The Big Cheese (written 3.17.09 – Happy St. Patty’s Day!)

The activity that inspired this entry happened in the same weekend trip as the tree murder detailed above, but seems to warrant its own title and piece.

There are two kinds of Dominican cheese: white and yellow. This weekend, I learned to make the white, with the help of 14 year old Manuela, the prideful queen of regional cheese.

She was completely enthused, if a bit baffled, when we told her we wanted to learn how to make this delicious dairy delicacy. After all, she makes it and sells it every day of her life, and probably fails to see why it’s interesting, but nevertheless gave an enthusiastic two-hour accelerated course in cheese-making to the fascinated foreigners. Steps are as follows:

Mix several huge metal cans of fresh cows’ milk with a syringe full of some brown, grainy liquid (suggestions?) and let it sit for a while. After mixture thickens, use a long stick to cute a cross in it to let the whey rise. Let it sit for another while. Add a huge pot of boiling water and mix it for a bit, and let it sit again. Insert arms into plastic vat, up to shoulders, and slowly begin to form ball of cheese, by pressing the mass together delicately. When a manageable ball is formed, remove it from the whey into a separate container, and continue pressing out liquid until cheese ball (we’re talking like 30 pounds here) is hard. Cut into small chunks, add an incredible amount of salt, and then force cheese into small wooden boxes, weighted down with rocks to shape cheese into blocks. Let it sit for a while, then sell it all to community members.

The omission of times, quantities, and really any form of measurement is no mistake; that’s just how Manuela rolls. It was a ton of fun, and resulted in a delicious treat to boot!