The Art of Cheese Making

I attempted to make another batch of cheese yesterday. Wow, what a TON of work! It takes about 8-10 hours to complete just ONE small wheel of cheese! I don't quite have all the equipment yet, so I am improvising using Lorin's beer brewing stuff. I am worried now that my cheese is going to taste like Bud Light, we'll see, it'll take a few months of aging before I can try it...

I wanted to take pictures of the whole process, but was too busy stirring a vat of curds in a giant brew-pot to think about getting the camera out. So here's what I was hoping for:

That's supposed to be me, in my little white apron and cap, placing nice wheels of cheese on a shelf to age (only my arms aren't that hairy). After that, I was going to put a pot roast in the oven, then bring Lorin his newspaper and a cigar.

But here's what my kitchen looked like instead:


Note: This photo is a simulation of the mess I made in my own kitchen whilst attempting to make cheese

Anyways, it was so much more work than I had realized. When I got home from work today, I removed the cheese from the cheesecloth, and it more closely resembled a character from Pokemon than it did a wheel of cheese. It could have something to do with the recycled sour cream container I jammed the curds into in a fit of impatience. Or the 10 gallon glass beer fermenting apparatus that I placed atop to use as a makeshift cheese-press. Or using bungee cords to strap the whole conglomeration to my kitchen cabinets. I don't know if this will turn into a full time hobby or not, but regardless, I think I will make a trip to Gossner's tomorrow. I can just buy a basketful of cheese for about $20.00, I don't have to clean their kitchen, and their cheese has never tasted like a rolled around on the floor of a liquor store.

Now I must hastily conclude this post, I just realized that my duck escaped it's cage (a large rubbermaid container) and is running around in my basement. I feel a country song coming on called "Duck Poop in my Basement."