And Then the Milking Shed Roof Blew Away

There are two types of crystals in cheese. Tyrosine crystals result from the breakdown of protein; this is the type of crystal you might find in Parmesan. And calcium lactate are crystals that form due to a higher concentration of calcium and lactic acid; these crystals, according to most people, are considered a defect. (Any Napoleon…

Making butter is a real chore. Hand cranking is for the birds, and a blender is slow going (the blender turns cream into butter in 5 minutes or less, but it requires constant tending, multiple batches, and is brutally loud), so for a couple years now, I’ve been pestering my husband to fashion me a…

I recently came across this video about an artisanal cheesemaker who makes only blue cheese. A few takeaways:

Last week I had to be at work early, so I left instructions for my husband to dump the 8 gallons of fresh milk into the cheese pot along with a pint of clabber. It’d get an extra long acidification, but I’d be home early afternoon and would turn it into some sort of cheese then….

A few weeks ago, YouTube follwer Robert Samuelson sent me a handmade light-weight Dutch press. If you like it, great, he said, and if not, pass it on to someone else. Well, let me tell you, this cheese press isn’t going anywhere. This slender beauty has super pressure power (check out this video he did to test just how much weight the press could…

“Did you hear the NPR report about Camembert?” my younger son said. “The mold that’s used to make it is going extinct.” “Oh, really?” I said, barely listening since the kid likes to frequently regale me with accounts of what he hears on the news, as well as the plots of various TV series, books,…