Things we should be spending all of our money on:
Teleportation
Setting up a colony on another planet
Creating more absorbent paper towels
Teleportation
Setting up a colony on another planet
Creating more absorbent paper towels
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
How to make cream cheese
This post was scheduled to be "how to be happy", but I suppose anything to do with the making and eating of cheese is closely related to matters of happiness.
Cream cheese is the easiest of all of the cheeses to make. Why? Because it doesn't require you to slaughter a baby goat and harvest rennet (a mix of natural enzymes specially designed to digest the milk from the mother) from its stomach to separate the protein and fat from the whey. In fact, if you know a bit about how bacterial growth is effected by temperature changes, you can use good old yogurt culture from an unpasteurized store-bought yogurt.
The most important factors in creating the creamy texture the name cream cheese demands is temperature and timing. If you keep your cultured milk too warm for too long, you'll end up either with thick curds, more like cottage cheese, or a sour watery drink more like watered down yogurt. While both of these will still be edible, they will not be smooth, buttery, delicious cream cheese.
So before you begin, be sure you have the ability to maintain the temperature of your cultured milk at around 75 degrees Fahrenheit (around 23 or 24 degrees Celsius) for 8 to 12 hours. Turning your oven on at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes before you put your cultured milk in should do the trick. Just keep the door shut as much as possible after you've turned the heat off. If that doesn't work for you, try getting a cooler and placing jars or water bottles filled with hot water around your cultured milk.
We will henceforth call the little critters that are going to magically turn your milk into cheese overnight Rumpelstiltskins. They are going to do all of the hard work for you, but we're going to help them out by killing off any competition.
Here's what you'll need:
1 quart of whole milk (cow, goat, sheep, it's all good)
1 pan big enough to fit 1 quart of milk
1.5 - 2 quart container with lid (Mason jars, pyrex bowls, tupperware will all do)
1/4 teaspoon of yogurt
food thermometer (if you have one, but you can do without one)
Fine grain strainer like this one
A bowl this strainer will fit over
Cheesecloth
Here's what you do:
1. Get your yogurt culture out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature as you gather the rest of the materials and prepare to start.
2. Scald your milk. That means heat the milk in your pan on the lowest possible heat to approximately 180 degrees Fahrenheit. This is going to kill off all of the bacteria that would otherwise compete with your Rumpelstiltskins and affect the texture of your cheese.
(If you're one of those people who likes to "modify directions" to "speed things up", and you don't have a lot of cooking experience, trust me. Unless you have a milk watcher, keep your heat low. Because milk is full of so many carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, rapid or uneven heating causes a skin consisting mostly of fats and carbohydrates to form over the milk, which then traps bubbles of steam, creating foam which will easily boil over or scorch on your nice clean pan. You can avoid this by heating slowly and stirring occasionally.)
3. Turn off the heat when your milk reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit (this is where a food thermometer comes in handy).
(If you don't have a food thermometer, look for slight frothing on the edges of the milk. To give you a reference point: Liquids at 116 degrees Fahrenheit or higher temperatures create a pain sensation in humans that we associate with "burning". Someone with moderately high pain tolerance would be able to keep their finger in milk at a 116 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple seconds. At 115 degrees, you'd probably be okay hanging out with your entire hand in the pan for a few minutes. At 180 degrees, it should be instantly uncomfortable to touch the milk. Just a disclaimer: I am NOT recommending that you stick your finger, hand, or any other body part in a hot pot of milk.)
4. Pour your scalded milk in your 1.5-2 quart container.
5. Stir your yogurt culture (approximately 1/4 teaspoon) into your milk gently, but thoroughly. Your Rumpelstiltskins are sensitive creatures that can be disturbed by vigorous shaking, so take care not to be too enthusiastic.
(If you use too much culture, the bacteria will not only compete with each other by eating up too much of the food (the sugars in the milk) too fast, the PH of the milk will drop too quickly (Rumpelstiltskins work by converting sugar into lactic acid), causing the fat molecules to remain hydrophilic, which simply means that the fat will not separate from the water and you're going to end up with yogurt instead of cream cheese.)
6. Cover your newly cultured milk lightly with a lid or a towel and put it in a warm place (see above) immediately. Don't put the lid on too tightly or fill the container to the brim because the Rumpelstiltskins need oxygen to do their work.)
8. Leave the culture alone for 8 hours. If after 8 hours, you see that the water and solids have separated, take the milk out and proceed to the second stage. Otherwise, leave it for another 4 hours.
9. Strain your newly made cream cheese. Try not to mix the separated liquid and cheese as you strain. Place your fine grained strainer in a bowl and carefully pour off the liquid on top of your cheese (this liquid is called whey).
10. Line your strainer with the cheesecloth and pour/spoon out the cheese into the strainer.
11. Bring the edges of the cheesecloth together and twist the cloth to gently squeeze out the excess water in your cheese curd.
12. Place the cheesecloth, still twisted up around the cheese, back in the strainer and put the whole contraption (strainer and draining bowl together) into the fridge. Leave it like that for 8-24 hours, but don't be afraid to try some cream cheese before then if you can't wait.
13. The cheese should fall right out of the cheesecloth when it's dry enough. And what you want to do with it after that is up to you! I recommend saving the whey that has drained out of your cheese. It contains a lot of free amino acids and beneficial probiotics. It's great to use in soups, sauces, and if you're really brave, as a refreshing, slightly slimy drink with a pinch of salt (Lassi, a common Indian drink is made in a similar manner and is valued for combating heat exhaustion). **EDIT: Also great for using as a hair condition because it's full of hydrolyzed protein (more on hydrolyzing protein and making hair conditioners in a future post about the chemistry of hair care).
Cream cheese is the easiest of all of the cheeses to make. Why? Because it doesn't require you to slaughter a baby goat and harvest rennet (a mix of natural enzymes specially designed to digest the milk from the mother) from its stomach to separate the protein and fat from the whey. In fact, if you know a bit about how bacterial growth is effected by temperature changes, you can use good old yogurt culture from an unpasteurized store-bought yogurt.
The most important factors in creating the creamy texture the name cream cheese demands is temperature and timing. If you keep your cultured milk too warm for too long, you'll end up either with thick curds, more like cottage cheese, or a sour watery drink more like watered down yogurt. While both of these will still be edible, they will not be smooth, buttery, delicious cream cheese.
So before you begin, be sure you have the ability to maintain the temperature of your cultured milk at around 75 degrees Fahrenheit (around 23 or 24 degrees Celsius) for 8 to 12 hours. Turning your oven on at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes before you put your cultured milk in should do the trick. Just keep the door shut as much as possible after you've turned the heat off. If that doesn't work for you, try getting a cooler and placing jars or water bottles filled with hot water around your cultured milk.
We will henceforth call the little critters that are going to magically turn your milk into cheese overnight Rumpelstiltskins. They are going to do all of the hard work for you, but we're going to help them out by killing off any competition.
Here's what you'll need:
1 quart of whole milk (cow, goat, sheep, it's all good)
1 pan big enough to fit 1 quart of milk
1.5 - 2 quart container with lid (Mason jars, pyrex bowls, tupperware will all do)
1/4 teaspoon of yogurt
food thermometer (if you have one, but you can do without one)
A bowl this strainer will fit over
Cheesecloth
Here's what you do:
1. Get your yogurt culture out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature as you gather the rest of the materials and prepare to start.
2. Scald your milk. That means heat the milk in your pan on the lowest possible heat to approximately 180 degrees Fahrenheit. This is going to kill off all of the bacteria that would otherwise compete with your Rumpelstiltskins and affect the texture of your cheese.
(If you're one of those people who likes to "modify directions" to "speed things up", and you don't have a lot of cooking experience, trust me. Unless you have a milk watcher, keep your heat low. Because milk is full of so many carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, rapid or uneven heating causes a skin consisting mostly of fats and carbohydrates to form over the milk, which then traps bubbles of steam, creating foam which will easily boil over or scorch on your nice clean pan. You can avoid this by heating slowly and stirring occasionally.)
3. Turn off the heat when your milk reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit (this is where a food thermometer comes in handy).
(If you don't have a food thermometer, look for slight frothing on the edges of the milk. To give you a reference point: Liquids at 116 degrees Fahrenheit or higher temperatures create a pain sensation in humans that we associate with "burning". Someone with moderately high pain tolerance would be able to keep their finger in milk at a 116 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple seconds. At 115 degrees, you'd probably be okay hanging out with your entire hand in the pan for a few minutes. At 180 degrees, it should be instantly uncomfortable to touch the milk. Just a disclaimer: I am NOT recommending that you stick your finger, hand, or any other body part in a hot pot of milk.)
4. Pour your scalded milk in your 1.5-2 quart container.
5. Stir your yogurt culture (approximately 1/4 teaspoon) into your milk gently, but thoroughly. Your Rumpelstiltskins are sensitive creatures that can be disturbed by vigorous shaking, so take care not to be too enthusiastic.
(If you use too much culture, the bacteria will not only compete with each other by eating up too much of the food (the sugars in the milk) too fast, the PH of the milk will drop too quickly (Rumpelstiltskins work by converting sugar into lactic acid), causing the fat molecules to remain hydrophilic, which simply means that the fat will not separate from the water and you're going to end up with yogurt instead of cream cheese.)
6. Cover your newly cultured milk lightly with a lid or a towel and put it in a warm place (see above) immediately. Don't put the lid on too tightly or fill the container to the brim because the Rumpelstiltskins need oxygen to do their work.)
8. Leave the culture alone for 8 hours. If after 8 hours, you see that the water and solids have separated, take the milk out and proceed to the second stage. Otherwise, leave it for another 4 hours.
9. Strain your newly made cream cheese. Try not to mix the separated liquid and cheese as you strain. Place your fine grained strainer in a bowl and carefully pour off the liquid on top of your cheese (this liquid is called whey).
10. Line your strainer with the cheesecloth and pour/spoon out the cheese into the strainer. 11. Bring the edges of the cheesecloth together and twist the cloth to gently squeeze out the excess water in your cheese curd.
12. Place the cheesecloth, still twisted up around the cheese, back in the strainer and put the whole contraption (strainer and draining bowl together) into the fridge. Leave it like that for 8-24 hours, but don't be afraid to try some cream cheese before then if you can't wait.13. The cheese should fall right out of the cheesecloth when it's dry enough. And what you want to do with it after that is up to you! I recommend saving the whey that has drained out of your cheese. It contains a lot of free amino acids and beneficial probiotics. It's great to use in soups, sauces, and if you're really brave, as a refreshing, slightly slimy drink with a pinch of salt (Lassi, a common Indian drink is made in a similar manner and is valued for combating heat exhaustion). **EDIT: Also great for using as a hair condition because it's full of hydrolyzed protein (more on hydrolyzing protein and making hair conditioners in a future post about the chemistry of hair care).
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