Cheese made with fermented juice?

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lacto

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Hello folks,

Has anyone here successfully made cheese using the juice from something like sauerkraut or kimchi?

I was thinking of using the juice like a coagulant (like lemon juice or vinegar) to add to raw milk then resting it for a couple of days - or until it has congealed then separating curds from whey. This might result in a type of farmers cheese but hopefully with a slightly different flavour.

If you have done this was it successful ... if it was then I will have a go.


Thanks.
 
Sounds like it would be really tasty if it was acidic enough to actually make curds. Especially kimchi juice. Spicy, garlicky, salty, vinegary. I'm thinking you would still need to add more vinegar or lemon juice to get the curds to break. Interesting idea.
 
Sounds like it would be really tasty if it was acidic enough to actually make curds. Especially kimchi juice. Spicy, garlicky, salty, vinegary. I'm thinking you would still need to add more vinegar or lemon juice to get the curds to break. Interesting idea.
Well, after a couple of hours in the clabber box at around 85f it looks like it might just do the stuff - I'm using one month old plus kimchi juice which is at a wonderful flavour. I am also trying an eight month old kraut juice that seems to have taken on an intense alcohol like flavour (a bit like vodka!) but I'm not sure about what it might taste like. Also I will rustle up some sorrel juice just in case - I mean who doesn't like bright green cheese?! But I will give it til tomorrow ... abientot!
 
Last night I checked the tests - the kimchi mix was very solid! So I mixed 80ml of kimchi juice to a litre of raw milk.

12 hours later the curds had separated and a skin had formed. This has great potential. The taste of the curds is ... interesting - maybe a bit of salt will bring out the flavour. The skin tastes amazing and so I will add that back to the curds (it tastes like it's the cream). I will add the salt and skin now, mix it a bit then leave it to hang for another 24 hours ...
 
Last night I checked the tests - the kimchi mix was very solid! So I mixed 80ml of kimchi juice to a litre of raw milk.

12 hours later the curds had separated and a skin had formed. This has great potential. The taste of the curds is ... interesting - maybe a bit of salt will bring out the flavour. The skin tastes amazing and so I will add that back to the curds (it tastes like it's the cream). I will add the salt and skin now, mix it a bit then leave it to hang for another 24 hours ...
Interesting!!
 
24 hours later ...

I decided not to hang the curds because they were already solid enough to support the cheese. So, using my specialist cheese press (a short cylindrical piece of plastic, and a water filled jam jar that fits neatly into the cylinder!), I turned and dried the cheese a few times during the day.

Today I tasted a sample - most excellent! A robust cheese with a creamy slightly tangy with a gentle background kimchi flavour. If it lasts more than a week then I should start to taste an increase in the tanginess. I will definitely do this again.

If any of you have any advice regarding the storing the cheese then please let me know - at the moment the cheese is in the 15c/60f pantry in an open container.

My next experiment will be 1. Making a month old kraut juice of cabbage and salt, with sorrel leaves, plus some grated wurzel peelings to add an earthy/sweet note. Then 2. The basic kraut with added wurzel, bolete mushrooms, nettles for the acid, and perhaps a small amount of walnut oil, and an even smaller amount of kelp powder.

Just one other note of interest - I think the dairy has now allowed the cows longer access to grass and less to pellets so the result is a creamier tastier milk - win win eh?
 
24 hours later ...

I decided not to hang the curds because they were already solid enough to support the cheese. So, using my specialist cheese press (a short cylindrical piece of plastic, and a water filled jam jar that fits neatly into the cylinder!), I turned and dried the cheese a few times during the day.

Today I tasted a sample - most excellent! A robust cheese with a creamy slightly tangy with a gentle background kimchi flavour. If it lasts more than a week then I should start to taste an increase in the tanginess. I will definitely do this again.

If any of you have any advice regarding the storing the cheese then please let me know - at the moment the cheese is in the 15c/60f pantry in an open container.

My next experiment will be 1. Making a month old kraut juice of cabbage and salt, with sorrel leaves, plus some grated wurzel peelings to add an earthy/sweet note. Then 2. The basic kraut with added wurzel, bolete mushrooms, nettles for the acid, and perhaps a small amount of walnut oil, and an even smaller amount of kelp powder.

Just one other note of interest - I think the dairy has now allowed the cows longer access to grass and less to pellets so the result is a creamier tastier milk - win win eh?
Nice one! So it's basically just milk plus juice from fermented veggies? Nothing else needed ingredient wise?
 
Nice one! So it's basically just milk plus juice from fermented veggies? Nothing else needed ingredient wise?
... That is correct miraculix! Just raw milk plus one month old kimchi juice - I loosely followed Sandor Katz' basic kimchi recipe from "Wild Fermentation" ... I just used wild orange bolete broth with a little added kelp powder instead of fish sauce. 8% juice to one litre of milk clabbered for 24 hours then weighted 24 hours then - today - I tasted for tanginess ... WOW ... this tastes just like a kimchi flavoured caerphilly!

Actually 8% juice might be just a bit too strong for me ... I will try around 6% next go.
 
Can you age this and make something like Masdamer or similar yellow cheese out of it?
Ah ... You have me there! I have not tried Masdamer as far as I know. My feeling is that this clabbered cheese will intensify with age. I have left a clabbered cheese for about three weeks and found that the tartness too much. I was told that if I made a blue cheat cheese ( cheese inoculated with the blue mold from shop bought Rochfort) and left it for one month it would taste good ... but unfortunately the flavour, although extremely tasty, was in fact on the verge of being inedible for my taste. So I think it is the same here. This young cheese tastes amazingly creamy and that is what I am looking for.
 
Awesome stuff, you’ve opened a whole new world of possibilities. I’m a cheese lover. I’m wondering if you can apply salt on surface of a small sample and let it age, would be interesting to see how it turns out.
 
Awesome stuff, you’ve opened a whole new world of possibilities. I’m a cheese lover. I’m wondering if you can apply salt on surface of a small sample and let it age, would be interesting to see how it turns out.
OK Dewan, I have just salted a small sample. I am wondering what is the appropriate way of storing. Do I store at room temperature, or in coldstore (15c), or in the fridge (5c)? And should I seal it in a container or allow it to dry out on a plate?

... Oh, and how long do I store it for?
 
As per my own experience, let it be at room temperature, covered with cheese cloth. Salt will extract moisture and atmosphere will remove it. It'll need a month at least. Hope it turns into something wonderful.
 
It's been 8 days maturing and the sample is very hard ... too hard - it easily breaks if I try to cut it. Tastes OK but with my next experiment I might add a tiny amount of walnut oil just to see if it does not dry out too much - and perhaps I might not weight it - just let the whey drain naturally. So while this kimchi cheese continues to mature I might try out the two afore mentioned kraut juices - both have very different tastes at this time so I will try clabbering a couple more goes tomorrow ...
 
It is now about ten days in maturing the sample, and it is now totally dried out and hard and crumbly. So I think the answer to your question Dewan is - no. it will not become a mature cheese. However. having broken off an even smaller sample I have crushed it into a fine powder which tastes like a salty but very creamy parmesan!

I have just clabbered some more milk mixed with a fine tasting kraut juice. After 48 hours in the clabber box the milk has solidified into a mixture of thick cream/juice, then a dreamy flavoured yogurt, then a textured curd which is almost firm enough to stand up by itself! The taste is excellent - like a sought of tangy creamy farmers - very tasty, very edible! I will hang it to separate the whey, then tomorrow make it into a small (about 230g) round ... and eat it.

I have a question for anybody ... the curd has an almost fibrous texture which I would rather not have - does anyone know if adding something like raw walnut oil will keep it a smoother texture? If it does then is there a method to do so?
 
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