How to make Lemon Confit and Lemon Flavored Salt

In today's blog, something fun and very easy. It is Lemon Confit and the very first thing I did for charcuterie. It is so straight forward I won't do a video about it. Here is what you do.

Ingredients
12 Lemons
1 Box Morton's Kosher Salt
Non-reactive container big enough to hold the lemons and salt

Method
1) Scrub 12 Lemons and dry them.
2) Cut them in half.
3) Pour 1 inch of salt in the container
4) Add the lemons
5) Cover the lemons with remaining salt
6) Store in a dark place for at least a month.

How to use

Simply take out a lemon, cut it in half, remove the pulp and pith and finely slice the rind. Use the rind in salads, stews or anything else you like. The salt that has been used to cure the lemons will be lemon flavored itself and is great in many dishes.

Resources

As a novice cheese maker it is often hard to find good resources to use. So, in this blog I am going to list some resources that I have found very helpful in learning how to make cheese at home. The first thing I would like to say is stay away from those cheese making kits. My opinion is that they are over priced for what you get. It is cheaper and better to put together what you need and this gives you the flexibility to experiment as well. But as with all things, research is very important. So here are some recommendations.

Books

A very good book for beginning cheese makers is Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Gianaclis Caldwell. It gives a real good introduction to cheese making. It goes through the entire process of making cheese and gives a lot of detail, but it is not over whelming. Then it give some really good recipes to try.

Another good resource is Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll. Ricki is the so called "Cheese Queen" and her book has been a standard for about 20 years. It contains good information and is a good introductory book.

Supplies

As I have tried to show in my videos there are a few basic supplies that you will need to begin with. They are things that you should have around the house.

Instant Read Thermometer -- I have a thermapen, but I would not recommend the one I have for cheese making. You can get a good instant read thermometer from a place like Bed, Bath and Beyond for under 10 dollars.

Stainless Steel Pot -- Get a pot that can actually hold at least 2 gallons of milk. Most recipes call for this amount of milk.

Cheese cloth -- Available from several sources.

Stainless Steel strainer and spoon -- You can get a set of 5 stainless steel utensils from Amazon for about 12 dollars.

Starters, Rennet, Molds/Baskets etc. -- There are two web sites that I recommend. One is
Rick Carroll's Cheese Making Site and the other is Steve Shapson's Cheese Making Site

Cheese Presses -- A cheese press is needed for making hard cheeses. There are lots available, but for the money I would recommend the Sturdy Press. That is what I have and it works great. You can check them out at The Cheese Sturdy Press

This list of resources should get you started in making cheese at home.

How to make Duck Breast Prosciutto Part 2

Here is the second part of how to make Duck Breast Prosciutto. I take it out of the salt, rinse it off, wrap it in some muslin and hang it in the cheese age refrigerator for a week. My Duck Breast only need a week to dry out because they are so thin. If you are using thicker Duck Breast, and thicker is better, then it might take 2 or 3 weeks to fully cure. If after a week it is still a little "squishy" let it stay for another week.

How to make Duck Breast Prosciutto

Today I make Duck Breast Prosciutto. About a week ago I did a Ham Prosciutto and you may have thought there is no way I can do that. Well, I didn't think I could either, until I tried making Duck Breast Prosciutto. It was so easy to do, and so tasty, that it gave me the confidence to try doing the Ham. So, watch the video, go out and buy a duck breast or two and make Duck Breast Prosciutto.

How to make Feta Cheese Part 3

This is the final part in how to make Feta Cheese. I discuss how to make a brine solution, and how to measure the salinity of the brine solution. I also discuss how to make Feta less salty before you serve it.

How to make Feta Parts 1 and 2

Double dose of the blog today. After the milk discussion I decided to make Feta. So, if you like Feta, watch the videos and see how I make my Feta.

Milk the most important ingredient

Today I am discussing milk. This discussion goes on longer than I thought it would, so the video ends abruptly. Sorry about that. There is a lot that can be said about milk, and I hope I covered the basics. If you have questions or comments please write them in the blog.

Making prosciutto

     Today I did my first prosciutto style ham. As my co-worker Jay said when I told him what I was going to do, "Man that is some serious salt!" Yes it was some serious salt, and some serious fun!. After it has cured in the salt, I will hang it to cure in the air for about 4 months.
     While I am curing this ham in the Parma style, it cannot be called  Prosciutto di Parma. So, maybe I should call it Prosciutto di Annapolis. The ham is from Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm. We are members of his buying club, and got 2 hams from him in November. I am following the technique described in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's The River Cottage Cookbook. Watch the video below to see what I did.

How to make a soft-ripened cheese Part 3

Today I have included the third part of making a soft-ripened cheese. Soon I will be going over resources. I hope this does not start a holy war, but I will discuss books that I have found helpful and web sites for supplies that I use. I figured we should do that sooner rather than later as some of you may be wondering where to get your supplies from.

How to make a soft-ripened cheese parts 1 and 2

So, now it is time to get down to making cheese. The first cheese I am going to make is a soft-ripened cheese called Quark. I first learned how to make this cheese from Larry and +Linda Faillace while attending a cheese making class taught at their Three Shepherds Farm. This is a rennet assisted cheese. This means that we use a little rennet to help in the formation of curds. Let me go over some basics for a few minutes. Cheese making involves the process of forming curds from milk solids. There are two ways to do this, with acid or with rennet. In later blogs we will go into much more detail on the formation of curd and other subjects. But for now we will stay pretty basic. This cheese combines both methods. The acid is formed by the use of a mesophilic starter. This starter will consume the lactose sugar and convert it into lactic acid. After 24 hours a soft curd will form. For the cheese we are making, we are going to add a few drops of rennet to aid in the formation of the curd. Watch the videos below to learn how to make this cheese.

Welcome and what is this all about.

Hi, my name is Richard Christie.I am an amateur cheese maker. I have also gotten into charcuterie - the art of salting and curing meat. The purpose of this blog is to document my efforts in both cheese making and curing meats. I will be sharing what I am doing and posting pictures. I hope others will learn from my experiences and that they will share their own experiences so that we can all learn together. Over the next few blogs I will be making a soft "quark" style cheese and starting to make prosciutto from a ham that I have. I am no expert, but I hope that we can all learn and grow. Some of the skills practiced here, are the beginning steps of self-sufficiency. Think of the opening chapter of Laura Ingalls Wilder's book House in the Big Woods. So, let's get down to making cheese and preserving meat!