I have read some old articles on making cheese using fig sap. So I gave it a try this morning. So far the curd is forming nicely. I will update you with the steps when the cheese is fully formed.

i would definitely love to see the progress on this. would love to learn how to make cheese at home. tho, my wife won't like it if it involves smell. 

Looking forward to it. That's really cool. Thanks, Bass.

This sounds like a great idea- looking forward to hearing more about how it goes

Curious also.

Very interesting Bass .

What kind of cheese?  The fig sap supplies the rennet but that's used in most cheeses.

  This is great to hear.  I'll be very interested to hear about it.  Vegetarian renet is expensive to buy it.

Bass - a very interesting topic.   I look forward to hearing about the results.

I have found a few articles and references to using the latex for rennet over the past years but have not made the time to make cheese.    I pasted two links that might be of interest.   Doing a web search for "ficus carica"  "rennet" "cheese" etc., may yield some interesting results.

Blessed are the Cheese makers - the Roman Military Research Society  http://www.romanarmy.net/cheese.shtml

16th Century Italian Cheese Recipes from the book Compendio de i Secreti Rationali di M. Leonardo Fiorvanti Bolognese, Medico & Cirugico (Compendium of Rational Secrets of M. Leonardo Fiorvanti of Bologna, Medic and Surgeon)   From From Stefan’s Florilegium - Society for Creative Anachronism - Making Renet from Fig Leaves
http://www.florilegium.org/?http%3A//www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MANUSCRIPTS/Ital-cheese-art.html   

Ingevald

The curds didn't have the thick consistency as I'm used to with the regular rennet, but it did form. It just takes a lot longer to thicken up. I started with it yesterday, it still haven't finished, hoping by tomorrow I will have a few blocks of cheese. It already smells like e fig sap, and I sampled it even though its not done, it has a unique flavor with slightly bitter after tone. People who will be visiting Sunday for the gathering will give me their thoughts.

Here's the cheese, it was made using fresh cow milk and fig sap. Process lasts 3 days. It has an unusual good taste.

That looks wonderful Bass . Lucky those getting together Sunday to try it !

I wonder if It ages well...

Goody:)

[QUOTE=Bass]The curds didn't have the thick consistency as I'm used to with the regular rennet, but it did form. It just takes a lot longer to thicken up. I started with it yesterday, it still haven't finished, hoping by tomorrow I will have a few blocks of cheese. It already smells like e fig sap, and I sampled it even though its not done, it has a unique flavor with slightly bitter after tone. People who will be visiting Sunday for the gathering will give me their thoughts. [/QUOTE]

Bass - the photo of your cheese looks great.   It is also good to hear that it has a good flavor.    Is there any bitterness in the final product?

  In this article "Studies on Vegetable Rennet" from 1941 http://deriv.nls.uk/dcn6/7530/75306202.6.pdf  (they only have the first page of the article on this link), they state that ficus palmata imparts a bitter taste and ficus carica they state, does not.

There is one other link that I should have posted the other day from the New England Cheesemaking Supply company - This is from their blog and has some good references http://cheesemakinghelp.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-rennet-from-fig-sap.html

Ingevald

I have tried a tiny amount and had a light bitter flavor that makes it more interesting and gives it the unique flavor. Maybe I should market it this cheese, Then I would grow figs only for their sap. :-) About to try some again soon

Great work!   Is it a mozzarella style?

No, somewhat close to feta

you never cease to amaze me Bass...

Excellent work!  What method did you use to collect the latex?

You could mix it with dried fig pieces too.  They sell such a cheese at Costco.  You could even wrap it in fig leaves.   Then send some to all of us.  

I pinched the tips of a few fig trees and allowed the to drip I to this shot glass. I collected probably 1/3 of a tsp. which was added to the raw milk after pasturizing it.
3 days later I got cheese. I have them wrapped with fig leaves now.

Bass...I noticed that the cheese is even formed to look like figs sitting on top of that fig leaf...nice job...very creative...and it has a feta taste...I like feta.

Oh I didn't mean for it to be looking like a fig lol. I have to say that it really tasted good, and they had the aroma of figs.

I enjoyed this post from Bass, and wondered if anyone else has tried it? Maybe fig sap could be milked by slicing cuts in the stem starting towards the tops, and working down as those cuts heal. I also wonder how well this works with dried sap. It would be good to be able to store it for later use. The cheese Bass made looks to be a loose soft cheese. What would this cheese be like if aged? Fresh unpasturized milk is expensive here, I wonder how this would turn out with high quality, cream on top organic milk? This could be an interesting product for farmers markets. Mike in Habover, VA

Back in Sicily, my mother used to make ricotta cheese by taking a branch from the fig tree and snapping it in several places so it would fit in the pot of heated goat's or sheep's milk. That would coagulate the milk, taking the place of renett.

I'm surprised I missed this thread.  Outstanding work, Bass.

That's great information Vito~ do you recall tasting the fig flavor? I'm thinking maybe goat or sheep milk is so strong flavored it would cover up the fig taste. Mike in Hanover, VA

Hello Mike.
I don't remember much of the taste, that was 60 year's ago, but that's how we made ricotta.
Vito

My Mother also has said that she used the fig branch to make ricotta in Italy but there was no significant fig taste. 

I also found out that a fig branch can also tenderize meat.  A friend of mine asked the cook at a dinner about the goat meat that they were served.  It was incredibly tender even though it as an older animal whose meat tends to be tough.  The cook said that his secret is cooking the meat with a fig branch.  I gave my friend some cuttings from my tree so that he can use them when cooking venison, goose or duck.

Luzzu

MGorski:  One of the sites mentioned that in the old days, fig juice would be dripped onto some cloth and permitted to dry and then stored for future use.  The bits of cloth would then be soaked in the warmed milk when they were ready to make the cheese. The suggested ratio was 5 drops of sap to a gallon of unpasteurized milk.  More than that would make the cheese bitter. If anyone is making cheese from their fig trees, I would be interested in their recipes. Would love to try it myself.  

Luzzu: Fig juice contains similar enzymes to papayas which I believe is used to make Papain a common meat tenderizer in this country. Not surprised at all to hear that it could also be used to tenderize meat. Think Pineapples also contain similar enzymes.

Thanks for this information.  Here we make yogurt cheese with our goat milk, makes a very desserty go with anything cheese, pairs with figs well.  

The fig never ceases to amaze me.

I'll have to make this cheese again. 

I just took a cheesemaking class this weekend, and am eyeing my fig trees as a source of vegetable rennet. Hmmmmmmmm…

I just had bass's fig sap cheese at his place for the fig gathering.The cheese was very good . thank you,Bass!

Hey Bass, can you post the recipe you used on the cheese? Thanks!

[QUOTE]can you post the recipe you used on the cheese?[/QUOTE]
I will when I get some free time. Too busy eating cheese now.

[QUOTE=Bass]I will when I get some free time. Too busy eating cheese now. [/QUOTE]

You sly dog you ;-)

Yay! I finally made mozzarella using fig sap as the rennet. I tried several methods and finally used the 30 min microwave method from cheesemaking.com along with some help from other videos and websites. I'm so excited to share this with you. I wrote a blog post with pictures so you can see it. Thanks for all the help from this website too!

http://gardenvariety.life/making-mozarella-with-fig-sap/

Hi Cricket
Very interesting article. Thank you for posting it.

Vito

Oh my gosh will the wonders of figs never cease!  We are looking into getting goats to make fresh cheese to eat with the figs and here we have fig cheese!  Along with a cup of fig leaf tea and the health benefits are over the top.  Happy healthy figging everyone.  Jodi

So cool, gotta try it.

Doug

Love your blog Cricket, very nice!  Thank you for your post.

several trees in other areas are used for their sap.
South America, India, Africa etc...

obviously here in the USA we have maple, but i hear birch, sycamore and some others can be used.

i have to wonder if the leaking the sap would stunt the growth of the fruit, or even of the tree ?

Hi Brad, at the home use scale there won't be any impact on the fig tree other than the impacts that come with snapping off a growing shoot tip, which many of us do all the time to induce earlier formation of figs on new growth or to get young trees to develop branching.  The recipe only uses about 1/4 teaspoon of sap per gallon of milk.  Once you break the growing tip off, the sap flows nicely until it seals itself up.  I'm going to give this a shot next weekend.  Really looking forward to tasting this cheese.  Thank you Bass and Cricket.

Back in the old days, people used to let the sap drip on little bits of white cloth. They would then let the clothes  air dry and store them in a jar.  Each bit of cloth contained enough sap to treat one gal. of milk. This allowed them to make cheese using fig rennet off season. Most of the recipes I have found claim that 5 drops of rennet are required to turn a gallon of milk into a cheese. For those who have actual experience making cheese, does 5 drops sound like the right amount (1/4 tsp)?