I was so worn out yesterday, working 27 hours in two days. But I made it through another farmer's market, and picked up Benjamin from the bus depot in the evening. He got right to work and went to market this morning while I made a batch of cheese. It felt rather relaxing after two market days, just me alone with the milk. I made a small (50 gallons is small, right?) batch of Temple Mountain, which is our Alpine-style cheese. (Think gruyere.)
Every time we make a batch of cheese, any notes we have get jotted down for future reference. It's much more accurate than just assuming it's the same as what it says on the recipe, since things always happen. Maybe the milk was heated two degrees higher than it should have been, or the curds were cut a little small. These aren't things that always matter, but when your cheese tastes oddly bitter 6 months later, it's helpful to be able to look back at what happened. (There's really not much hope of remembering what you did 100 batches ago.)
Annyway, I was checking through Benjamin's old notes on this cheese since I hadn't made this one myself before. Even when I'm following a recipe, sometimes I'll wonder exactly how long coagulation has taken in the past, or how many wheels Benjamin made with this much milk. It's quite useful to be able to check up on those things...
Every time we make a batch of cheese, any notes we have get jotted down for future reference. It's much more accurate than just assuming it's the same as what it says on the recipe, since things always happen. Maybe the milk was heated two degrees higher than it should have been, or the curds were cut a little small. These aren't things that always matter, but when your cheese tastes oddly bitter 6 months later, it's helpful to be able to look back at what happened. (There's really not much hope of remembering what you did 100 batches ago.)
Annyway, I was checking through Benjamin's old notes on this cheese since I hadn't made this one myself before. Even when I'm following a recipe, sometimes I'll wonder exactly how long coagulation has taken in the past, or how many wheels Benjamin made with this much milk. It's quite useful to be able to check up on those things...
...which is why finding these notes from February amused me. Benjamin said he must have been too tired to be writing in English. Obviously, there were notes of other batches that I could read, so I didn't have any trouble finding what I needed. I just enjoyed finding this gem.
(Since most of the pertinent information is the numbers and I know what generally gets written down, plus the sprinkling of English words, I am actually able to glean a lot of useful info from this.)
(Since most of the pertinent information is the numbers and I know what generally gets written down, plus the sprinkling of English words, I am actually able to glean a lot of useful info from this.)