Cheese-making is an old-world art form, practiced in Amish country and kept alive by generations of family practitioners whose ancestors brought the tasteful tradition with them from the snow-covered mountains of Switzerland to the misty valleys of Ohio.
The Amish Process
Each family group, carrying with it a unique way of working through a similar process, makes a product that bears its own special brand of taste and originality. The cheese-making process begins early in the morning with the purchase of milk, primarily from farmers who maintain comparatively small herds.Pasteurized milk is then pumped into three stainless steel vats and held for three to four hours. It goes through several different stages during which curds and whey (the watery portion of the milk) are separated. Whey is stored for use in other products. Curds, the component used for cheese, are pressed down with heavy lids that press out as much of the whey as possible and flatten the cheese into wheel molds.
After the cheese is packaged, it must be moved to warming cellars. It is this portion of the process through which it gains its flavor and its holes. Each package is dated and tracked with weight and type noted to assure the proper length of time needed to allow trapped carbon dioxide to release and “pop the holes.”
The ingredients that make each cheese slightly different are the cultures and enzymes that are added to the vats and that “go to work in the warming cellar.” The flavor of cheese is even affected by the time of the year in which the milk is produced and by what the cows are eating. Fat and protein content are also adjusted for different types of cheese. In general, fattier cheeses are creamier.
Cheese can continue to age slowly, even once it has reached its peak, in a cold cellar for up to two years; a period of six months produces a sharper flavor. Left outside of refrigeration to “puff out,” as some customers like it to do, is safe because a vacuum-packed seal assures it will not mold.
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Amish ButterAmish Butter starts with happy Amish cows who graze on grass. In the traditional Amish ways, the cow's are milked and their fresh milk is taken directly to the processing plant in traditional milk cans where this old-fashioned and delicious butter is churned out and packaged. This is an old fashion technigue that produces results of the old world European butter. |
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