I usually open but today I closed so I’m up late and not at all tired which is going to make 5:30 am tomorrow SO MUCH FUN but until then I’m enjoying My Little Poop Deck and the falling temps and distant lightning and intermittent rain and did I mention rosé? Because, rosé.
Crappy photo of a squirrel on the deck of the building next door, with the kong it stole from my dog off my deck. Squirrels. Total jerks.
I think I finally have a mentor at work.
stupon asked: Why isn't Toni allergic to me?
Because labradoodles are hypoallergenic.
I am looking for a downloadable calendar of Millenium Park concerts for the summer, either iCal or Google Calendar. Anybody know where a girl can find one? I tried the googles with no luck?
tj:
Lindsay asked me to turn this into a ringtone for Bridget.
Of course, I could not not refuse such a request.
Ringtones, for the iPhone at least, have to be 30 seconds or less, so I had to edit it down. But I think I have kept the True Essence of the song.
- WWS.m4r - iPhone Ringtone
- WWS.mp3 - generic MP3 suitable for whatever, like, Android, I guess, maybe? Windows Phone Mobile 7 Pro XP with Windows?
And, of course, you’ll also want an even smaller bit of wiener for your iMessage/SMS/Text Message alerts.
- WWS-txt.m4r - iPhone
- WWS-txt.mp3 - generic
This is important.
tj:
This kid. I can’t even with the words. I’m so proud and blessed to be his mother. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s something in my eye…
I’m pretty damn lucky. I have a great mom, and so does my kid. Who is pretty great too.
People aren’t always born into the right family. But, if you’re lucky, you’ll make amazing friends who will become your true family. These nerds - all three of them - are my family of choice.
On Thursday 500 litres of milk arrived at the dairy, and we made cheese.
It was the first time making what will be our main cheese - Jowett.
We made the cheese in pretty much the same way as cheesemakers have made cheese in mountain regions of Eastern France for hundreds of years, the only differences being the vat was heated over a gas burner rather than an wood fueled fire, and the cheeses were pressed using compressed air.
The evening before the milk came, I made rennet soup by rehydration stripes of dried calves abomasum (4th stomach chamber) in boiled and cooled to 30degrees C water, and starter cultures specific to mountain cheese making. This is a practice rarely done today, with most cheesemakers using rennet in a liquid form with specified streights available, and standardised ratios of Chymosin:Pepsin (digestive enzymes in rennet which cause coagulation). In most cheesemaking recipes, starter culture is added to the milk before rennet too begin the acidification process (converting lactose into lactic acid), but for mountain cheeses, where there is little acidity development in the vat, both are added simultaneously.
Making rennet soup, and trying to achive a solution with the same composition each time could be one of the hardest of the many variable in the make to control, and is equally one of the most influential variables - the enzymatic activity (or streight) of the solution will dictate the flocculation time (the point at which milk proteins begin to coagulate), with knock on effect on acidity development, texture, and flavour.
The rennet soup cooled overnight more than I wanted it too - so theoretically, wasn’t as active as it would have been if it had stayed at 30degrees. Despite this, the flocculation time was spot on where we wanted it, and the curds behaved themselves. So the question for the next make is do we stay with the same weight of abomasum, and not worry about the overnight temperature drop; or do we keep the weight the same and try to maintain the temperature overnight and see what the effect is; or do we lower the weight and try to maintain the temperature?
There are so many variables to change, and questions surrounding the make we did, things to do differently, things which happened well, things which didn’t go to plan. Our job now is to work out what to change and what to do the same for next time, without changing anything too dramatically, or making too many big changes at once. These desisions will all have to be based on trying to get the temperature, speed of heating, texture of the curd, and acidity development at this stage, as we blindly try to steer the cheeses towards where we want them, without being able to test the cheese for flavour and texture for at least 6 weeks.
The 48 hours surrounding the making of the first ever Jowett cheeses were both the hardest, and greatest. We are proud to have made Jowett for the first time, and I have finally realised my dream of making mountain cheese in middle England, in a copper cauldron, with organic, raw milk, and rennet soup.
Next week, back to lactic cheese.
Cheese is science and art. All hail cheese.
BULLSHIT
