Author Topic: Is it a caerphilly?  (Read 2747 times)

margaretsmall

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Is it a caerphilly?
« on: August 25, 2012, 10:08:15 PM »
Despite to my husband's serious illness, I've been making cheese over the last few months, really as a displacement activity, with somewhat unusual results at times, unsurprisingly. We won't even talk about the chaource of a couple of weeks ago , very strange outcome! Last week I attempted my first caerphilly, but went off course at one point, so would be pleased to have advice. Recipe a bit of an amalgam of Willman and Karlin plus threads here.

8l unhomogenised milk average 3.45% fat, heated to 32oC.
2% culture in the form of 4 ice cubes of flora danica and 1 of buttermilk (because there was no more FD in the freezer).
 Ripened 30 minutes, added 1ml DS calf rennet. Flocc. time 18 minutes at 11:32am cut into 1cm cubes at 12:15, nice and firm.
 Stood 5 minutes.
Stirred 15 minutes, started to warm (in double boiler) to 35oC.
This is where I had  a senior moment. The temp reached 35oC... and kept going even though the heat had been turned off at 34oC. Took it out of the boiler and stirred and eventually the temp. stabilised at 41oC.
Drained whey.
Piled curd to one side of pot to drain, 30 minutes.
Cut into pieces and piled up. Drained 45 minutes.
Crumbled curds into pieces about 1cm
sprinkled 1 1/2 tspn. salt on curds, mixed around.
Put into mold and pressed at 5kg for 20 minutes.
Redressed, pressed 1.5 hrs.
Redressed, doubled weight and pressed overnight.
Brined 20%  solution 12 hours.
Dried at room temp. for 4 days, last day unseasonally hot for winter, saw that the surface seemed very dry and cracks were appearing. Put into a container and put in a cooler place (temp. varies over the day 10oC-15oC). Cracks mostly closed up, only a couple of tiny ones remain.
Today, day 7, it seems almost dry (there was a tiny bit of moisture in the bottom of the box this morning) but the surface feels greasy. Planning to bag tomorrow if no more moisture in the box. I've had to take several cheeses out of the bags and redry them, so want to be sure its dry enough when I bag it.

3 questions -
first, what will be the impact of taking the temp. too high? I can see that more whey has been expelled as this morning it weighed 921g while the Havarti I made a few weeks ago with a similar milk mix weighed 1160g. at the same age. My guess is that this temp. would have killed off the meso culture. Advice please.

second,  not all recipes for caerphilly do the cheddaring process - I would have thought that cheddaring would lead to a drier curd and therefore a cheese which would respond to longer maturing. Is that correct? What's the general feeling as to the right process for an authentic caerphilly?

Third, why the greasy feeling? Is this usual? I've had it with other cheeses as well, but not everything I've made.

Margaret

JeffHamm

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Re: Is it a caerphilly?
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2012, 12:24:49 AM »
Hi mararet,

I think you may be ok.  The temp is high for the meso's, but it was after the ripening period so although some will have died off, most like some survived and will hopefully soldier on.

I found an old 1907 article on caerphilly, and they don't mention cheddaring the curds in that one.  I tend to make the cheddared version because I quite like it myself, but I've made one following a procedure that doesn't involve cheddaring and it was good too.  Had a similar flavour as well.

The greesy feeling is probably butterfat. 

I would suggest opening this one in 3 or 4 weeks.  There are other makes that are better suited for long aging IMHO. 

Hope your husband is doing well.  Take care.

- Jeff

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Is it a caerphilly?
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2012, 01:06:58 AM »
Hello Margaret,  I've just done a similar thing I think.  I did a Caerphilly make today and it went too high also....to about 96F or 35C and that was after the rennet and flocculation.   It stayed there quite a while too because I was trying to do too many things.  I used raw goat milk and my floc time was shorter than I wanted (I'll use less rennet next batch).  I didn't do the slicing and cheddaring step.  I did my first two pressings under whey to help the curds get solid with each other.  I'm concerned my cheese may end up a bit dry and I'm wondering how long to do that last press and whether to brine or not brine.  If I brine, for how long.  Every recipe says a different press time and a different brine time.  Ideas from everyone are greatly appreciated.  They've been in their last pressing now for almost 5 hours.  Should I take them out now?  Or in a couple of hours before bed?  Or leave them in all night?  I have done 3 other Caerphillys and the first one tasted so good it went very fast.  The second one was a bit dryer and it's still okay but not winning any moans from us.  I have one aging that I won't know about for a bit and then there's this one.  I think I need a do-over but that'll have to wait until the milk has collected again.  I hope some of my meso survived......

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Is it a caerphilly?
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2012, 02:42:15 AM »
I just decided upon a name for my cheese if it doesn't seem to be a Caerphilly.  It'll just have to be a "Dudephilly."
Get it?  Caerphilly (carefully). And Dudephilly (dutifully)
Okay, so it's late and past my bedtime and thiings seem funnier than they are.  ; >

boothrf

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Re: Is it a caerphilly?
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2012, 04:34:10 AM »
Ha ha Tiarella, I thought you meant it was a dud,  which here in Aus means a failure!

mjr522

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Re: Is it a caerphilly?
« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2012, 04:39:23 AM »
Bob--I thought the same thing (dud means the same in the US).

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Re: Is it a caerphilly?
« Reply #6 on: August 26, 2012, 12:18:10 PM »
No, it's more "dude" than "dud".  ; >       sort of dude-philly

boothrf

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Re: Is it a caerphilly?
« Reply #7 on: August 26, 2012, 10:31:54 PM »
Ha ha Mike. We often use the term to refer to our politicians and I don't suppose it is any different in the US!  ;)

mjr522

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Re: Is it a caerphilly?
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2012, 12:52:34 AM »
Bob, I most often think of in terms of fire works and bombs that don't go off--something you expect to be spectacular and then is not even good.  I suppose it would work for politicians, but it's rare that I expect them to be spectacular.  Usually, if they don't mess anything up worse than it already is, I consider them very successful.  For me, a dud of a cheese would be one I had high hopes for and then was disappointed with--which, Margaret, I hope yours isn't a dud.  Be sure to tell us how it turns out--perhaps it will turn out better than expected!