Senior Project
5/13/19
My return to the gauntlet had me and Tommy making cheese and interviewing Bloomy Rind, an artisanal cheese store and deli.
Our interview had us talking to Mary, the owner of Bloomy Rind and the process of stocking, cooking, and selling fresh foods. Part of her philosophy is having a freezer only big enough to hold ice. She preached how if a restaurant claims to be serving fresh food, their freezer should be checked. They shouldn’t need anything bigger than an ice box to be fresh.
After this we drove to New England Cheesemaking Supply to buy what we would need to begin cheesemaking. We bought rennett, mesophilic culture, calcium chlorate, and cheesecloth. Like our time spent with ice cream making, cheese making is a time consuming activity. In addition it is complex with many steps that have to be done at very specific temperatures and times. The first two steps were to add the culture and the rennett, after adding each ingredient we had to stir and heat for 45 minutes. We ended up with a gelatinous brick of milk that we had to slice up to drain all of the liquid. After slicing it up, we had to increase the temperature from 85 to 115 by 5 degrees every 10 minutes while stirring. We then drained and milled the curds, which involved kneading the curds like dough to increase surface area and press out water. We then salted the curds and let them ferment for 2 hours, flipping every 15 minutes. After this whole process we were able to put it in the press and slowly increase the weight over the next two hours before adding the last of the weight and heading to bed for it to press overnight.
Hours for the Day: 6.25 Hours
Bloomy Rind: .75 Hours
New England Cheesemaking: 1.5 Hours
Cheesemaking: 4 Hours
Total Hours: 64.75
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