Say Cheese!

This is Sirio.  He is our new friend.  He is Italian.  Not, in a my grandmother was born in Italy way, but in a born and raised in Rome, his whole family still lives there type of way.  In his house in Rome, he was the cheese maker, the brew master, and the pizza/bread/pasta maker.  And he is a knowledgeable, fun, funny guy to hang with.  This is our afternoon session of cheese making with him, his girlfriend, Courtney and their two year old son, Luke.    

       Sirio and Courtney picked up 72 liters of fresh cow's milk from the neighbors early in the morning and came up to the bodega to turn it into cheese.  (We were still living there at the time) Conor and I watched, asked questions, took pictures and mental notes to hopefully be able to recreate the process by ourselves one day in the future.  The process took all day and we enjoyed the company of our new friends and the experience of cheese making.

Sterilizing the work area with boiling water

Transferring fresh milk to the large cooking pot

Heating milk and testing the temperature and pH.  

Adding yogurt to heated milk

Sirio adding quinina to milk, a pill he dissolved in water.
Conor in the background, perplexed by what exactly quinina is.  Sirio repeated the word for him and spelled it.  We are still a little confused on what exactly has been added at this step.

Con practicing his stirring techniques.  The curds need to be sliced at certain angles and then gently stirred, to expose all sides of the curds to the whey

The curds separating from the whey

First batch of cheese being scooped out of the whey with ricotta cheese cups.  The cups allow for drainage of the extra whey

After the cheese drains for awhile, each cheese condenses and is able to be picked up and flipped, to drain from the other side as well

For the second batch, Sirio decided to make larger cheeses

Pouring into a cheesecloth

Draining the excess whey

Penny getting the drips of whey from the bag of cheese

The cheese maker and his apprentice

After all the cheese drained in their containers for 2 days, they were placed in a brine for about 20 minutes each, then were wrapped in corn husks, piled on top of each other in tupperware containers, and placed in a makeshift cheese cellar.  The cellar was a hole dug in the ground on the property.  The hole was around five feet deep, heavy plastic was laid over the dirt, sawdust was placed over the plastic, the cheese containers placed in, plastic pulled over the tops of the containers and then more sawdust placed on top.  After three days, Sirio checked on the cheese and noticed a wonderfully delicious mold growing on the outside of the cheese.  Luckily he recognized this camembert mold and placed the cheeses in the fridge to further encourage the growth.  We visited the property about a week after our cheese making afternoon and were able to try some of the early tastes of this amazing homemade cheese.  The cheese is "young" still and will continue to age in Sirio's fridge but it was amazing.  I could see the crust forming on the outside and the inside of the cheese was creamy, soft, slightly salty, and delicious! 

M.

Sirio proudly showing us his cheese

Notice the rind growing on the outside!