Up until now, I’ve shown you many of my successful cheeses, but what about the Cheese Making failures?
Well, in this video I show you many of the cheeses that didn’t make it to the YouTube channel. I am still working to perfect some of these cheeses and hope to bring a video tutorial about them soon.
As you can see, some of them are not pretty. However, as with any hobby or skill, it is the mistakes we make that helps us to learn.
Just so you know, I taste every single cheese that I make, good or bad. That way I have some idea of what may have gone wrong i.e. too acidic, no acid development, not enough salt.
Even when they are covered in mould, I still try the cheese because you never know if you’ve invented a new type that you may want to replicate.
That is why it is also important to keep notes during the cheese making session.
This is something that I didn’t do early on in my cheese making obsession, but I definitely do now. I take meticulous notes on ingredient amounts, actual temperatures, timings, and pressures. It helps me to be able to create the same style of cheese next time.
So, I believe that one person’s cheese making failures are another’s success. That’s why I share all this cheesy knowledge with you, all for free!
Hello Gavin!
I Just watched your vid about When Cheese Fails. After a year of successfully making Ricottas, Chèvres, and Fetas, I had my first failure this weekend with Quick Mozzarella. You know, that cheese so easy that beginners make it?
It was Mess-arella! I followed your recipe with the following variation: I had no lipase, so for milk I used 3 litres full-cream cow milk and l litre goat milk (for its natural lipase), and I included CaCl due to the pasteurization. After letting the rennet rest, the mass was not curd-like — more like stringy melted cheese which clung to my curd knife. I drained it through cheesecloth, microwaved it in a Pyrex bowl, and the whey turned milky-cloudy while the mass got soft & sticky. I microwaved it a couple more times, but stopped trying to drain off the whey when it became apparent that I was losing product in the form of milk going down the drain. Kneading or stretching the soupy pseudo curd was impossible. Finally I opted to salvage what remained by putting it into a container in the fridge. It firmed up a little, but was more like grainy cheese sauce than filata cheese. But oh my gracious it was DELICIOUS! And it was perfectly usable as part of a pasta & cheese casserole.
Was there not enough lipase? Is there maybe some difference between our citric acids? What are your thoughts on what made me flunk out of Beginner Cheesemaking 101?
Thanks for your wonderful videos. (I am not discouraged.)