# recipe without starter



## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

_Ok, so I tasted a cheese that one of my friends in Belize made with no starter. It was good!! (A hard cheese). I was like, how can this be? with no starter? So I got the recipe and tried and guess what, it works!!! And it tasted like cheese and everything! And I made it and actually didnt screw it up! (for once in my life!!) So I have to share the recipe with you guys. It may not seem that extraordinary to y'all, but to me it was exciting! So here it is in Andre's own words:_
Original recipe calls for 2 gallons of milk (that's UK 4.5 l gallons) but I use 4 US 3.75 l gallons because then I get just enough curd to fit in my mold with a heap which then gets pressed - so as a result I get a nice round almost as high as the mold itself. But any amount is OK - you just have to calculate the right amount of rennet for hard cheese and salt.

I use Guatemalan rennet tablets purchased in WD in SL which contain Mucur Pusillus y/o Mucur Miehei, Pepsina, Cloruro de Sodio, Celulosa Microcristalina y exipientes c.s.p. (whatever that might mean in Spanish...) The label on the phial says 1 tablet for 50 liters, but I found that half a tablet works just as well for 4 gallons = 15 l and it's easier to divide the tablet in 2 than into three.

Start with bringing the milk to 82 deg F by either immersing your cheesemaking pot it sink with cold or hot water. Then pour the rennet (I dissolve .5 tablet in .25 cup of water) into the milk, mix it all up really good, around, sideways and up and down for about half a minute and then leave it standing for an hour. After that time the curd should be set - if poking it with thermometer doesn't give you a "clean break" just let it stand a bit longer until it does.

Then cut the curd into .5 inch cubes, mix it all up with your hand and slowly, within a course of 30 minutes raise the temp (of the curd - not just whey) to 92 deg F by immersing the pot in sink filled with hot water. Once the curd heats up and become "shotty" drain the whey of the top and then dump the curd into cheese cloth ( I use finely woven diapers <unused >) Bundle the curds by grabbing corners of cheese cloth and twisting the whole thing, draining off more whey at the same time. Then tuck the ends under the bundle, put a plate on top and press it with 10 lb weight for 10 min. Then unwrap, turn the bundle of curd inside out, wrap it back together as before and press it for another 10 min.

Then unwrap the bundle, put in a bigger bowl and break it all up into pea size pieces. I then put a teaspoon of salt per gallon of milk used and mix it all up really good.

Then stuff the curds densely into a mold lined with cheesecloth - you can use the same one from the previous step unless you jumped the gun and already washed it... put a follower on top and press it for a day with 25 lbs. Then remove it, turn it, put it back into the mold and press again for another day.

Then I rub some salt on the surface wrap the round of cheese in wax paper and tea towel and put it in the fridge turning every 1-2 days for 3-4 weeks.

Now as the ambient temperature, humidity and timing varies slightly every time I make cheese (once a week) no two cheeses taste exactly the same.

One more thing - hard cheese made with 100% goat milk will sort of look like a block of lard unless you dye it with something like anato or yellow food colorant - you just have to go easy on the dye or it will look like gubmint cheese and taste like recado


----------



## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

So Sandy did you use the rennet tablets yourself? Just wondering as I have both the tablets and the liquid


----------



## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

i just used liquid rennet. I have never used the tablets.


----------

