The Lazy way of making Cheese

Winter is slowly installing in Slovakia. Though our herd is still grazing outside milk yields are decreasing. At this moment we only milk our goats. Our sheep fell dry with the shortening of the days. Recently we've made our last "large" quantity of cheese. At Lazy we have a maximum capacity of processing 50 ltrs of milk a day. A true small scale holding. Making of cheese starts of course with high quality clean milk. We milk both by machine and by hand. The milk is sieved and cooled directly after milking.

When we have enough milk to make cheese, the milk is heated to 29 degrees C. Some (2%) buttermilk is added to acidify the milk. This is left for an approximate 30 minutes while keeping the right temperature.

Rennet is added according to the producers label. Slightly stirred and left while maintaining the right temperature  

When the milk has set you can obtain a clean cut with a long knife. The clogged milk is cut squares of appr. 2x2 cm.

The solid parts (curd) are separated from the liquid (whey) by stirring for about 10 minutes cutting the cheese particles to a pea size.

The curd is set to rest for 10 minutes. The curd will sink to the bottom, the whey will float. The whey is then collected. We use the whey to feed our two pigs.

Hot water is added until we have a temperature of 33 degrees C. The curd is stirred again for 10 minutes. Whey is collected and hot water is added again to reach a temperature of 37 degrees C.

The curd is left to ripen for 20 minutes while maintaining the 37 degrees C.

 The cheese moulds are filled.

The last whey is pressed out. We press about 6 hours with 3x the weight of the cheese.

According to size the cheese are pickled in a salt bath for 12-24 hours.

Cheese are ripened in our cheese cellar. They are turned and polished each day to prevent molding and to obtain optimum quality.

This cheese can be eaten after 3 weeks but we like him also at least 6 months old! With or without walnuts!