Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Thanks for the cloth tip, Cgvegan! Do you think I could put a couple layers of cheesecloth under my cheese? Is that pretty much the same as muslin? Or should I go thicker than cheesecloth?

I impulse bought this book and I'm little under/overwhelmed because I don't have much time in my life for rejuvelac. Can anyone vouch for any of the quicker cheeses/sauces?

I hear you, vijita! In the meltable cheese section there are some yogurt based ones, so if you have access to plain soy yogurt, you can make those pretty easily. I can't vouch for them, but I'm going to try the meltable cheddar soon.

Has anyone used arrowroot instead of tapioca? I really don't like the tapioca flavor, so I want to experiment with other thickeners

I don't know, never been there. If they use miso and nooch it might be similar.

Maybe you can get ready made rejuvelac from a health food store? But really, making it yourself just means having some grains soaking and hanging out on your counter. The actual 'work' is minimal. And once you have the rejuvelac, you can store it in the fridge for up to a month, so you can make cheese whenever it suits your schedule.

I cant remember the name of the place; the fondue was thicky and heavy -but I don't know what was in it? (yeah, miso, maybe)

De Hagedis, I bet. :)

I actually don't have access to unsweetened soy yogurt. It sucks! I used to be up for all sorts of crazy fermentation projects, but these days I can't find the time.

Anyway, whining aside, I'll be making rejuvelac. I do have access to gazillions of mason jars, so that's helpful. The cheeses all sound delightful.

I think any thinnish cotton would work. It just stops the cheese sagging too much! But allows it to dry...

I used sweet potato starch in the air dried camembert, and it worked really well, as far as i could tell. I think arrowroot would be fine. I intend to try glutinous rice flour next, i'm pretty sure that will work too, i've used it in my own 'made up' cheeses. Potato starch could be good. I'm sure there are some textural differences between the starches, but i don't care if i can avoid that nasty tapioca taste :)

Thanks! Ill give arrowroot a shot and see what happens!

Bought the book, the ingredients, and my rejuvalac is sprouting I cannot wait to get started. Just wanted to thank everyone in this thread for the responses and pictures it helped me immensely with buying ingredients and figuring out timing and just plain getting me in the mindset that I would have to be patient with this. Thank you Miyoko for your numerous contributions---amazing! I will update this thread once I have something. :)

And this is my first post here :) 25+ year vegetarian (occasionally vegan through several of those years) attempting to get back to 100% vegan. I've been doing pretty well with it so far but delicious vegan cheese would be a godsend!

I read a tip on yogurt making elsewhere and it worked perfectly for non-dairy yogurt, so I thought I'd share. Use a thermos to keep the temp steady when culturing. I heated my milk to 110, added the starter yogurt, then put in a thermos and left it alone. I checked every couple of hours to see how it was doing, and the temperature stayed steady every time. It took about 8 hours, so this is definitely something you could do, go to bed, and then when you wake up you'll have yogurt.

My Herve Cheese prototype was not 100% success: the texture was not ok (next time: more natto/less starch), but the taste was definitely The One (...I still can't beleive that; how come soybased stuff can have the exact flavour of a cheese -especially such a unique one???)
My favourite guinea pigs were amazed and ate the whole cube (even though it was not a cube) :)

I just served the Cashew Cream Cheese on Xmas Eve at a party, alongside some dairy cream cheese, because my father left it when he went away, and I wanted to get rid of it.

Because I couldn't afford another failure (the first time it went bad,) I put the container into another container with warm water, to keep the mixture at just over 100 degrees F. That's what the lactobacillus bacteria like. I also added salt to the blended mixture, since that encourages beneficial bacterial growth. Then the whole thing into an old styrofoam cooler, for insulation.

Worked great. I let it culture overnight, then for about half a day the day before the party. I could have left it a bit longer, I think , without problem.

I used 1/2 teaspoon salt, but it could have taken a bit more. I'll try 3/4 tsp or maybe even 1 tsp next time.

I served it as a spread on crackers, with a fruit compote on top (apple, pear, dried cranberry, orange, ginger, cinnamon, sugar). It was a hit.

This thread has been awesome getting me started on this book. Miyoko, your input has been so helpful!

The Brie was THE star of our Christmas dinner, to the point where we ignored half the feast I had prepared. (More leftovers this week)! The meltable mozz was super yum on a pizza, and I have been adding the meltable cheddar to hash browns all week. I added the optional xantham gum to both batches. I am going to try another batch of the cheddar for enchiladas. I haven't tried any of the hard cheeses yet; that is next on my list.

I have found I need to split up my cashew mixture in my normal blender to actually obtain a creamy consistency. That has made a big difference in my results. Even then, it's a bit time consuming, but it works. Just another reason to save for a Vita-mix, right? I started straight away with Quinoa for the rejuvelac per this thread, and it worked slick.

The Wildwood probiotic unsweetened soy yogurt has been on sale at Grocery Outlet here for a buck lately, (for the big container)! so I haven't made my own yogurt yet as this has worked well for me. Still, it's not an everyday item there, so I will be starting some yogurt next month.

My biggest problem is that I have almost no sense of smell, and my husband is working out of state, so I have had to outsource for someone else's nose. I initially had a neighbor come over and smell my rejuvelac for me-my words to her: "It might smell different, but it's not supposed to smell like stinky feet". (because that's what had been posted on this thread). Luckily, I have some seriously cool neighbors. So far, my system is working.

Also...I couldn't find it looking back through the cookbook, but I thought I had read somewhere that the meltable mozz was freezable. Did I make that up, or has that been posted here somewhere? Has anyone tried this?

I free it without brine in a silicone muffin tin, then transfer to a tub. Defrosts beautifully.

Thanks- that was what I was hoping to hear. Did you put it straight in the muffin tins/freezer from the ice water bath?

Yup

Smoked Provolone
This is my first attempt at these recipes and I'm calling this one a success. I boiled everything first and made sure to use only clean surfaces, hands, and utensils. The short of it is that this cheese could be a little harder, it slices, but it is still relatively soft. It might firm up over time (I just finished it last night). But the taste is really good and I am very happy with it.

Okay I'm going to start with how I made the rejuvelac in case people have questions about that. I used quinoa. I didn't have quart containers, but I had these in pint sizes so I had to start with 2 pint sized ones:


My quinoa seemed to sprout after the first day, but I kept up the rinsing and storing for 3 days anyway. Here are two different views of the sprouted quinoa:



When it came to making the rejuvelac I needed to split mine into four pint sized containers. I think this pictures shows the cloudiness of the rejuvelac fairly well. Some people on this thread have asked about the smell, I think it smelled good not rancid at all. If yours smells rancid I would assume it was contaminated and toss it.


This recipe was ridiculously easy. If you have all of the ingredients I encourage you to give it a go. All I did was throw everything in the blender and then it went to the stovetop. Here is the provolone mixture. The mixture was smooth to start with, but just as described in the cookbook it got lumpy as I heated it then smooth again:


I don't have any cheese molds (yet) so I poured mine into a rather large glass bowl. The cheese only took up the bottom 1/16 or so of the bowl. Consequently I got this ufo-like shape:


My suggestions for the smoked provolone are to let it cool completely on the counter before wrapping and refrigerating. I think the condensations from the heat kept my cheese a little more moist than it should be. I also used vegetable (soy) oil not canola because I didn't have any canola. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the moisture content. Overall, this is a good tasting cheese. I think this cheese would be excellent for sandwiches.

I keep track of my calories and I marked this recipe as having 8 servings because I don't think I could slice it thin enough to get 16 slices. So at 8 servings my calculations gave this cheese 150 calories, 3g protein, 5 calcium, and 2 iron. Fairly decent :)

Great photos and descriptions! The Provolone firms up beautifully if air-dried then refrigerated. As the book suggests, salt it (or soak in a salt brine for a couple of hours) then put on a rack and let dry in a cool place for 3 - 4 days. If you have a wine fridge (50 - 55 degrees F) let it go for 2 - 3 weeks. It will develop a golden rind and will not crack. The inside will firm up but still be creamy, and will slice beautifully. I make this one a lot now, and have dried it in my converted fridge (that stays at 50 degrees F) for weeks.

Thank you! I considered salting and air drying, but was afraid I might run into mold (since this was my first try). I will definitely do that the next time I make this :)

CQ made me the brie and it is off the hook! Yummy crackers and brie!

In know this us a weird question...I never liked Brie or soft cheeses pre-vegan. Would it be stupid to try the vegan version (considering the work involved!)?