Season with Salt: Homemade Cheese!

I was recently given the chance to dabble in a little cheese-making. For Christmas I was given a beautiful homemade cheese press by my soon-to-be brother-in-law. He and his bride-to-be (my husbands sister) have one of those cow-share dealios, where they have access to raw milk (or "body lotion" as it is marketed as) every week. Part of the gift was 1 week of their milk supply and the use of their cheese-making equipment and book. I made a Raw Milk Tomme... just a basic hard cheese in salt-brine rind.

Heating the milk

I write this post certainly not to provide you with detailed instructions, and I won't tell you to get a share in a cow (unless you really want to, it's expensive!), but to encourage you to give it a try sometime! There are plenty of recipes available that use the whole milk you can find in grocery stores, and I recently discovered an Organic Market near my house that sells Goat Milk! So the stuff is out there, and while some recipes may take a lot of time and attention (this one was almost a good week of doing a small step everyday, plus it's now aging for 5 months!) they aren't difficult, and it will be really cool to say to your friends "Try this cheese that I made and aged myself!"

Enjoy the pictures :)