Cheesemaking

[koteko]

NOTE: not tested yet! I'm putting it here to self-motivate to finish it soon, now that I've posted it

Taking inspiration from this website:

All the milk was made into cheese or sour milk Uusivirta writes that people in ancient times ate cheeses cooked from sour milk as their everyday food. For feast they cooked cheeses using eggs. To sour milk for to make cheese there are several ways; wild plants (for example nettle) and the stomach of certain animals (Uusivirta, Rautavaara, Israelsson). Traditional sour product is also quark, spaghanum. Butter was made by processing the milk by hand in Iron Age, since we did have no churns in Iron-Age Finland.

and to make better use of nettle (otherwise never preferred to Hemp in agriculture) and salt (never preferred to smoking/drying), I set off to make a simple setting-appropriate cheesemaking recipe.

The idea is the following: first you need "rennet" (only vegetable-based here), which will spoil after a few days. The rennet allows fast curdling of the milk, thus giving you "cheese".

.Nettle Rennet. *COOKERY* /30/ %10% |1| [effort:1] :148:
{*nettle leaves} #1# [remove] [boil]
{Water} #1# [remove] [boil]
{Salt} #0.1# [remove] [boil]
[SPOILAGE_DAYS:5]

.Sorrel Rennet. *COOKERY* /15/ %10% |1| [effort:2] :148:
{*sorrel leaves} #1# [remove] [boil]
{Water} #0.1# [remove] [boil]
{Knife}<Small knife>
{Wooden bowl} '+as support'
[SPOILAGE_DAYS:2]

.Fresh Cheese. *COOKERY* /15/ \1d\ %10% |0| [effort:1] :148:
{Milk}    #5#    [remove] [roast]
{*rennet} #0.3#  'Rennet for curdling'  [remove] [roast]
{Salt}    #0.1#  [remove] [roast]
{Bandage} '+to drain the whey' [remove]
{Pot} '+to boil the milk'
{Wooden bowl} '+to mould the cheese'
[TILEGFX:it-fcheese]
[SPOILAGE_DAYS:10]
[COOK_WEIGHT_DIV:1.5]

.Wrapped Cheese. *COOKERY* /15/ \30d\ %10% |-1| [effort:0] :148:
{Fresh Cheese} [remove] [roast]
{Nettle Leaves} #1# '+as wrapping' [remove] [roast]
[TILEGFX:it-wcheese]
[SPOILAGE_DAYS:300]
[COOK_WEIGHT_DIV:1.5]

TODO:

• graphic tiles for rennet and cheeses
• test if total quantity fits a pot
• maybe separate the nettle/sorrel rennet production from the cheese, so that people can use any rennet they want. (and in the future, also make rennet from lamb stomach)
• this is a soft, perishable cheese. It would be great to differentiate "soft" and "hard cheese" by making two different recipes starting from this "very soft cheese" and letting them mature for a few days (soft) or weeks (hard). The former might have a few months of shelf life, the latter being essentially non-perishable (or, say, two years spoilage time)

PS: here there's the full process with pictures! (only for nettle rennet)

[koteko]

I've improved it a bit, by separating rennet-making from cheese-making. Quantities are more or less based on online recipes. (salt is a bit more, but I think it's important to include salt in such "advanced" cooking, to make trade-trips meaningful).

• Nettle rennet: longer-lasting because of 5-days spoilage, but also because it's essentially a nettle tea so the water doubles the amount. Cons: it requires salt and a pot.
• Sorrel rennet: only requires (in addition to a pot.. wanted to avoid that but it's easier this way) a knife and a wooden bowl (might be great to use Mortar & Pestle if you have the herbalism mod!). Doesn't need salt. Cons: it just produces a little bit more rennet than the sorrel you use. It spoils in a couple of days so use it quickly.
• Fresh cheese: like a soft gouda, or a firmer quark (thanks to the rennet). Only has to rest one day and it's ready for consumption. Lasts 10 days which is more than most recipes, but it requires salt to achieve it, plus some additional things.
• Wrapped cheese: it's actually a cornish cheese, so not really setting-appropriate, but who's to say the Finns didn't think of it too? It does make sense if you are swimming in nettles and are tired of breaking clothes apart to make bandages. Anyway, it requires a long maturation beside the fireplace but eventually will yield, in about 30 days, a harder cheese that lasts many months. A good idea to make those if you have enough food during your summer. You'll appreciate it during winter!

[koteko]

I've shamelessly taken the "it-egg" and "it-bread" tiles to make "it-fcheese" and "it-wcheese" respectively. My art skills are non-existent so there is that.. but they should suffice.