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| Freshly made cheddar that firmed up nicely
If you're new to cultured vegan cheeses, my recommendation is that you start with the Basic Cashew Cheese. However, most people seem to plunge right into the Sharp Cheddar. And the report has been generally good with one caveat: that some people struggle with getting the texture right, that is, firm enough. Rest assured, even if your cheddar is fairly soft, if you're patient enough to age it in your refrigerator for 8 - 16 weeks, it will get much firmer and become sliceable (not to mention much tastier). But if you want something you can slice right away, you'll want to pay attention to the following three tips:
1. Soaking time is critical for a successful semi-hard cheese. Unfortunately, your equipment will dictate how long you have to soak your cashews, but keep in mind that the longer they soak, the more water they absorb, and the softer the cheese will be. It will all be fine in a matter of weeks or months, but if you don't have that high-speed blender, your cheese will come out a little soft. This shouldn't affect taste, however, and it will still be great in a grilled cheese or a mac and cheese. Here's a picture of a Sharp Cheddar I made when I soaked the cashews way too long...still made a great cheese sauce.
2. How long you culture the cheddar is key -- don't just assume that because the recipe says 24 to 72 hours that anywhere in between is okay. You have to taste it every day, or twice a day, until it is sufficiently sharp in flavor. It will really start to taste like cheddar, not nutritional yeast. You have to trust your taste buds and judgment, and give it the time for the cheese to culture properly. In some circumstances and weather, it may take 4 days or more, although the average is 48 to 72 hours. As it cultures, it will thicken some as well. Don't start cooking it until it is ready. Only you can tell.
3. How you cook it determines its firmness. Be sure to cook it until it is really shiny (like cheese, which means that the oil is being released, and the starch in the cashews are thickening) and pulls away from the sides of the pot. This may take 3 to 10 minutes, depending on how high you have the heat, the type of stove, etc. Be sure to stir almost constantly with a wooden spoon. It will become very thick, like a shiny bread dough, with some air pockets. Pack it into a mold and refrigerate until completely cool before removing it.
Okay, there you have it for the somewhat challenging cheddar. Let me know how it turns out!
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Miyoko - thanks for all of the ongoing tips and tricks. This vegan cheese business is quite a new learning, and I love the fact that there's so much *customisation* and *instinct* involved.
ReplyDeleteWe've got jars of everything fermenting to make your cheeses, it's all very exciting... Thanks!!
People need to understand that most dairy cheeses (other than something like cottage or farmer cheeses) are not made in a few minutes or even overnight. You are frequently, if not almost always, looking at MONTHS of aging (or longer) before the cheese is ready for consumption, whether you are creating small-batch, home made cheese, or large-batch, industrial made cheese. I have the beginnings of Rejuvelac going right now, in order to start in on some aged cheeses, but in the meantime I will def be doing the "quickie" cheeses (which I've done in the past, and had great success with). It's like wine, beer, and love- takes time, peeps!
ReplyDeleteExactly, Carolyn. That's what I keep telling people! Wine, cheese, and some of us, improve with age! Have fun with the recipes! You might want to try the almond ricotta (instant, other than soaking the almonds) and make the stuffed shell recipe. It's a winner.
Deletemy sharp cheddar is in the fridge at the moment ageing. It is quite hard already but I am going to leave it as long as I can to see how hard it will get! Mine is darker than yours, I'm assuming that's the kind of miso I used though, I had barley which is quite strong, I may start using white miso instead so the flavour isn't so strong in every cheese I try. I've also done the oat cheese and we're having the meltable mozzarella for dinner tonight, it looks lovely! Thanks for the book, I've enjoyed what I've cooked so far and am excited to keep trying more!
ReplyDeleteAnna, it will be a couple of months before it gets really hard. To prohibit mold, you might want to dip it in some white wine. I generally don't have trouble with mold for the sharp cheddar (I've kept it for months and months), but this will ensure its good keeping. Good luck!
DeleteI'm about to tackle this one and I'm happy to get the ongoing support! Thank you for your AWESOME recipes!!!
ReplyDeletePlease publish your great new book on Vegan Cheese in a kindle format soon. The recipes look fantastic and I am eager to try them all.
ReplyDeleteGreetings Miyoko! I received your book on Tuesday and already made 3 batches of rejuvelac, cashew cheese, mozzarella, the brie, and my gruyere will be 24hrs done when I get home. These first three taste incredible, though I need a better blender to get the texture more smooth, and I've ordered the kappa carrageenan through willpowder.com. I am so so so thankful for your hard work and dedication to this, as I have been aware of fermented vegan food from Sandor Katz' book for several years. However, the quality of your cheeses is amazing and the book is easy to read with great descriptions and photos, it's absolutely a game-changer for your average vegan chef. I'm dying to turn on local vegan and non-vegan restaurants to your cheeses, if only I had a commercial kitchen (we'll see). There is NO REASON why these cheeses can't fully replace dairy cheese (and expensive oily processed cheeses, for that matter, DIY!)... all to the benefit of cows and their calves, the environment, and all the soon-to-be vegans who never knew what they were missing, till now!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDo you have to use Kappa carrageen ? I bought the lota will it still work?
DeleteThank you, Swansong. And Anonymous, Iota won't work. It won't harden the cheese.
DeleteMiyoko,
ReplyDeleteJust want to let you know that I'm trying an experiment... To cut down on excessive moisture in the step where we are soaking the cashews, I'm actually soaking them in Rejuvelac instead, banking on not needing to add very much more Rejuvelac once we're at the blending stage. The consistency is coming out pretty nice, and there seems to be much less liquid in the cashew blob I've got aging on my countertop right now. I think this might turn out a harder product more quickly? We'll see!
Best,
Gabriela
Do you think coconut yoghurt will work? I'm in Canada and soy yoghurt are hard to find. The only one I have access to only has flavoured and even the vanilla is very strong. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou can definitely try. Or you could use the coconut yogurt as a starter and make your own soy yogurt. Most coconut yogurts I've tasted are pretty sweet.I'm not sure what kind you can get there.
DeleteHI, Brie question. I did not have a 6" cake pan and used a small bundt pan. When I took it out of the fridge I noticed that a lot of the oil had "bled" out of the cheese. Being in a bundt pan it leaked out. I assume cheeze won't be quite as rich now but am wondering if it does the same in a regular cake tin, pool at the bottom, or did I do something wrong. Smells delicious, it is drying now. The Swiss is still quite soft, does it harden after a while too, it cannot be sliced, only spread.
ReplyDeleteWhich Brie did you make? I would need to know in order to assess what went wrong. No, it shouldn't be oozing oil. Some separation clearly occurred - it could not have emulsified in the first place, or if it is one of the bries that are cooked, you may have cooked it too long to the point where the oil separated. The shape of the pan in irrelevant. Again, which Swiss are you making? Did you use powder or flaked agar? In this case, it may not have been cooked long enough if the agar didn't set. Unfortunately, there is a learning curve to many of these cheeses, just like baking.
DeleteRegarding mold on the sharp cheddar. I soaked the raw cashews for 6 hours, and blended them in my food processor and bullet. They were still too dry, so I used more quinoa rejuvelac than called for. (About 3 cups.) It looked and tasted good. Uncooked, it has been sitting out in a glass container with sealed lid for 52 hours. This morning, it had 1 inch diameter delicate, fluffy white circles on top. We scraped off and discarded the top layer. The rest still smells the same as before, but stronger. Is it safe to continue?
ReplyDeleteOoh, fluffy, delicate white circles...yum. I'm not an expert on mold, but I've read that it's safe to scrape mold off of certain things but not others (cheese is okay, while cutting off mold off a strawberry is not). I don't know if anyone has ever studied vegan cheese. But 3 cups of rejuvelace for 2 cups of cashews is a lot. I would expect it to get moldy. But it may also be because you used a sealed container. I do put a lid on my cheeses while culturing, but they are not airtight. The cheese mixture in your blender (or food processor, where it won't get a smooth) will indeed look very, very thick and perhaps somewhat dry. Also, I'm a little surprised because the higher salt content of the cheddar usually prevents mold better than some of the other cheeses (which, by the way in my experience, usually do not get moldy during the culturing phase). I would also question the reliability of the starter (rejuvelac) that you used and whether the probiotics were alive. Did you make it, and did it taste tangy and lemony at the outset?
DeleteI knew it was recipe suicide as I poured in all that lovingly cured rejuvelac. I didn't know how else to make the cashews look "smooth and creamy". With correct proportions, the best my processor would give me was a cookie dough texture. Would that have been good enough to culture?
DeleteThe mixture is smooth and creamy, but it's also thick like a cookie dough. I guess that should be in the explanation.
DeleteThanks for your quick response! I did make the rejuvelac, using the recipe on page 6 of VAC. It tasted tangy from day one, but was not what I'd call lemony. It didn't smell like citrus, nor did it make my mouth pucker. The quinoa sprouts developed in step one had the same tangy taste. The water I added to them went white immediately, and I cultured it for 3 days with no change in taste or smell. So, maybe the sprouts weren't right. I think I'll play it safe, dump this batch, sterilize everything and start over. I really appreciate your inspirational recipes and the fact that you took time to answer my question.
ReplyDeleteDid it taste or smell off? If so, it was bad. But if it was tangy, it was probably fine. I find that quiona rejuvelac tastes different from brown rice or wheat berries. Also, note that it can take 5 - 6 days to make rejuvelac.
DeleteI'm a bit frantic right now- I'd appreciate advice from anyone! I made my cheddar mix today and it's fermenting right now- but I just discovered that my carrageenan is probably the wrong type! The oat cheese I made never hardened completely despite my adding an extra T of agar to achieve a cheddar-like sliceability like the instructions suggested. It is still like a slightly jello-y spread after 24 hours. I am going to order the right carrageenan but it will take 2 days at least to arrive- can I put my cheddar mix in the fridge to slow the fermenting? Thanks so much!
ReplyDelete-April
April, yes, you can put it in the fridge. I do that all the time when I realize I don't have time to finish a cheese. No worries! Just bring it up to room temperature before taking the next step. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAlso, the cheddar takes 2 - 3 days in my kitchen to culture, so you might just get your carrageenan in time.
Another thing you can do is follow the agar instructions for Pub Cheddar, substituting rejuvelac for the beer, using agar instead of carrageenan (are you making Sharp Cheddar?). Just FYI.
Hi Miyoko! Do you think to make the cashew cream cheese i could replace the unsweetened plain non dairy yogurt with rejuvelac? if so how much would you suggest. I live in Canada and it is impossible to find unsweetened plain non dairy yogurt here - soy or otherwise. I know there is a recipe for homemade yogurt in the book but to make it for the first time you also need plain unsweetened non dairy yogurt. I've made a batch of the cream cheese with plain almond milk yogurt (it was the plain non dairy yogurt that had the least amount of sugar in it) that is culturing right now so fingers crossed but if it doesn't work out I'm looking for a plan B.
ReplyDeleteAny suggestions?
No, rejuvelac will make it taste like chevre. Interesting how different cultures yield different flavors! GO ahead an use a plain, sweetened yogurt, or even vanilla yogurt, as the culture. You only need 2 tablespoons, so it will not affect the flavor too much. You can use sweetened yogurt as the starter for your own homemade if that is all you have.
DeleteI made the smoked provolone last night using 6 T agar flakes (carrageenan hasn't come yet). Put it in the fridge overnight and this morning it is kind of gelatinous but really not set up (maybe like jam). And it has sand-like hard tiny chunks in it. I assume I messed up the cooking stage and something went wrong with the agar. Did I not cook it long enough? What would happen if I put it back in the pan and tried to cook it again? Thanks for your help.
ReplyDeleteI made the sharp cheddar (not the air-dried one) after reading all your tips and it is tasting so spot on! I was skeptical after blending the ingredients together, but after 48 hours of culturing, it really took on a cheddar taste and the nutritional yeast taste went away. I live in Phoenix where I keep the thermostat at 80 degrees and higher most of the year. So I really think those who say it tastes like nutritional yeast are not culturing their cheddar long enough. Also, I accidently fell asleep when I soaked my cashews for the cheddar, so they soaked 8 hours. I drained them and let them sit unsoaked for 4-5 hrs and that seemed to dry them enough that I now have a fairly firm cheddar. I am planning a big fondue night thanksgiving weekend using the hard gruyere, sharp cheddar (not air-dried), air-dried emmentaler, and the chipotle queso (forget what it's called in the book). Have to say the gruyere and emmentaler are amazingly spot on in flavor too. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the work you put into this book. I would like to know how many cashews you went through in the experimentation process!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found success with it! Yes, I agree that folks who say that the cheddar tastes like nutritional yeast simply aren't culturing it long enough. This is the cheese that omnivores often like the most, saying that it is similar to cheddar, so I know that when it is made right, that it is pretty spot on. Thanks for the comments and have a happy Thanksgiving!
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