Crottin Part 3

Pitiful little salty, hard, hockey pucks.

Pathetic things. They didn't develop even a hint of lovely mold.

Alas, my beautiful little Crottin cheeses didn't become the promising, creamy and dreamy morsels I had hoped for. 

To start with I should not have combined recipes and salted them. I think I dried them in the open air too long before caving them as well. Last but certainly not least, I never could get the humidity high enough no matter how hard I tried in my little cave. 

I will not give up though. It's worth trying again, but I'll have to wait until I have the time again. 

Learn from my mistakes...😀

Crottin part 2 and cheese #2

The young cheeses have been taken out of the mold after being turned a second time. They have been salted and are in the drying process on day 2 today. I turned them this morning and they look and smell nice. They are still in my cool office with the window cracked for a breeze. Tomorrow I will put them in the little tiny refrigerator I have set up as my cave for the aging process. They will stay there for at least 2 months because the milk is raw. Within 10 days they should be growing white fuzzy mold so I will document our progress.

The milk I set to ripen yesterday morning with the same amount of culture, rennet and Geotrichum mold powder as the last batch- but used 7 quarts of milk (approx.) instead of 4 gave me a ginormous yield of curd this morning! I remembered too late yesterday that with raw milk you need less culture and rennet than with dead, pasteurized milk.

 

Here I'm taking the curd I drained for about 10 hours in a drain bag and filling my little Crottin molds.

I'm pretty proud looking at my little cheeses! The top ones are about done drying and ready to go age, and the others will be turned and salted in the morning.

Here's the notebook I use for "make sheets" It's a Decompostion brand with an artisan cheese print. I love it. I also found an apron with a similar print on Amazon. Youn know, just for fun :)

As you can obviously see I'm not professional about this at all. It's not my way. I do keep meticulous records on my goats though.

This Proverbs 31 Collette Crottin. :) She's a 2nd generation miniature Nubian dairy goat. Her beauty aside, she's bred for milk- rich, high protein and butterfat, creamy milk!

The Nourished Kitchen

 

This a beautiful as well as practical book. In the spirit of Nourishing Traditions, my favorite, comes along this jewel with more recipes and practical how-to's.

Jennifer McGruther has created a masterpiece, a scrumptious book!

 She covers all the basics in this farm cookbook from rendering tallow to cheeses and breads, syrups to shellfish she's got all bases covered in elegant style as well as an orderly fashion with chapters like: From the Larder, From the Orchard and From the Range.

 

If you want to utilize local foods, your farmer's markets and what you grow and raise yourself you're in luck.

This is so much more than a cookbook. Want to learn to make fermented foods? Milk kefir? Kombucha or water kefir? Well okay then. She's got you covered here and in so many other areas.

 

This is one I will proudly display and not put on a shelf. It will get plenty of use. The art of eating well is clearly illustrated and some basic information is laid out regarding things such as the myth of vegetarian fed chickens.

I not only recommend this book I highly suggest it.

*This book was given to me for free by the publisher in order to be able to write an unbiased written review.