hi everyone welcome to tasting history
I'm max Miller have you ever heard the
saying that the moon is made of green
cheese I've always found it baffling not
because the claim that the moon is
actually made of cheese but that it's
green because if you'd go outside I've
seen a yellow moon I've seen a white
moon never green well it turns out that
in the Middle Ages green cheese had
nothing to do with the color of the
cheese it had to do with the age of the
cheese it was fresh cheese new cheese
and today I'm going to show you how to
make your own dazzling white green
cheese
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now there are all sorts of ways to
classify cheese
you've got your hard versus soft your
aged versus non aged your stinky versus
non stinky and then you've got cheese is
made with rennet and cheese is made
without rennet rennet is an enzyme
inside of the stomach of some animals
and it helps to turn milk into cheese
rennet tends to give the cheese a
stronger flavor whereas cheese's without
rennet tend to have a softer milder
flavor including quark and ricotta and
what we're making today
which is a type of farmer's cheese now
for this recipe all you'll need is one
gallon of whole milk not all four
pasteurized two teaspoons of salt a
third of a cup of lemon juice about two
lemons and 1/4 of a cup of white wine
vinegar maybe a little bit more as we go
on you'll also need a colander
cheesecloth and either a Dutch oven or a
heavy metal stockpot first line the
colander with three or four layers of
cheesecloth and put that in the sink
then add the lemon juice and the vinegar
and set that aside
pour the gallon of milk into the pot and
add in the salt then heat on medium-high
heat stirring frequently with a rubber
spatula to prevent scorching until the
milk register is 185 degrees as soon as
it gets to 185 remove the pot from the
heat and stir in the vinegar and lemon
juice then leave it alone don't touch it
for about 10 minutes at this point the
curds should start to separate from the
way the liquid should be fairly clear if
it's not if it's still the color of milk
then add in another tablespoon of
vinegar give it a very small stir and
let it sit for another 2 and 3 minutes
at this point you're ready to separate
the curds from the whey by pouring
everything into the colander then leave
it again for 8 to 10 minutes now while
we wait for the way to drain away let's
take a look at some great moments in
cheese history sorry that was awful I
should edit that out
I'm not going to but I should now it's
thought that cheese was first discovered
around 8000 BC right when we were
domesticating machine not we people and
in 2018 a jar found in the tomb of
Thomas Mayer of the ancient city of
Memphis was found to hold ancient cheese
now of course the cheese was several
thousand years old and so it's rock hard
and really gross and scientists have
actually found that the original cheese
had a bunch of bacteria in it that
causes what's now known as Mediterranean
fever so not great but just like
Mediterranean fever the love of cheese
was about to spread across the region
also just terrible in Greece they made
feta Homer actually dedicated numerous
lines in the Odyssey to describe the
Cyclops his penchant for making feta
cheese out of his sheep's milk he even
had an entire room in his cave dedicated
to making cheese in the larger houses of
ancient Rome they too had dedicated
rooms specially for making and
preserving cheese but like feta the
cheese's of the Mediterranean at that
time were very salty
it was the only way to preserve them for
long
periods of time and the warm
Mediterranean climate it wasn't until
cheese moved north that you start to see
most of the cheese's that we know today
now monks didn't necessarily invent all
of these types of cheeses but they did
tend to perfect them they had a lot of
time on their hands and they had to go
most of the year without being able to
eat meat so they wanted various cheeses
to add some variety to their diet they
found that lowering the salt allowed new
bacteria to grow in the cheese making
process giving rise to tons of different
flavors that had never been tasted
before brie camembert cheddar gorgonzola
grana Gris air and Roquefort were all
popular cheese's on monastic tables
throughout medieval Europe now of course
most of these cheese's took a lot of
time and a lot of money to make and most
people were poor so instead they made
their own fresh cheese's in their
cottage get where I'm going with this
the cheese that we're making today is an
early form of cottage cheese now cottage
cheese had pretty much lost its
popularity by the early 20th century
partly because it was associated with
poverty and partly because of the rise
of processed cheese but when world war
ii hit that all changed the processed
cheese now called american cheese along
with dried compressed cheese the
precursor to today's Cheetos were all
shipped across the pond to feed our boys
fighting the Nazis now on top of that
meat was heavily rationed in World War
two so where was the home front to get
the protein to keep those Rosie's
riveting enter cottage cheese the
Department of Agriculture sent out
millions of postcards with recipes for
cottage cheese and different ways to use
it this is probably when Richard Nixon
developed his infamous love of cottage
cheese sometimes for breakfast he was
known to eat cottage cheese with ketchup
and for the last meal before his
resignation he ordered cottage cheese
with pineapple slices and a glass of
milk that's a real picture of the actual
meal now don't worry I'm not going to be
putting ketchup or pineapple on my fresh
cheese instead I'm going to actually
make a Cod a medieval cheesecake
with it on our next episode
but for now let's go check and see that
it's done draining once most of the way
has gone through the colander transfer
the cheese to a large bowl and stir to
break up the curds and work in the rest
of the way now I need to leave the
cheese in the fridge to chill for 2
hours before using it it can stay up to
2 days but the fresher the better
tomorrow I'm going to use it to make a
somebo Cod the medieval cheesecake I
mentioned earlier if you want to check
that out make sure to subscribe to this
channel hit the like button leave me a
comment down below if you end up making
your own fresh cheese and I will see you
next time on tasting history
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