Cheese-Making 101

As a "thank you" for letting him turn our garage, followed by our Great Room, into his own personal painting studio, Leif sent us to a cheese making class in Portland. This hands-on class was offered by In Good Taste, a chef's store in the Pearl District in Portland.

The class was hands-on and had a great ratio of teachers to students: there were 13 people taking the class, and including the instructors, kitchen staff, there were at least 5 people attending to us over the course of the ~3 hours. They split the students into 4 groups, and each group made ricotta, mascarpone, and mozzarella cheese. At the end of the evening, the staff had prepared a meal consisting of some of the cheese we had made plus roasted asparagus, poached pears stuffed with mascarpone and dates, and bruschetta. If anyone is looking for cooking classes, we highly recommend In Good Taste!

Overall, soft cheese making is fairly easy; the key is to watch the temperature of the liquid. And if you can find it, use whole milk labeled pasteurized, NOT ultra-pasteurized or UHT (ultra-high temperature), as the ultra-pasteurization process kills some of the flavor. The instructors all recommended getting comfortable making soft cheeses before moving on to try hard cheeses, which use basically the same process as soft cheeses but require more finesse.

We're pretty excited about being able to make our own mozzarella in particular. When summer comes, we'll be harvesting tomatoes and basil from our garden and combining it with our homemade mozzarella and bread for some of the best bruschetta around. We may never leave home!

- Mike (& Corinne)