Cheese

The deli counter seems to have quite a different view of cheese than its history in America might suggest. The skill of making cheese came to America in the early 17th century along with English Puritan dairy farmers in the “New World.” Women were the primary keepers and practitioners of this skill. Throughout the East Coast women would use the skill of cheese making as a way to preserve milk, creating a store of nutritious food for future months. It began entirely as a home-based industry to make cheese for the home or for local markets. Cheddar cheese proved to be a sturdy cheese that stored well in the environmental conditions of New England and thus gained much popularity (it also makes a mean grilled cheese, though not sure this was typical colonial fare). This cheddar produced on the newly termed “American” soil became known proudly as American cheese. With such popularity and American pride, women’s household work became a rather successful and profitable enterprise (obviously these cheese women fucking rocked).
Making cheese is a rather awesome undertaking. Cheese is made by introducing specific microbial cultures into milk and creating an environment for them to proliferate (it’s alive!). To make a hard cheese rennet is used, which is derived from the stomach lining of a cow. Some other steps such as cooking the curd, pressing, salting, drying, and aging are also part of the time intensive process. Each step can be done a little differently, affecting the taste, texture, and quality of the cheese. As a cheese maker it’s interesting how small details of process can create dramatically different results. It’s also somewhat magical to watch microbes run wild in a rampant transformation to make milk into something else (it’s fucking awesome, especially when rennet is involved). It’s an exciting and stimulating process to participate in and requires a good dose of creativity and skill.

As the American population grew and industrialism took hold, the trade of cheese making changed quite dramatically. Cheese became industrialized and we see the role of women cheese makers decline. Women remained in their kitchens, but the cheese left the kitchen for the world of industry, and thus the world of men. The skill of making cheese became a specialized and professionalized business (boo, hiss!). In 1851 the first cheese factory was made by Jesse Williams and his son in New York, apparently partially motivated as a way to cover his son’s poor cheese making skills. This factory took milk from various dairies in the area and made cheese at one central location. Then in 1916 James L. Kraft enters the history of cheese, and sadly his influence is felt the strongest. He patented a process that included shredding waste cheddar pieces, re-pasteurizing it, and adding sodium phosphate making a new cheese product. These days numerous emulsifiers, water, salt, food colorings, and other processed foods derived from soy, corn, and petroleum are added into the recipe (mmm, tasty!). Thus we have the birth of modern processed cheese, thanks to Mr. Kraft. These days processed cheeses are categorized by the FDA into three categories: pasteurized process cheese, pasteurized process cheese food which contain as little as 51% of cheese, and pasteurized process cheese product with less than 51% of cheese (really, what the fuck is wrong with America?!).
Women not only changed their relationship to cheese, but to all food skills. Fast forward a couple hundred years from the colonial times to the 1950’s and we see the rise of the middle class and the propagandized middle class lifestyle featuring a gadgeted kitchen and a grocery store with a deli counter and refrigerated aisles (look honey, Spam!). As time progressed through the 20th century food was bought and moved among different gadgets to open, prepare, and heat it (umm, who doesn’t need an electric can opener? I mean, twisting the knob on the manual can openers was just so hard!). The creativity and uniqueness of the work of the kitchen was replaced with homogenized, packaged, and standardized foods and processes. The term “American cheese” no longer referred to cheddar cheese uniquely shaped by the hands of American women and American microbes. It referred to a processed somewhat neon colored cheese that came in plastic wrap for women to melt on burgers. Women could open the fridge, unwrap the cheese, then stand in front of their ovens and watch the cheese melt for the perfect moment of gooeyness and that was the most she was involved in the taste of cheese (and then she popped some much needed valium). Is it any wonder that women were beating against the walls of the kitchen and burning their bras by the 1960s?
As a woman I want to reclaim the creativity and power from crafting nutritious, unique, and well made foods. I’m not interested in holding a power corporate job title (gasp!). I want to find the power, equality, and voice in the kitchen that has been lost with a patriarchal system of industrialized foods. The industrial food system dominated by men has brought us shitty, low quality foods that are full of toxic ingredients. Women who fight for equality in the office place, but come home to melt Kraft cheese on burgers aren’t fighting the full battle (they also have boring, gross dinners). I want my own pots of warming curds and I’ll replace that mechanized temperature controlled vat that stirs for you with a wooden spoon that I’ll stir myself. Making cheese allows me to become the nurturer of microbes, the transformer of milk, directly involved in those magical processes that make cheese possible. I hold a position with power, creativity, and imagination. Good luck finding that in the corporate American job market. I can shatter the glass ceiling by reclaiming the skills that used to belong to women powerful in their kitchens, not to corporate men with jiggly bellies. I want my fucking kitchen back, bastard.

How I Make an Easy Farmer’s Cheese:
This cheese is a lot like fresh goat’s cheese or ricotta.

Materials I Use:
cheesecloth
colander
big pot
thermometer (helpful, but not necessary)

Ingredients I Use:
1 gallon whole milk (cannot be ultra-pasteurized)
½ cup lemon juice or vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
herbs – my favorites include a mixture of rosemary, thyme, lavender, and pepper

What I Do:

1) I heat the milk slowly, stirring it frequently. I heat it to the point where it’s pretty hot and about to boil. I use a thermometer, so I heat it up to about 170 degrees.

2) Once the cheese reaches the desired temperature, I slowly add the vinegar or lemon juice stirring it in as I pour. I turn off the heat and let the milk sit for about 15 minutes.

3) After 15 minutes if the milk has not coagulated I add a little more lemon juice or vinegar. I then use a slotted spoon and spoon the coagulated milk to a cheesecloth lined colander.

4) Once all the cheese is in the colander and most of the liquid drained away (I sometimes keep the liquid a.k.a. whey to use in bread or oatmeal). I add the salt and whatever herbs I might like to add. I mix these into the cheese with my hands.

5) Now I pick up the corners of the cheesecloth and twist the cloth so the cheese is all gathered in a somewhat tight ball. I often hang the cheese for a while from a hook over the sink and let the liquid drip away. I have also set up a wooden spoon, put a cutting board on the wooden spoon so the cutting board slants, put the cheese on the slanted cutting board, and on top of the cheese place another cutting board with a heavy pan weighing it down. This makes a sort of cheese press and the slant of the bottom cutting board lets the liquid drain away so the cheese isn’t sitting in the liquid that has just been pressed out of it.

6) Once the cheese has been pressed and dripped I put it in a fresh, dry cheesecloth and wrap it up and put it in the fridge. Usually the herb taste won’t really come through until the next day.

How I Make Yogurt
Yogurt is extraordinarily easy and your results will taste like the expensive yogurts at the store and cost way less.

Equipment I Use:
A large igloo cooler
a pot that will fit a quart of milk
a glass quart jar
a thermometer

Ingredients I Use:
1 quart of milk
1 tablespoon of yogurt starter (from yogurt I bought from the store that has live cultures, or from a tablespoon of my previous batch of yogurt that I have frozen)

What I Do:
1) I slowly heat the milk up to about 180 degrees, stirring frequently. Apparently this heating isn’t necessary, but it results in a thicker yogurt. If I were using raw milk, I would skip this step. The high heat would kill all the good stuff in raw milk. While the milk is heating, if I am using a yogurt starter that I have frozen, I take it out of the freezer and put the jar in a bowl of warm water so it can thaw.

2) I then turn off the heat and let the milk cool to 110 degrees. To speed up the cooling process I have put the pot of milk into a bowl of ice water. As the milk cools, I fill the cooler with water that is about 110 degrees so that the water would come about ¾ of the way up the jar. I also stick the jar into the warm water to warm it up so that when I put the milk into the jar it won’t loose any heat.

3) Once the milk is at 110 degrees I stir in the yogurt starter. Then I pour the milk into the warmed jar and put the jar into the cooler filled with warmed water. I put a thermometer into the cooler as well and then shut the cooler.

4) I leave the cooler in a place where it won’t be disturbed or jostled. I usually let the yogurt set for about 8 – 12 hours. At some point around 6 hours or so, I open up the cooler and check on the temperature. If the temperature has dipped down below 110 degrees, I pour out some of the water and put more water in that is about 110 degrees.

5) After about 8 hours I check to see if the yogurt is yogurty. If it isn’t quite there I check the temperature again, adjust the water if needed, and give it another couple of hours. The most I have ever yogued yogurt is 12 hours. Once it is well yogued, put it in the fridge. It will be delicious and creamy!

6) As you eat your yogurt, set some aside in a jar in the freezer for your next starter. I usually take a teaspoon from the top, once I get to the middle I take another teaspoon, and then at the bottom I take another teaspoon. This can be used as the starter for your next batch. Yay, more yogurt!