My first attempt to make gjetost was an icky failure. I wound up with a bit of salty, sweet, grainy goo in the bottom of a pan after 11 hours of simmering whey on the stove. It looked like sand that had sunk to the bottom of a watered down caramel sauce. I had used the recipe in Ricky Carroll's book, which was inadequate.Then blogpal Maggie, who had originally inspired me to try this cheese, suggested I check out a couple of other sources. I found David Fankhauser's recipe to be straightforward, and I decided to try again. Combing what I'd read in all three recipes, and using a bit of my own cooking knowledge, I decided to use a stick blender at the end. This is what it looked like after using the stick blender.
My husband was actually the person to do it, and it worked beautifully. I should have taken a picture before using the stick blender, but if you look at Fankhauser's pictures, that's what it looked like -- grainy. I don't think he's made gjetost much, because I don't think it would be possible to whisk out the graininess. This is what it looked like when it was ready to pour into the buttered bread pan and cool.
It was so sweet, it tasted like candy, and we all had to remind ourselves not to eat too much! We had quite a bit of it plain, and we sliced some for breakfast and put it on whole wheat biscuits, which was also heavenly.
4 comments:
OMG I love this cheese! Costs a fortune. Cannot wait until my goats are bred and lactating so I can give it a try.
By the way, the cheese tastes awesome with apples.
With apples?! Oh, I bet it does! Will have to try that next time! Thanks for sharing!
There's two wheys (haha) to avoid the sandyness. Either stir until cool. Or lift it off the heat and cool it without stirring on a vibration free surface. A person walking on the floor next to it is enough to start the crystalisation of the lactose. I place mine on a stone slab in my food cellar.
There's two kinds. The smoothe spreadable messmör. And the darker hard mesost that we slice with a cheese cutter. The second is just boiled longer and poured into a mould.
If you are boiling from two days of whey. Or later on the same day of cheesemaking. Kill the lactic acid produceing bacteria directly after draining by just bringing it to the boil. The bacteria otherwise continues to eat the lactose, creating to much acid.
Some skim the off white stuff in the beginning and add it back when the boil has thickened some. Some centrifuge some cream and add to the end of the boil to add richness. And that seams to help "some" against sandyness too.
But don't dispair. Sandyness is a common topic here amongst those of us who boil our own. Most others, just buy it in the shops :-)
Good luck!
/BB
Thanks for those tips, Caprifool! I was hoping I could chat with a cheesemaking Scandinavian about that cheese.
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