I made a batch of cheese today. I was busy doing other things as well, but I used my faithful kitchen timers to keep me on track for all the steps necessary to make cheddar.
Everything was going fine UNTIL I neglected to turn the (low) heat off the double-boiler pots at one particular step, warming the water in the outer pot well beyond the necessary 100F. I immediately removed the inner pot to let the curds cool and added cool water to the outer pot to bring the temperature back down to 100F. Well, oops. After that, the cheesemaking proceeded without incident.
But Don and I laughed about how delicate cheesemaking sometimes seems. Slight alterations in temperature, length of time the curds cook, and how long it's pressed and under which weights can often make a completely different cheese.
"What we need," he said, "is a 'Cheese AI' where we can ask it this kind of question. 'I left the heat on too long at this particular step and the curds got a bit warmer than 100F. What kind of cheese will this make?' Then the AI can respond with something like, 'Why, that will make Stanford-on-Rye cheese, first made by Goodwife Delma Osgood in 1706...'"
This batch of cheddar (hopefully it's still cheddar) has to age for at least two months, so I have no idea what, if any, my temporary lapse of attention will do to the final product.
If only there was a "cheese AI" I could query...
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