (and herbs, if you’d like) and stir them quickly into the curds.

Gather up the cheese in the cloth and gently squeeze out any remaining whey and shape the cheese into a small wheel.

Set on a plate and add dried edible flowers or more herbs on top and enjoy. You've just made cheese!

Here’s what the coagulating cheese looks like. Notice the steam swirling above the pot. 

Here's a link to Claudia’s book, One Hour Cheese, which I bought because I’m serious about this cheese-making journey and I love it when the author is willing to sign my copy. Claudia’s book gives recipes for paneer, lemon mozzarella, (something I ate in Italy last summer and still dream about), ricotta, chevre, burrata, and more. What makes the book such a gem is that Claudia illustrates each step in the process with a full color photo. I’ll be working through these recipes in the coming months and will share the results here.

I guess if I’m really passionate about this I would set out to climb this mountain of mine regardless of obstacles, and having a focused outlet helps to organise my thoughts (yay for blogs!). But I despair at all the things I will never have time for, because of the limit of a human lifetime and the restrictions of necessary economic self-sufficiency. In no way does this despair convince me to give up, but I’m worried that it may spur me to a panicked frenzy, to start with as many projects as I think I can handle, then having too much on my plate and not giving individual missions appropriate attention.

There are so many good places that produce amazing wine, I think I may not be able to make my own but I would love to travel to all them.

One of the scariest and most adrenaline-inducing activities. Skydiving is next…

So much fun! :) Hmm… maybe I should keep a horse some day too.

Besides this preoccupation that is immediately recognisable in me (not having stayed in one place for long the last couple of years), there are other things that I want to experiment with now, for which I need a more permanent “base of operations”. Changing cities every 6 months – 2 years is awesome, and great for adventure and personal growth, it’s conducive to learning new languages; however, it’s not practical for cheese-making, beer-brewing and keeping a vegetable garden. It absolutely rules out keeping livestock for milk. ;)

Picture by southern foodways alliance under Creative Commons

Basically a sea slug, but they’re gorgeous! There are so many little creatures all over the reef.

Admittedly I probably will never be in a position to keep a cow or a couple of goats, but I’m absolutely serious about my passions. Not only do I want to try these things out, I want to be successful… I may never be an award-winning artisan cheese maker, but I want to be able to eat & enjoy what I make, as well as know enough to tweak and adapt recipes on a whim. In addition to being a surprisingly psychedelic experience, scuba diving taught me to be calm instead of panicking, and that small details can be as beautiful as the bigger picture. I’m counting on that experience when I go skydiving :)

Picture by ZUU mumu entertainment under Creative Commons

Picture by Kathryn Decker licensed under Creative Commons

Picture by Joe Nilsson, licensed under Creative Commons Yoga and meditation feel like they balance me out; so cool!

I have done some martial arts before, though I never persisted for long enough; now I want to do Krav Maga, and yoga. Meditation is fantastic and ‘floating’ is transcendent… I want to know how to gut a fish and hunt my own meat. I want to meet people who are passionate about something. I want to know about people’s lives, what motivates them and what it is they’ve always dreamed of doing. I want to discuss with people their culture, in their own language; when I was practicing Chinese every day, people who were usually more reserved suddenly seemed outspoken and sanguine about their lives and about experiences they wanted me to share. I want to eat strange & interesting food, perhaps learn how to make it myself – my newly found excitement for making my own cheese, peanut butter, honey etc is definitely thanks to Kiernan’s love of cooking and his encouragement of my paltry skills in the kitchen. I want to hear about people’s tragedies and what helped them to pick themselves back up! Traveling has been an amazing way to meet different people with widely different stories – it is humbling to talk to those who have achieved more than me and built on that, or even lost it all. It shows up cultural, social and personal prejudices and teaches you to see yourself in a more gentle light as you learn to accept and love all those people you come across along the way. The African proverb “I am, because we are” grows into a bigger and bigger truth.

There are too many awesome places to see; camping is a super fun way to travel.

Some of the most interesting food I’ve tried. It smells atrocious, but it tastes pretty good. Bring it on… I want more.

Traveling is a way of life, and an amazing one. It has its challenges, but for some of us it is inevitable.

I used to know how to play some classical guitar songs, and I can probably still fiddle with scales; this memory triggers a need to play violin or to become proficient at reading music again. Teri inspired me when she started practicing on a drum set in Taiwan, and soon after picked up a ukulele on a whim and got quite good at it. I hear of people who teach themselves music or new languages – wow!

I want to experience life in every dimension, even if I can’t explain where my mind has been…

Picture by ZUU mumu entertainment under Creative Commons

Picture by southern foodways alliance under Creative Commons

Picture by Sunny Ripert under Creative Commons

Picture by Kathryn Decker licensed under Creative Commons

Picture by Joe Nilsson, licensed under Creative Commons Yoga and meditation feel like they balance me out; so cool!

Basically a sea slug, but they’re gorgeous! There are so many little creatures all over the reef.

Mozambique & South Africa’s Sodwana have stunning spots. At the Galapagos you can apparently scuba dive while the hammerhead shark migrations move through.

There are too many awesome places to see; camping is a super fun way to travel.

So much fun! :) Hmm… maybe I should keep a horse some day too.

One of the scariest and most adrenaline-inducing activities. Skydiving is next…

Another kind of tasty tasty tea!

Some of the most interesting food I’ve tried. It smells atrocious, but it tastes pretty good. Bring it on… I want more.

I have never (not yet) tasted a bad cheese; I want to make some… Maybe some honey-goat cheese… :)

So many different kinds of tea, and the way Paraguayan people make mate-ing a social institution is so cool.

There are so many good places that produce amazing wine, I think I may not be able to make my own but I would love to travel to all them.

I’ve recently discovered how tasty beer can be – mead is golden deliciousness, and IPA’s are refreshing! Lambic and cider can be crisp :) So now I want to make my own!

Traveling is a way of life, and an amazing one. It has its challenges, but for some of us it is inevitable.

Basically huge dumplins and ground beef-potato-peas filling.