Giant purple thistle.jpg)
. All species of thistles have milk-curdling magic. It's best in giant, thorny kinds. Regular purple thistle will work. . Cardoon is another option.
To harvest thistle for rennet, gather when they have turned purple. If you see thistledown, the plant is over-mature. Get it right after the end of bloom and before the stage where down blows away. Air dry the flowers. You can store them in jars to wait until needed for cheese-making.
To use your veggie rennet, a quick way is just to tie a bundle of thistle flowers together with string and leave it in the milk until it clabbers. But the more professional way is to pound and extract. You take out enough - 5 heaping t. of pounded dry herb will be needed per 1 gal. milk to be curdled. Pound in a mortar with your pestle until quite crushed. Then pour just a little warm water or whey over, just enough to cover. Let soak 5 minutes. Pound 5 minutes more. Repeat the soaking, and repeat pounding until you've pounded at least 4 times total. You should be seeing a dark (brown) fluid. Strain. Add the fluid to your milk. Be careful not to add too much of any veggie rennet herb because excess can, at best, be unpleasant-tasting for the cheese-eater at the end of the line, and at worst, actually cause indigestion.
To harvest thistle for rennet, gather when they have turned purple. If you see thistledown, the plant is over-mature. Get it right after the end of bloom and before the stage where down blows away. Air dry the flowers. You can store them in jars to wait until needed for cheese-making.
To use your veggie rennet, a quick way is just to tie a bundle of thistle flowers together with string and leave it in the milk until it clabbers. But the more professional way is to pound and extract. You take out enough - 5 heaping t. of pounded dry herb will be needed per 1 gal. milk to be curdled. Pound in a mortar with your pestle until quite crushed. Then pour just a little warm water or whey over, just enough to cover. Let soak 5 minutes. Pound 5 minutes more. Repeat the soaking, and repeat pounding until you've pounded at least 4 times total. You should be seeing a dark (brown) fluid. Strain. Add the fluid to your milk. Be careful not to add too much of any veggie rennet herb because excess can, at best, be unpleasant-tasting for the cheese-eater at the end of the line, and at worst, actually cause indigestion.
A summary of "cheese making"
ReplyDeleteHere is a very simple explanation of the process, using natural occurring cheese cultures, and rennet, a dairy coagulant.
This process happens very fast at first, as your milk is warm, rennet is then added, to form the curd. The curds are pressed in a mould to make the cheese,
The bacteria then continue to "work" during the maturation process, albeit slower due to the shortage of so much lactose, and the lower temperature, 12deg C is ideal ... that is why 3 month old cheese does not taste as strong as 6 month old cheese