The Essential Book of Fermentation (32 page)

1 pint whole milk, raw and organic if possible

½ cup cultured buttermilk

1.
Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat to a simmer, then set the pan aside until the milk returns to room temperature. Stir in the buttermilk.

2.
Pour the mixture into a glass or plastic container with a lid. Put on the lid and set on the kitchen counter or in a cupboard at room temperature for 24 hours, until it thickens to the consistency of yogurt.

3.
Set a strainer in a bowl and line the strainer with cheesecloth. Pour in the thickened mixture and make sure the bottom of the strainer is far enough above the bottom of the bowl for the whey to drain off. Place it in the fridge overnight for the whey to completely drain off.

4.
Use immediately or transfer the quark to a container with a lid and refrigerate. Use it within a week.

A Few Recipes Using Cheese

These recipes call for certain types of commercial cheese, but if you are making cheese at home, feel free to substitute your own. Aim to keep the texture and flavor of your homemade cheese as similar as possible to the commercial cheeses mentioned here. The easiest way to do this is to first use the commercial cheese recommended in the recipe, then match it as closely as practicable with one of your own. In a nutshell, the longer the cheese ages, the more intense its flavor. The more butterfat in the milk or cream, the softer the cheese will be, and softness depends also on the bacterial culture used. Blue cheese and many other highly flavored cheeses are made with special cultures. A good source online is www.dairyconnection.com, but there are other fine sources of cheese cultures.

Argentiera-Style Ragusano

Ragusano is an artisanal, organic Sicilian raw cow’s milk cheese from pasture-fed, free-ranging cows, made only during the natural pasture season from November to May. The following recipe is from the Consorzio Ricerca Filiera Lattiero Casearia, which is working to protect Ragusano’s natural heritage. Imagine this with your own cow’s milk cheese. Wine recommendation: Stravecchio Siciliano from Vittoria, Province of Ragusa, Sicily.

Serves 4

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

14 ounces Ragusano Riserva cheese, cut into ¼-inch slices

4 ounces dried olives, pitted

Red wine vinegar

Fresh oregano leaves

In a large cast-iron pan, gently heat the oil with the crushed garlic. As soon as the garlic softens, remove it and lay the cheese slices in the pan. Gently brown the cheese on both sides. Remove the slices to a plate and keep them warm. To the remaining oil in the pan, add the olives and heat them over medium heat, sprinkling in a few teaspoons of vinegar and allowing the liquid to gently reduce, about a minute or two. Place the cheese on individual warm plates, top with the olives and reduced vinegar-oil mixture, and sprinkle with oregano.

Blue Cheese Meatballs

Forget the fancy cuisines of the two coasts. In Iowa, they’re still doing down-home American cooking. But when you use a cheese as special and delectable as Maytag Blue, the results are anything but ordinary. Blue cheese culture is available from Dairy Connection (www.dairyconnection.com) and other sources. If you have access to goat’s milk, goat blue cheese is a heavenly alternative to cow’s milk blue.

Serves 2 Iowa farmhands or 4 light eaters

1 pound extra-lean ground beef

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 medium onion, finely diced

½ cup plain bread crumbs

4 ounces blue cheese

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups beef stock

5 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced

In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the beef, egg, and onion together. Mix in the bread crumbs. Make 4 large meatballs out of the mixture. Punch a hole in the center of each meatball and insert 1 ounce of blue cheese. Seal the meatballs so the cheese is encapsulated.

Heat the oil over medium heat in a cast-iron skillet and lightly brown the meatballs on all sides, about 3 or 4 minutes. Remove them from the pan. Add the flour to the skillet and mix until the flour absorbs the oil and any liquid. Return the meatballs to the skillet and add the stock and mushrooms. Bring to a simmer and cook over low heat for 1 hour, turning the meatballs occasionally. Serve over rice.

Cheesecake Using Fromage Blanc

Down in West Virginia, Greg and Verena Sava make a delicious organic and fermented fromage blanc that substitutes beautifully for butter, measure for measure, in many dessert recipes. Here’s their cheesecake recipe. It’s simple and astoundingly delicious. You’ll find the recipe for your own easy-to-make fromage blanc
here
.

Crust

1½ cups whole wheat flour

½ cup wheat germ

⁷⁄
₈cup Sucanat (whole cane sugar)

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup ice-cold water

Filling

3 large eggs

¾ cup granulated sugar

Zest of ½ lemon

4 cups fromage blanc

▪
MAKE THE CRUST:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Combine the flour, wheat germ, and Sucanat in a large bowl. Add the oil and water at once and mix well until the mixture is soft and moist. Press the dough evenly into a 10-inch pie pan.

▪
MAKE THE FILLING:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the eggs with the sugar and lemon zest until well blended. Add the fromage blanc and again mix until all is well blended. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and bake for 1 hour, or until the center of the cheesecake is still wobbly and soft. Turn off the heat and let it cool in the oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours. This prevents the cheesecake from cracking and makes it smooth, creamy, and light. Cover and store in the refrigerator. Allow the cheesecake to come to room temperature before serving.

Kentucky Spoon Bread with Goat Cheese and Country Ham

When I asked Judy Schad of Capriole Farmstead Goat Cheeses, the artisan goat cheese maker from Greenville, Indiana, for a recipe using her fresh goat cheese, she didn’t hesitate to give me this one from Joe Castro, executive chef at Louisville’s famous Camberley Brown Hotel. It’s rich, so make this a special treat—maybe for a cold November morning when you want to practice for Thanksgiving.