I'm disgusted with the quality of most cheeses and then I think.....

[Chadwick]

Heck, I can make my own beer from scratch. Why not cheese? After all, my love for really good cheese is not unlike my love for really good beer.

Dear lord, I just realized. I'm one of those people with spoiled tastes for the finest things in life. I can't just be happy to drink a beer. I must drink the best beer. I can't be satisfied with the cheese at Save-a-Lot, I want that 20 dollar an ounce stuff from the Liqueur Barn. And don't get me started on breads. Dear lord how I love the chewy crust of a fine sourdough with its soft delicate center....oh yes. Did I ever tell anyone how my family makes our own soda? Yes, even the soda pop in this house has fallen victim to my desire for quality and good flavor.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm thankful for a great many things. One of which is that I know the difference between what is just "ok" and what is great. Moreover, I have the power and ability to provide for my family the great things. And now my curiosity is going to be adding cheese to this soon. Because dammit, my family is going to eat some GOOD cheese!

 

[Bigcorona]

I am also working on making great cheese. So far I have found it much easier to make great beer. I think cheese has a longer learning curve. I will get there eventually.

 

[Homercidal]

I made Mozz a couple of times and after the first batch it's turned out great. Even the first batch was not bad, just not as salty as I prefer.

Then I made a 1 lb. batch of Farmhouse Cheddar and it wasn't great. I let it age for several months. I had about half of that left at about the 1 year age and I tried it again and for some reason it was a LOT better! I ate some with some sausage and crackers and then used the rest in a cheddar soup.

I think it's about time to make some more. Maybe a couple batches that I can squirrel away.

Also, FYI, you may be tempted to make some Ricotta with the leftover whey, but I want to warn you that you will get maybe a 1/4 cup out of a lb.s of cheddar. Seriously, it's not even worth the effort. Mine turned out fine, but it was hardly anything.

 

[Chadwick]

I made Mozz a couple of times and after the first batch it's turned out great. Even the first batch was not bad, just not as salty as I prefer.

Then I made a 1 lb. batch of Farmhouse Cheddar and it wasn't great. I let it age for several months. I had about half of that left at about the 1 year age and I tried it again and for some reason it was a LOT better! I ate some with some sausage and crackers and then used the rest in a cheddar soup.

I think it's about time to make some more. Maybe a couple batches that I can squirrel away.

Also, FYI, you may be tempted to make some Ricotta with the leftover whey, but I want to warn you that you will get maybe a 1/4 cup out of a lb.s of cheddar. Seriously, it's not even worth the effort. Mine turned out fine, but it was hardly anything.

Cheddar is on my list of cheeses to make first. I will follow that with Gorgonzola. Limburger, although I like it, would halt the project in a hurry once SWMBO gets a whiff of it. lol Besides that, even I shudder when I think of the bugs involved with Limburger and where they came from. It's like lambic, I think I like lambics(based on the examples I've tried), but I'm not ready to start making my own just yet.

 

[jgln]

Heck, I can make my own beer from scratch. Why not cheese? After all, my love for really good cheese is not unlike my love for really good beer.

Dear lord, I just realized. I'm one of those people with spoiled tastes for the finest things in life. I can't just be happy to drink a beer. I must drink the best beer. I can't be satisfied with the cheese at Save-a-Lot, I want that 20 dollar an ounce stuff from the Liqueur Barn. And don't get me started on breads. Dear lord how I love the chewy crust of a fine sourdough with its soft delicate center....oh yes. Did I ever tell anyone how my family makes our own soda? Yes, even the soda pop in this house has fallen victim to my desire for quality and good flavor.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm thankful for a great many things. One of which is that I know the difference between what is just "ok" and what is great. Moreover, I have the power and ability to provide for my family the great things. And now my curiosity is going to be adding cheese to this soon. Because dammit, my family is going to eat some GOOD cheese!

Yeah, I was going to suggest you stop shopping for cheese at 7-11 dude.

 

[Chadwick]

The town I live in is so small that we didn't even have a grocery store until Save-a-Lot moved in. Before this, the dollar store doubled as a grocery. They stocked all the usual items you would find at a grocery except they didn't have a meats section.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I know exactly how you feel... Once you get a taste for the difference between quality and average in anything, you start chasing the best of everything.

For years I've refused to cook steak at home, because I simply couldn't cook it as well as I could get in high-end steakhouses. I'd rather not eat it than cook a sub-par piece of meat. And I didn't feel like I had the right equipment to do it, as I don't have a grill that can get to the insane searing heats that they have in steakhouses. My wife has always been the cook of the house, so steak just never really made it onto the menu.

But I finally started really getting into cooking, though, and getting the equipment I need. Because I brew and already had a bunch of temp-control equipment and a Foodsaver, I started doing sous vide. Next will be a commercial sous vide circulator for ease of use, and a blowtorch for searing. I've done a few steaks now, and I finally feel like I'm putting out some serious eats.

Now I need to decide whether to go to the butcher and buy dry-aged steaks to cook for ridiculous prices, or just to start doing dry-aging at home. Because while I can afford the butcher, I'm cheap and DIY enough to think I can do it right all on my own.

And don't get me started on knives. I got a taste of what a sharp knife is like to work with, and instead of going and buying a simple knife sharpener or taking them to a professional, I now own a couple of Japanese water stones and have knives that you can shave with. But despite the fact that we've got nice Wusthof knives in the house, I'm dreaming of beautiful Shun knives!

But hey, there are a lot worse things in this world than having an eye for, and demanding, quality in the things you use and buy.

 

[NickTheGreat]

We're that way on everything in our house (pizza & BBQ especially) That's why we don't go out to eat very often.

It's both a blessing and a curse