Just because I haven’t made any postings doesn’t mean I haven’t been baking, messing with kites, and exploring an on-going interest in cultured things…
I’ve continued to make a lot of labneh, mostly trying out different brands of soy milk, but also doing some enrichment through the addition of coconut cream of various qualities. The culturing has been in the 5 pot yogurt maker.
I’ve recently found ($5 at the Sally’s) a larger, single pot yogurt maker. I’m going to standardise at making about 1 litre of yogurt at a time, then working to press it into something resembling a cheese.
So I made a small cheese press! Still some changes to be made, mostly to enable consistent pressure but also user convenience. But it is certainly working as a proof of concept.
Today’s pressing is using a 500mm square piece of cotton for the liner. The ‘curds’ that I am working with are too soft and delicate for such as ordinary cheesecloth or butter cloth. It seems to be a fine enough weave to still allow the ‘water’ out when under pressure, but keep most all the creamy part inside the cheese.
I can tell when I’m putting too much pressure on the cheese. It will occasionally spring a small hole, and a fine white mist will erupt sideways. It is somewhat messy…