Making cheese 2016 into 2017

[GotGarlic]

Well, splitting hairs....no one makes you ....anything. I take what you say in a very positive way, just as I'm sure you meant it. [emoji2] But if you want to do it, just get an old used fridge, and the thermostat units were super expensive a year or so ago and now you can get them for $28.50. And if you decide not to have a cheese cave anymore, you can use the thermostat portion to keep your crock pot at just about any temperature you like!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V4TJR00/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You are inspiring me to pursue a new aspect of foodiedom. Is that better?

 

[blissful]

You are inspiring me to pursue a new aspect of foodiedom. Is that better?

I inspired you, yes that is much better! Go for it. It is a blast that tastes good.

 

[taxlady]

Essentially yes. There are other factors too. The two cultures most often used alone and with other cultures are mesophilic and thermophilic. Meso is for lower temperatures while thermo cultures can be heated higher. I was reading a manchego recipe which uses both!

Other factors:
How long you stir at each stage.
How big you cut the curds.
The temperature you bring the curds up to.
How long you rest the curds.
If you wash the curds to heat them or to cool them.
If you add salt to the cheese, as it controls how acidic it gets.
If you mill the salt in or if you brine the cheese after pressing.
How long and at what poundage you press the curds.
How long and at what temperature and humidity you age the cheese.
Whether you wash the rind to protect the cheese or if you wax it or if you grow something moldy on the outside of it.

It makes a difference what kind of milk you have, sheep, goat, or cows, or? and whether it is pasteurized and homogenized, or raw. So, there are lots of factors and the mother cultures are part of the recipe that makes them what they are.

Thanks for the info. That's really interesting.

D'oh! I knew about the mesophilic and thermophilic cultures. Are they the same ones as I use for quark and yogourt?

 

[blissful]

Thanks for the info. That's really interesting.

D'oh! I knew about the mesophilic and thermophilic cultures. Are they the same ones as I use for quark and yogourt?

Um, you'd have to read up on whether quark and yogurt have those same cultures, I'm not sure. I know for sure that my kefir has both of those cultures in it and I've used it to make cheddar curds and it turned out fantastic. I would guess, yes, but I am just learning this stuff!

 

[taxlady]

Um, you'd have to read up on whether quark and yogurt have those same cultures, I'm not sure. I know for sure that my kefir has both of those cultures in it and I've used it to make cheddar curds and it turned out fantastic. I would guess, yes, but I am just learning this stuff!

I know that the quark uses a mesophilic culture and the yogourt uses a thermophilic culture. I guess I'm wondering if there is more than one of each. I would imagine there are and I guess I would have to look up their scientific names.

 

[blissful]

Thermophilic (DS) Culture - 5 Packets

If you start here on the vendor page you will see that thermo has: lactose, streptococcus thermophilus, lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. Lactis, lactobacillus helveticus, sucrose

They also have yogurt starter and mesophilic cultures. There are other vendors too. I like this particular vendor.

 

[taxlady]

Thanks blissful

 

[blissful]

Since I last posted, I made Jarlsberg (type of swiss), my second Gruyere2, and today I'm half way through a White Cheddar3 (3 for 3rd cheddar).
I will wax 2 cheeses today.
We may move on to some blue cheese because I like to have a little blue cheese around for blue cheese dressing for salad, and blue cheese enhances cheddar cheese/cream cheese in flavor when mixing cheeses.
I still need to buy an 8 qt collander and some kind of seal a meal or food saver device and bags.

 

[Dawgluver]

Whoa, bliss, you are a cheese making fool! Very impressive!

When is the tasting party? I'll bring wine.

 

[taxlady]

Whoa, bliss, you are a cheese making fool! Very impressive!

When is the tasting party? I'll bring wine.

ditto

 

[blissful]

I agree, I am a fool about cheese lately.

I finished the white cheddar3 and decided to make another white cheddar4 today, both for long aging. They will supposedly be better as time goes on, first at 3 months, then 6, then 9, then 12, then 24, then 36 months...sharper as time goes on. It's cow's milk so it doesn't fully get 'sharp' until some time passes. I'm a fan of long aged cheddars.

I changed my cheese washing schedule, of wiping down the cheeses in the cheese cave, drying them, and turning them, from every 3-4 days to every other day because I'm seeing more mold on the outside of the brine washed cheeses now than when I first started. It takes a little less than a half hour.

We don't have the variety of cheeses for a wine and cheese tasting party just yet but in a few months we should be able to do that. You guys are on my guest list.

Yesterday the Butterkase (a german and austrian cheese) aged out at about 5 weeks since I made it. So we busted it open. We took off the wax and cut the almost 5 lb wheel into quarters. It was white and creamy, soft, it had lovely small hole development (like a havarti, not big holes like some swiss types). The flavor was mild and the texture at room temperature was so soft that thin slices would crush, thicker slices were beautiful. This would melt very well. Husband and son were very happy with it. I was ecstatic. Knowing that it only took 5 weeks to develop into this great cheese that we all really like, I'd make it again.

(I'd recommend making this cheese as a first cheese, it is straight forward following the recipe, easier and less time consuming than cheddar curds or mozzarella. The only drawback is waiting the 5 weeks to maturity.)

We ordered a food saver vacuum sealer, finally, and that will help for storing cheese when they've aged out, so they don't mold. Hopefully that will be here Tuesday.

 

[bethzaring]

I really miss cheese making. I only made soft cheeses; mozzarella, whole milk ricotta and chevre. I made my own cultures, using freshly made buttermilk for the mesophilic culture and freshly made yogurt for the thermophilic cultures.

 

[blissful]

I really miss cheese making. I only made soft cheeses; mozzarella, whole milk ricotta and chevre. I made my own cultures, using freshly made buttermilk for the mesophilic culture and freshly made yogurt for the thermophilic cultures.

Why not get back to it? Since it takes a number of hours or a whole day, I think it would be tough to do working full time and trying to fit in cheese making. I don't have unlimited time. As soon as work starts for me, I'll be limited to week-ends so I'm hoping to have some in stock for a while. I love the idea of using buttermilk and yogurt for the cultures.

 

[bethzaring]

Why not get back to it? Since it takes a number of hours or a whole day, I think it would be tough to do working full time and trying to fit in cheese making. I don't have unlimited time. As soon as work starts for me, I'll be limited to week-ends so I'm hoping to have some in stock for a while. I love the idea of using buttermilk and yogurt for the cultures.

I used to make cheese from the milk from my personal herd of dairy goats. I no longer have those goats. My recipes were based on goats' milk. I now purchase goats' milk for $7. a quart. Not likely to spend $56 for a 2 gallon batch of mozzarella!

 

[blissful]

Yeah Beth, that is a little exorbitant! I couldn't do it. That's way out of budget amounts!

 

[blissful]

Since the white cheddars..
I made:
Brick
Emmentaler2
Guinness Infused Cheese
Jarlsberg2 w/mace
Parmesan3
and I took 2 days off to catch up on everything else

Yesterday I started a batch and DH had car trouble which means I get to drive all over heck to pick him up, but my car wouldn't start, needed a new battery.....I thought, oh gee I can't let this milk sit for 3 hours at 80 degrees because the natural bacteria might cause long term aging issues and I didn't want to throw out the 4 gallons milk. Start, stop, start, stop, I can't make cheese with my schedule interrupted, changed, changed, changed. So by late afternoon I decided to be flexible and instead of an aged cheese, I'd make mozzarella and freeze it in 8 oz containers, so I did. DH even offered to wash up the kitchen afterwards and I let him, I was worn out from all the crisis stuff w/the cars. I think I'm finally getting good at the mozzarella making.

Merlot infused cheese is today. Wash down the cheeses in the cheese cave, wax 2 cheeses.

I finally did get a FoodSaver sealing device and sealed up the havarti, butterkase, brick, and caerphilly cheeses, for longer term storage in the freezer and refrigerator. I bought an off brand roll of sealing material, and I cut bags from it, and used it. It is sturdy and worked very well. It is called FoodVacBags and it is good for sous vide as well.

I still need to find an 8 quart colander to fit across the 14 inch sink so I can deal with the stilton cheese. The colander bowl needs to be 13-14 inches and the handles need to span to about 16 inches. The curd doesn't get cut and is drained for a long time in the colander before putting it in the mold(s).

Off I go to boil water and equipment....for a long day.

 

[taxlady]

Bliss, I love hearing about your cheese making. Sorry to hear about the car headaches.

 

[blissful]

Taxlady, thank you for caring. Caring is under-rated. Sometimes I'm all alone with my cheese and I wonder if I'm boring people to death with my kitchen/lab experiment cooking.

Cars will be fixed tomorrow, it's gonna cost an arm and a leg, again.

I'm now in the part of the process to get 4 gallons of milk to 88 degrees F from about 40 degrees F. It is in a roaster and at 450 degrees for 20 to 22 minutes, then I turn down the roaster to under 250 and raise the temperature of the milk slowly to exactly 88.

I'm going to use buttermilk for the culture in this recipe. Merlot infused cheese, is quite cool looking but I have no idea about how it might taste. It will appear blotchy, with the inside of the curd being white, the outside being red, then it is pressed hard together and aged.

One of the interesting things going on in the kitchen, is that the emmentaler is now being kept at room temperature for around 2 weeks while it develops eyes, so it bloats on the top and sides. Instead of being shaped like a drum, it will have curves. I wash it every other day and turn it upside down daily so that the eyes will be round. Once it really gets going, after a bit of bloat, it needs to be refrigerated to stop the eye formation or it might blow out the side or top. Then it ages for many weeks in the cheese cave.

I never knew it could be this easy to make cheese--I mean it takes all day and there is a lot of equipment to invent or find, but then, it just takes a little work to do it. I love doing most of it.

 

[Dawgluver]

Bliss, I love hearing your cheese stories. Taxy and I are still bringing wine to the tasting.

 

[blissful]

Thanks Dawg! I'm counting on that wine! Wine shows you care!

I was having SO much blue/white mold growing on my rind ripened cheeses for the past few weeks. It's normal but it is a lot to clean 2 times a week. Now I'm cleaning them every other day. I finally moved the pail with the water in it into the vegetable drawer, partially covered it and lowered the relative humidity into the low 80's instead of the 90's, and the cheese isn't as tough to clean up, wash them in brine. I treat any creases with white vinegar and I use a hand brush to brush off the mold with the brine. Then I dry them good. God Forbid anything happens to me, what would my DS and DH do if they let this cheese cave go without maintaining it? Brain mold city.

It's been written in some cheese journals that the mold is at its worst in the beginning of ripening/aging, and then it isn't as bad as time goes on. I'm finding that to be true. I'm pretty sure my brain cheese was an example of that. And the brain cheese, havarti, did turn out edible, it is quite delicious.

Back to today's cheese. Time to cut the curd, 3/4th inch cuts this time. Then it heals for 5 minutes, then I rest and stir it for 30 minutes.