Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Cheesy, Cheesy, Cheesy...

I know the transition between QuitCHIR and recipes/Vegan talk was a little...well...non-existent.

But...clearly, the focus is now food.  But remember...attitude is within your realm of control and that may be the only thing you can.

Way back in November I mentioned the Artisan Vegan cheese project. 

& and Lindsey found recipes in Veg News magazine and took some trial runs to a Vegan meet up. I acted as chief bottle washer and spreader provider. 

The cheese was amazing. Brie, Chevre, Buffalo Mozzarella, cream cheeses and a Cheddar Cheese ball.

Since then, we've purchased a few cheesemaking books. And the girls have tried many, many different versions of recipes.

So far this is what they've learned. Each batch of cheese is going to be different. Any tweaking of the recipe will change the end result. Temperature, time, manufacturer of ingredients and...well, just about anything can make a huge difference. A quick cheese is inferior. Lemon juice and cashews, though nice to toss together and get a cheese-like result, is not Artisan cheese. The real deal has to age, and requires a fizzy, nasty, sour medium to do that. Rejuvalec is that medium. Grain rinsed and set out to begin sprouting. Once that happens, the grain is immersed in water until the water smells a bit like sweat socks. The other ingredients are added, and then the magic begins. 

Grains don't always begin to sprout when soaked so the all important rejuvalec can ferment. Not all miso is the same. Even the same manufacturer. Like I said, just about anything can go wrong.

The little cheese elves provided cheeses for family holidays, friends, several Vegan gatherings and have Facebook fans who have begun to order.

No two cheeses are the same...even the same recipe. I guess there is a reason there aren't hundreds of Vegan Artisan cheesemakers out there. 

The goal for this week. To get several pounds of cheese aged, packaged and delivered to new customers. Then on to tweak, tweak, tweak their cheeses into the ones that make those customers beg for more.