Cheese Making

I've decided to make my own cheese.
I'm not brave enough to dive straight into unpasteurised milk territory, so the first job is to make a starter solution with some culture purchased on Ebay.
It's a bit of a carry on. Heat the milk to 90 degrees, hold at that temperature for 10 minutes. Then cool rapidly to 20 degrees. Whisk in the culture and transfer straight into a class jar, quickly cover with clingfilm.
This can now sit for 24 hours at between 20-22 degrees. I found our bedroom to be the perfect temperature.
The solution can also be frozen to use later. Perfect.

Lamb Prosciutto - Small piece is ready!

The small piece is ready and is pretty nice. Mike and Rach have been gorging themselves silly on it! The larger piece probably needs another two weeks, so back into the loft it goes.
You can really taste the cure!

Lamb Prosciutto - About 10 days in.

I weighed both pieces on Friday to see if they were nearing their target weights. The little piece weighed only 195g, less than it's target weight of 210g. So in theory that piece is ready. It felt a little soft to me though and rather than have a repeat of the bresaola cock-up (now in the bin) I have decided it can go back in the loft for another week.
The larger piece certainly looks the part and now weighs 597g, target weight 542.5g. Let's see what it weighs next week.

Lamb Prosciutto - Next Bit

The lamb has now had 15 days in the cure mix. I gave it a good wash in cold water then dried it thoroughly.

Next job is to roll it up nice and tight. You don't really want any air getting into the middle. If you YouTube butchers knot there are plenty of demos. It's not as easy as it looks and mine didn't work out too great, but they'll do.

Before hanging them out to dry weigh them. They are ready after they have lost 30% of their weight. 

I'll weight these once a week until they hit their target weight!

Lamb Prosciutto

Whole legs of lamb are currently on special at Sainsbury's, only 5GBP per KG. With that in mind I'd have to be barking mad not to give this a whirl.

First job is to get the bone out and butterfly it as I need it evenly sized for curing purposes and I'll be rolling it up later. Deboning it was easy enough, although I ended up with two pieces. My little piece I suspect is the shank. That has worked out quite nicely however as the little piece won't take too long to air dry.

Next weight it as you'll work out the weight of the other ingredients from the meat's weight.

Now to calculate the weight of the cure ingredients from the 1124g starting point based on the following percentages.

1. 3.8% salt

2. 3% sugar

3. 2% minced garlic

4. 1.4% black pepper

5. 1% fresh rosemary

6. 0.4% flattened juniper berries

7. 0.25% Prague powder No.2

After weighing it all out mix it all up.

Sprinkle half on the bottom of a large zip-lock bag and plonk the lamb on top. Grab the second half and massage it onto the top of the meat. Flip over and give the underside a massage. Bung it in the fridge for 15 days, massaging both sides daily. 

Phase one has begun. Phase two in commences in 15 days.

Homemade Bresaola - Not quite right!

It's had three week and has lost about 40% of its weight. To my knowledge that surely means it is ready! It would appear not! I cut the lump in half and it is quite squishy in the middle.

@lambposts of River Cottage fame to the rescue again. He says bung it in the fridge and it should toughen up in 10 days or so. Job done!

Homemade Bresaola - MAJOR MOULD - Week2

Six days ago. Nothing. Now this.

White mould is good. Green, not so good, but not the end of the world. It's black mould that would be the death of it. Can I see black mould? Maybe.

I'll plough on with it anyway. I've washed the worst of it off with red wine vinegar and popped it back in the loft for the final week.