Edam Cheese Making Recipe
Edam originated in Netherlands and is a washed rind cheese like Gouda and Colby. It has the same ingredients as Gouda but a different cheese making method.
Ingredients
- 1 US gallon/3.6 liters Fresh Cow's Milk.
- Optional: Calcium Chloride if using pasteurized milk.
- Mesophilic Starter Culture of your choice, either manufactured or 4 ounces/115 ml of homemade.
- Rennet diluted in 1/4 cup/50 ml cool water, amount depending on package directions and your experience with that brand.
- Salt for brine.
Directions
Curd Making
- Warm the milk to 90F/32C.
- Add Starter Culture (and optionally Calcium Chloride) dissolved in small amount of water and mix thoroughly with a whisk to make the culture (and CaCl2) uniform throughout the milk.
- Cover and let the culture ripen at same temp for 10 minutes.
- Trickle in diluted rennet stirring constantly with a whisk for 2-3 minutes to evenly distribute.
- Cover and let the milk stand at 90F/32C for 1-2 hours until a clean break is achieved.
- Cut the curds into 1/2 inch/1 cm cubes.
- Stir the curds gently for thirty minutes.
- Separately, pre-heat 1.5 liters/6 cups of water to 140 F/60 C.
- Let the curds rest for five minutes in water bath, then ladle off and discard one-third of the whey.
- While stirring, add enough of the 140°F/60°C water until you reach 98°F/37°C), roughly the same volume of the whey that was removed.
- Maintain temperature for forty minutes, continually stirring to prevent curds from matting.
- Let the curds rest for five minutes at the target temperature, then ladle off and retain the remaining whey.
Curd Pressing
- Pour the curds into a cheesecloth lined mold.
- Press the cheese at ~15 pounds/7 kg for ~15 minutes.
- Heat the reserved whey to 125°F/52°C.
- Remove the cheese from the mold and cheesecloth and place in the heated whey for 30 minutes, turn the cheese after ~15 minutes.
- Remove the cheese from the whey, re-wrap it in cheesecloth, place it back in the mold, and press at ~40 pounds/18 kg for ~6 hours.
- Remove the cheese from the mold and cheesecloth, turn, re-wrap in cheesecloth, place back in mold, and press at ~40 pounds/18 kg for final ~6 hours.
Brining
- Remove the cheese from the press and cheesecloth, place in saturated brine solution for 3 hours, be certain to turn the cheese over every ~45 minutes to ensure even rind development.
- Remove from bath and pat dry with paper towel and discard paper towel, (you will notice the outer surface has become firmer).
Aging
- Place cheese in 50°F/10°C and 80-85% relative humidity Cheese Cave to ripen.
- Turn and wash the rind daily with brine and fresh cloth until the cheese is dry to touch (2-5 days).
- Wax and age long term in same 50°F/10°C and ~85% relative humidity Cheese Cave for three to eight weeks.