Cheese & Flatbread

This last Saturday, Elias and I went to a SCA regional fighter practice. They have one of those three or four times a year to promote SCA activity in our area since there isn't an established group here. Things are starting to look up, though, the new group to the south of us has established a northern branch in a college town closer to us (still an hour's drive). We had a good time and Elias got to visit with some folks that he hadn't seen for several years. I was happy to take part in some of the Arts & Sciences classes. The first one was basic cheese making. In the class we discussed the origin and history of cheese making while the a gallon of milk was heating up to make our own simple soft cheese. Once the milk reached temperature (180 degrees F) 1/2 cup of vinegar was added. Our instructor told us that the vinegar flavor doesn't come through in the finished product and that he usually uses less vinegar unless he's teaching a class where a more immediate reaction is more impressive. While adding the vinegar, he stirred with a whisk and we could see the milk curdling at once. After stirring for a few minutes more, the curds and whey are seperated by pouring through cheesecloth. The instructor had forgotten to bring an extra pan for this, so we improvised and used the plastic milk jug:





after discarding the whey (although it can be used in other baking too as it still has many nutrients in it) the full cheesecloth was hung to drip while we proceeded on with the next class: Flatbreads.

Once again, this was a casual "discuss as we do it" kind of a class. We talked about the traditional flatbread of various cultures, the different grains available to those cultures, and various ingredients that could be included.

For our bread, we used:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup icy cold water
3 Tbs shortening (bacon grease in our case)
1 Tbs salt
2 tsp baking powder
pinch baking soda
the dry ingredients were combined then the shortening cut in. Once well crumbly, the water was added to make a dough. Finally the secret ingredient was added: chopped bacon! The dough was cut into 8 pieces which were patted into thin cakes and cooked on a hot griddle.



Now that we had the products from both classes completed, we added salt to the cheese and assemble a snack: fresh soft cheese on bacon flatbread.



-Jayne