Cheese Making

Headed to the Netherlands today to learn to make cheese at Kaas and Kampeerboerderij "Hoekelum". Go ahead...try and pronounce that.

We began with bowl of milk that had come fresh from the cow this morning. I think that was my favorite part. I started to ask if we could get the name of the cow, but I decided against it.

Then we slowly stirred the milk with a special knife until we separated the curds from the whey. How Little Miss Muffet at that stuff is beyond me! We had to strain it and then add water and then strain some more. We learned all about enzymes and bacteria and what makes cheese cheese from the house cheese master. It was really cool.

After we drained the last time, the cheese master came around and picked up a handful of the curds. From the size of our curd, she could tell us how long our cheese would need to age before it came to its full flavor. Melanie, Susan and I had produced a three-month cheese. Which means we will have to care for our cheese for that period of time before we can eat it. For the next three weeks, I have to turn my cheese daily, until it gets dry. And after that, I have to turn it every three days or so and take care to wipe away any mold that begins to grow on it with a vinegar and water solution. Stay tuned for results on that one!

So we put our cheese into these little bowls. It looked all mottled like cottage cheese, but by the time all the water got pressed out, it looked like a little ball of white cheese. Ready to be cared for.

At the shop afterward, the cheese master (this is the title I bestowed upon her, I don't know what her official name is) let us try the the two different cheeses. Both were the same type of cheese, but one had been aged only six weeks and another six months. The difference in the flavors was amazing, and the only difference between the two was how long they had been sitting on the shelf. My nose is a little stopped up tonight after tasting all the cheese, but it was worth it!

It really was a lot of fun. We are able to buy some cheese that was ready to eat, and Maddie put away several slices of the Gouda that I brought home. Gouda is the cheese of choice in this area of the world and there are about 100 different varieties. Little tip I learned from another ex-pat today: gouda with cumin--really good with Mexican food. Don't even know if you can get cumin Gouda in the states, but it's plentiful here. Which is odd, since Mexican food isn't.

It is really cold here, but we're hoping to do some sightseeing this weekend in places where we can go indoors.