Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Lori <bakequery@aol.com>]

Great informative answer.  :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: Juli <crowweaver@aol.com>
To: livingontheland <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wed, Jun 20, 2012 11:10 pm
Subject: [Livingontheland] cheese making

I've learned that, to make a harder cheese, which keeps longer, the 
trick is to hang it longer or use a cheese press. You can use enzymes 
of course but killing such a young animal is very wasteful, in my 
opinion. Especially in a survival situation. A grown or larger animal 
would produce so much more meat and goods than a very young/small one.

As for rennet, stinging nettle works wonderfully. I've been using it 
successfully for over a year. here's how I do it ....

You can use the nettle fresh or dried, tied in cheese cloth or muslin. 
Add to the milk when you reach cheese temp and cook until separation. 
The amount I tried was varied but roughly a tight handful fresh, 
coarsely chopped or 3/4 handful dry.

Or, my preference, make a strong nettle infusion. Around 16 cups of 
fresh nettles in a pot, cover with water and bring to boil, reduce heat 
and simmer just under boiling for 30 minutes or so. Allow to cool then 
store in a glass jar in the fridge. For cheese I use about 1 cup nettle 
rennet for 1 gal milk.

To make cheese, you can use anything that will coagulate the milk and 
you can combine things for flavor. Lemon juice and nettle makes a very 
good cheese. There's an old pioneer recipe for just sitting a covered 
gallon of milk in the shade for a day or two, to curd, then salting and 
hanging the curd to harden.

Juli
WildMoonCottage.com
SimplySelfSufficient.org



-----Original Message-----
 From: livingontheland-request 
<livingontheland-request@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: livingontheland <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wed, Jun 20, 2012 11:03 am
Subject: Livingontheland Digest, Vol 352, Issue 3



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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 23:04:02 +0100
From: "John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] living on the land
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing"
	<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <C385A12534DA43D8B911749F6EAD832B@Targadc5fefe82d>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

To make a "hard" cheese that will keep for many months if not more than 
a year you need "leb ferment". In other words the enzymes a suckling 
animal produces in it's stomach to process milk it has just drank. 
(these days a lot of the rennet is "suitable for vegetarians" iow gmo 
rennet made by E.coli microbes that had the gene implanted) In fact 
after drinking milk a "cheese" is formed in the stomach. I suspect that 
our ancestors got the idea of cheese making by seeing this after they 
had killed a calf, lamb or goat kid.

I don't at all like killing young animals a day or two old but in a 
survival situation that is what one may have to do. Today it is 
possible to buy concentrates and milk replacer to rear these young ones 
while milking the mother but when the going gets though that is not 
possible. Leave all the young alive and suckling and you will not have 
a drop of milk after the first few weeks after birth. Apart from the 
fact that most cows will refuse to give the human milker a drop when 
they know they have a calf waiting. Some will defend their milk and be 
very dangerous. And even if they allow you to milk them then there will 
never be enough left to rear the offspring into a decent adult.

So practically you give your newborn baby calf, kid or lamb a very good 
last meal and then kill it. (humanely of course)  Take out the leb 
stomach fast as you can and tie off at front and back with a string. 
Put this stomach in plenty dry salt and store in a container in a cool 
place. About one teaspoon of the cheesy contents will curdle 20 liters 
of fresh milk. Take out tea spoon of cheese in a cup of luke warm water 
and work with spoon  to homogenize and get rid of lumps then add to 20 
liters of milk. The stomach rennet keeps for well over a year and a 
calf's stomach should be enough for at least 40 hard pressed cheeses. A 
goat kid for about 25. Goat kid rennet will give a sharp - peppery 
taste to the mature cheese. Calf is more neutral tasting. Lamb in 
between.

After pressing these cheeses should mature for a minimum of 4 weeks 
during which they are regularly turned and washed with salt water. But 
they get better with aging for a year or longer. Fresh curds taste of 
nothing much and have a rubbery consistency.

j
  So, tell us what to do no matter how disgusting.

  Sent from my iPhone



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