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It’s been months in the making but finally, FINALLY, I have written recipes available for download! I made (with my brother’s help) a little store over on the Milkslinger website. It’s super basic, but for now it’s a start. Consider this a soft launch. Q&A So, Jennifer. Why the printed recipes?Videos are fabulous for teaching a…

Two days ago there was a little mishap in my kitchen involving some coffee and my new carbonator machine. The whole situation was messy, complicated, and just a wee bit rage-inducing (if you want to read more about it, you can head over to my blog), but the point here is that the cheese that I was pressing…

A number of weeks ago, I noticed that the metal coils in the cheezer shelf were no longer dripping condensation from the repeated cooling and thawing. My husband suspected the element had quit working, but since the temperature was staying relatively steady at 55 degrees, we pretended there wasn’t a problem. But then last week…

About that 16-gallon cheese I mentioned in last week’s newsletter? The one I said wasn’t going very well? Well, it was a Parmesan, or two Parmesans rather: one made in the morning and one made in the afternoon. Since my Parms always end up on the thin side, I thought I could press one, then press the…

These days, my husband is bringing in 7+ gallons of milk each morning. The abundance is dizzying.  Also? It’s exhausting. Some days I just can’t bear to deal with it. That’s when I skim the milk, make butter with the cream, and then feed the milk to the pigs. It feels like such a waste…

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…

The Biegel Family The Biegels live in Canada where they raise goats and make an enormous amount of cheese. I’ve watched all their cheese videos, and I’ve learned so much from observing their methods. For example, they freeze their Bries for long-term storage, and they pack the cheeses that are aging in ordinary towels — two things…

I think the aging conditions are perhaps the most confusing part of cheesemaking, mostly because the variables are endless, the options open-ended, and the components (potentially) expensive. Figuring out what do to, and where and how, can feel wildly daunting. Air drying the cheeses I made last week: Asiago, Colby, Lancashire, and Red Pepper Gouda….

On Wednesday, high winds (gusts upwards of 60 mph!) toppled a number of trees, took out the power, and blew the roof clean off the milking shed. It landed in the neighbor’s field 150 feet away. (Can you imagine if it had hit a person?! Oof.) My husband had to milk the ladies in a…

When I first started making cheese three years ago, I longed for a “grandma” – someone who intuitively understood cheesemaking and who had a kitchen stool I could perch on. I never found that grandma, but when I mentioned my fantasy to a friend, she said she had a co-worker who sometimes made cheese. Maybe he…