Today I made just a half pound block of butter – I wanted to use up the cream I had, even though it wasn’t going to make a full block.
It is so rich and delicious, I just love it. I had to toast a waffle just so I could use the leftover butter from the spatula!
The other awesome dairy news today is that we now have a cheese cave! My friends had a little bar fridge taking up space in the garage, and graciously delivered it here today. With the addition of the external thermostat device (which we used to use on our chest freezer fridge), there is now a thermostatically controlled cabinet in which to age cheese at about 12 C and 80-95% humidity. There’s a little thermometer/hygrometer sitting inside so I can monitor the temperature and humidity, and four jelly jars full of water in the door seem to be keeping the humidity where it needs to be. I’ll have to watch over the next few days and see what happens, but this is very exciting! Cheese needs time to age and develop good flavour, but it needs warmer temperatures and higher humidity than a regular fridge provides, and much cooler than the ambient temperature anywhere in our house, so this is just perfect.
The latest cheese is soaking in brine right now, almost time to pull it out and let it dry off then into the cave it goes! I just opened the cave door to check things and oh, my, the smell is heavenly! It is all buttery cheesey goodness in there. Yum.
Two months then we can have our first cheese tasting. July 23, mark it on the calendar!
Ingenious You!
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