 |
| Imran Saleh |
This is exciting!
Recently, I posted an article about Imran Saleh (click here), who is making his own cheese at his home in Lahore, Pakistan. This is very unusual for his neck of the woods, so he has been working alone to set himself up with the equipment he needs.
Amazingly, he made his own double jacket cheese vat, a spinning curd cutter, and a press. With them, he has been making water buffalo Mozzarella (for pizza) and other cheeses, as well.
A few weeks ago, he decided to sell some of his Mozzarella, so he printed 100 labels and put up a website – (http://farmerscheese.hpage.com/). There has already been some interest. In Pakistan, it’s as simple as that, whereas here in the States, as we know, the rules and regulations are daunting.
He is also selling the equipment he designed and supplies for making cheese.
 |
| Yes, he knows there are 2 “z”s in Mozzarella! That will be changed. |
 |
| Farmer’s Cheese is the name of the company. (In Pakistan, Farmer’s Cheese is not sold, so it won’t be confusing.) |
Meanwhile, as a result of the blog article we posted, a woman in Pakistan, Mrs. Tahira contacted Imran about learning to make cheese. Imran invited her to come to an all day workshop at his home.
The week before she came, he did a practice workshop with his daughter, Mehreen. (Mehreen took the pictures below.)
Making Mozzarella
Making Colby
Imran Describes His Workshop
For the workshop, I ordered 30 kg buffalo milk (3 1/2 gallons) – 10 kg for trial and 20 kg for me. The milk was supplied on Saturday evening.
 |
| Imran’s daughter, Mehreen and his wife, Ayesha |
Here I made a big mistake. As I was at my business, I asked the guy who works at my home, to keep it in my lab. The weather that day suddenly changed and went warm, and he forgot to put it in the refrigerator.
Mrs. Tahira showed up at 9:30 and after introducing each other, we started with our workshop. The interval between acidificaction and renneting was filled with information on cheese making and the quality of milk, etc. and the curds produced were the best I ever saw.
But, after draining, when I showed her how to take the reading for the ph value of the curds, it was already 4.8. That was more than enough to make me realize that the milk was already acidic due to leaving it overnight at room temperature (and I had added more culture in the morning). I immediately drained the curds and tried it with the hot water bath …but it was lost.
After having tea and sandwiches, I decided to hold another workshop right away (I hate to fail at something I know). Luckily, I found 10 kg (2.2 gallons) of milk and restarted with the cheese again – acidification – renneting – cutting – cooking – draining – washing the curds and leaving them to achieve the target of 5.3. It was successfully done.
Snacks were served during breaks.
 |
| Mrs. Tahira and Mehreen |
A 5.3 ph value was achieved by 9:00pm (we had restarted at 1:30pm) and there goes the plastic cheese….it stretched like anything…you should have seen the expressions on everyone’s faces! Mrs. Tahira and her son, Abrahim (he joined us in the last moments) had fun stretching and pulling the Mozzarella.
Everyone, including me, was happy and satisfied. It was a great day and a successful workshop.
