Darnassian Bleu - make your own cheese?

March 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Recently I have been leveling up a new character - a night elf druid. The other day, as I dealt with the Defias Brotherhood in Westfall collecting red bandanas, one of the Defias dropped some Darnassian Bleu.

Now, while Darnassian Bleu doesn’t have much in the way of benefits for a druid, as a Tauren Chef it made me think. Hmmm, wouldn’t it be great to know how to make your own cheese? Especially in the event of a life-as-we-know-it-is-ending apocalypse (such as the destruction of the Sunwell) that sort of knowledge would be nice to have.

During my research at the grocery store and on the internet I came across a site that gives easy to understand instructions for how to make your own cheese at home.

The recipes were written by David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D. who is Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College in Batavia, Ohio. He also has a very informative site on homemade cheese (and so much more) titled Fankhauser’s Cheese Page.

He has cheese recipes, cheese videos, recipes for home made root beer, ginger ale, limoncello (an Italian aperitif liqueur,) and other items of interest too numerous to list. And yes, he does have a recipe for Blue cheese, though I don’t believe it is Darnassian Bleu.

His cheese recipes use rennet tablets from the Junket Company, which sounds like a good idea. They are very inexpensive and apparently quite reliable. I bought some today, but I haven’t tried them out in any recipes yet.

Of course, if you are a purist, you can always do it the old-fashioned way and use a small piece of salted and dried abomasum. (According to Dr. Fankhauser, an abomasum is the last of the four chambers of the stomach of a ruminant animal. The abomasum from a suckling kid or calf was apparently very good for making cheese.)

Or, you can always buy cheese at the store . . .