I started a hard cheese yesterday but events overtook me and after cutting the curd I was unable to look after it so it cooled in place. Later I dained it through muslin and today I'm pressing it as if it had worked, though without salting the curds. We'll see what happens.
Two cheeses' worth of curds from 10 pints of milk, for what it's worth. Because I only have the one mould (and press) they were alternated for short stints at first and longer later, all with 3kg or so of weight on a 2:1 lever, so ~6kg of pressure.
ETA - the morning after and the cheeses have compressed (a little lopsidedly) to about two inch high. I suspect it's too late to press them square again so I might cut them or perhaps leave them as they are.
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Friday, 18 September 2009
First hard cheese results
After six weeks I couldn't wait any longer so we've just tried the first attempt at hard cheese.
First impressions are that it was very successful. Obviously quite young at six months but still quite moist -- I'd expected it to be dry after not waxing it. It's vaguely like a Mahon or Manchego except slightly softer. Very creamy and, unfortunately, very moreish. It would suit making in batches a lot better than camembries which all reach the "Coming, ready or not..." point at roughly the same time. Hard cheeses would mature so you could have one young and then have them successively more ripe.
Of course, actually making several at once could be a challenge because they use a lot of milk and I only have one press, but it's worth some thought.
The photos are of the cheese with the chief taster here, and as served with home grown grapes. Lovely.
First impressions are that it was very successful. Obviously quite young at six months but still quite moist -- I'd expected it to be dry after not waxing it. It's vaguely like a Mahon or Manchego except slightly softer. Very creamy and, unfortunately, very moreish. It would suit making in batches a lot better than camembries which all reach the "Coming, ready or not..." point at roughly the same time. Hard cheeses would mature so you could have one young and then have them successively more ripe.
Of course, actually making several at once could be a challenge because they use a lot of milk and I only have one press, but it's worth some thought.
The photos are of the cheese with the chief taster here, and as served with home grown grapes. Lovely.
Monday, 31 August 2009
More camembries
On Saturday I started off a new batch of camembries using virtually the same procedure as always: 11 pints of milk (the twelfth becoming yoghurt), a tablespoon or so of yoghurt, a tablespoon of bried, 21 drops of rennet, three hours to clabber and then the change: I didn't cut the curd but ladled it in large chunks into the moulds. The first one leaked quite badly after a while perhaps because it got the first of the curd but more likely because it was just loaded too quickly. Perhaps next time I'll half fill them all then wait for them to settle a little before adding more.
After the three camembert moulds were filled the remaining curd was put into a pair of basket moulds and a draining bag. One has been imersed in brine (it's a bit soft but I thought I'd see what happened) and the other was mashed with black pepper and garlic, as was the bag cheese.
The camembries were flipped the next day, twice, and again today, are now almost firm enough for me to remove the moulds.
As an aside, this time the yoghurt was put in a thermos flask instead of a tub on a heater. It seemed to work quite well.
No photos so far because it all looks the same as previous batches.
After the three camembert moulds were filled the remaining curd was put into a pair of basket moulds and a draining bag. One has been imersed in brine (it's a bit soft but I thought I'd see what happened) and the other was mashed with black pepper and garlic, as was the bag cheese.
The camembries were flipped the next day, twice, and again today, are now almost firm enough for me to remove the moulds.
As an aside, this time the yoghurt was put in a thermos flask instead of a tub on a heater. It seemed to work quite well.
No photos so far because it all looks the same as previous batches.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Hard Cheese Update
After 20 da
ys of drying, turning, and occasionally scraping and dabbing m
ould with vinegar and salt, I've now oiled the cheese and wrapped it in paper.
It feels heavy and firm but not rock-hard and it's awfully tempting to try it. Really though it needs at least another two weeks and preferably a month or two.
Perhaps next weekend I'll get some soft or brined cheese on the go again to tide us over.
ys of drying, turning, and occasionally scraping and dabbing m
ould with vinegar and salt, I've now oiled the cheese and wrapped it in paper.It feels heavy and firm but not rock-hard and it's awfully tempting to try it. Really though it needs at least another two weeks and preferably a month or two.
Perhaps next weekend I'll get some soft or brined cheese on the go again to tide us over.
Monday, 3 August 2009
A quick shot this morning of the hard cheese started yesterday. For scale, this is a camembert sort of sized block but about twice as deep, and quite dense. I have to figure out what I'm going to do about sealing it or allowing a rind to form. Wax seems to be the usual option but I haven't got any and I'm also short of equipment for that. I might go for a parmesan style oil coating. We'll see.
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Failed camembrie and First Hard Cheese
This is a bit of a mixed post. We tried the latest batch of camembries a while ago and I didn't have the heart to post an update at the time. They were vile. Very sharp and one-dimensional. They looked great but they didn't taste it. I'll pick over my notes and try to figure out why a bit later but to some extent I think that dealing with sensitive micro-organisms on a home scale with only very basic testing and environmental control I'm just likely to have the occasional bad batch. I do remember the curd tasting funny (sharp and almost lemony) when I tried some fresh, but I don't really know what caused it. It does point towards something more fundamental than bad maturation though. Perhaps the milk wasn't right. Perhaps I dropped a lemon in by mistake.
Anyway, on a slightly more positive note a friend bought me a Dutch Press for my birthday and so today I've attempted my first hard cheese. A fascinating process! Quite different to what I've done befo
re and the heating and -- relative to soft cheese -- rough treatment of the curd felt all wrong. Still, the results I've ended up with so far seem perfect according to my recipe and I'm currently pressing what I suppose must be in the region of 1lb of cheese.
From the usual 12 pints of milk I got my pint of yoghurt, the Main Feature hard cheese as mentioned above, a small quantity of ricotta, and some left over hard cheese curds which I mixed with half a clove of garlic and some black pepper to make a boursin-style cheese.
The main different with the hard cheese recipe has been that the curds are cut, stirred, drained and then mixed gently by hand with salt before keeping warm and repeatedly breaking up for an hour or so. Finally this mixture is wrapped in cheese cloth and pressed gradually at first and more firmly later in the press. There is much more separation of curd and whey before the cheese enters the mold and so even under pressure the contents of a normal camembert size mould (10x10x10) has not greatly diminished in the first hour or two. Maybe by 10-20%. Contrast this with camembries which lose half their volume in the space of a few hours and express buckets (literally) of whey.
One other thing that I've been wondering, looking at this recipe and others for soft cheeses, is whether I shouldn't be cutting the curd for soft cheeses and instead scooping large chunks of it out whole. The results have been good but messy as much curd has squeezed through the holes in the moulds. One to investigate next time.
Anyway, on a slightly more positive note a friend bought me a Dutch Press for my birthday and so today I've attempted my first hard cheese. A fascinating process! Quite different to what I've done befo
re and the heating and -- relative to soft cheese -- rough treatment of the curd felt all wrong. Still, the results I've ended up with so far seem perfect according to my recipe and I'm currently pressing what I suppose must be in the region of 1lb of cheese.From the usual 12 pints of milk I got my pint of yoghurt, the Main Feature hard cheese as mentioned above, a small quantity of ricotta, and some left over hard cheese curds which I mixed with half a clove of garlic and some black pepper to make a boursin-style cheese.
The main different with the hard cheese recipe has been that the curds are cut, stirred, drained and then mixed gently by hand with salt before keeping warm and repeatedly breaking up for an hour or so. Finally this mixture is wrapped in cheese cloth and pressed gradually at first and more firmly later in the press. There is much more separation of curd and whey before the cheese enters the mold and so even under pressure the contents of a normal camembert size mould (10x10x10) has not greatly diminished in the first hour or two. Maybe by 10-20%. Contrast this with camembries which lose half their volume in the space of a few hours and express buckets (literally) of whey.
One other thing that I've been wondering, looking at this recipe and others for soft cheeses, is whether I shouldn't be cutting the curd for soft cheeses and instead scooping large chunks of it out whole. The results have been good but messy as much curd has squeezed through the holes in the moulds. One to investigate next time.
Saturday, 13 June 2009
New Camembrie Batch
Started a new batch of camembries today. Accidentally heated the milk to 100F (distracted) but thought I'd give it a go anyway. 6 litres, Rennetted (14 drops of 520 mg/l) at 100F and inoculated with yoghurt and a piece of a previous camembrie[1].
Four hours later, curds cut, left to rest, then poured into moulds. I note that my curds are very, very delicate and tend to break up into tiny pieces no matter how carefully I ladle them out. I don't know if this is normal or whether something in my method makes it more likely to happen. Must look into that though.
Anyway, they'll now drain over night and in about an hour I'll make up some ricotta with the remaining whey.
[1]
And while we're on the subject, here's one of the three camembries from the 27th April batch. This is fresh from the fridge so no doubt it will really melt when it comes to temperature. We had the first of them last weekend, this one now (mainly to inoculate this new batch) and have one left that we may save for another week or may give to friends.
I thought last week's was a bit one dimensional but my wife loved it. I think this one is milder and more creamy, but perhaps that's the effect of it being served much colder.
Four hours later, curds cut, left to rest, then poured into moulds. I note that my curds are very, very delicate and tend to break up into tiny pieces no matter how carefully I ladle them out. I don't know if this is normal or whether something in my method makes it more likely to happen. Must look into that though.
Anyway, they'll now drain over night and in about an hour I'll make up some ricotta with the remaining whey.
[1]
And while we're on the subject, here's one of the three camembries from the 27th April batch. This is fresh from the fridge so no doubt it will really melt when it comes to temperature. We had the first of them last weekend, this one now (mainly to inoculate this new batch) and have one left that we may save for another week or may give to friends.I thought last week's was a bit one dimensional but my wife loved it. I think this one is milder and more creamy, but perhaps that's the effect of it being served much colder.
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