I took part yesterday in the very cool Beginner Cheese Workshop at UBC, presented by David Rotsztain. I didn't have the foresight to take a writing utensil, though, so I just have to get all of what I remember down in writing before it completely leaves my brain.
• Good cheesecloths? Not supermarket cheesecloths. Try muslin at fabric stores or discount clothing stores like Value Village. David uses a do-rag and says it's the cat's ass. Deodorize and disinfect with baking soda and boiling water before using.
• I had always wondered how ricotta works—how do you get more cheese from whey, which has already been cheesed? Turns out rennet cheeses, made at lower temperature, coagulate only the casein. The albumen stays in the whey, and it precipitates out when heated to a high temperature and exposed to acid. (Now I understand why you add vinegar to water before poaching eggs, too.) It's because of the albumen that heated cheeses like paneer will not melt.
• To think I've just been throwing my valuable yogurt whey down the drain. Add a quarter cup of the stuff to a gallon of warmed milk to start the souring process for rennet cheese.
• For (hung) yogurt cheese, to one 650g tub of yogurt, hung for 24 hours, adding about 1 tsp salt, then hanging for another few hours will help preserve it for up to 2 weeks. Add any flavourings to the cheese after it's been dried; otherwise it will just come out in the whey.
• Using a higher-fat-content milk will make a creamier product and improve your yield. Also, for yogurt cheeses, lower-fat yogurts are more likely to have thickeners like corn or tapioca starch, which will prevent the whey from separating.
• For rennet cheeses that need to age, don't use iodized salt, which will kill the culture. Salting pulls out moisture, helping to preserve the cheese, and adds flavour. Alternatively, brine: dissolve 1 cup salt to 1 L whey, then add an additional 1 cup salt as a reservoir. A camembert-like wheel will need 1 hour's worth of brining, whereas larger cheese will need longer.
• Paneer will absorb the flavour of the acid that you use to precipitate out the proteins, so keep that in mind. For sweet applications, use lemon juice. A balsamic vinegar will produce a great paneer with amazing purple streaks.
• Using whey as the weight to press cheese not only is convenient, but it also helps more whey come out of the cheese because of its warmth.
• Only non-homogenized milk works for rennet cheeses. Pasteurized is okay, but raw makes better curds.
That's all I remember that isn't in the handout provided. Excited to take the advanced class sometime in the new year!
