Author Topic: My First [Goat] Caerphilly  (Read 1923 times)

Spellogue

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My First [Goat] Caerphilly
« on: October 11, 2012, 09:37:14 PM »
This seems to be a very popular cheese with many of the makers on the forum.  I figured it would be a good step in the direction of a true cheddar that my kids have been bugging me to make. So I read through a bunch of posts, looked into a few books, and jumped into a make. 

Here are a few notes On the recipe I mashed up from a variety of resources including some cheeseforum posts and links:

CA10B 10/10/12   Goat Caerphilly 
6 quarts raw goat milk set at room temp 2 hrs.
Bring to 90
Starter cultures 
1/4 tsp meso 101
1/64 tsp thermo C
Ripen 30 min
Calf rennet 1/32 tsp
50 min coagulation time
Cut into 1/4 in cubes
Set 5 min.  Gently stir 30 min, Bringing up to 95F.  Cover pot and let stand at 95 for 45 min. 
Drain through cheesecloth lined tome mold.  Press under 10 lbs for  30 min.  Redress. Press under 15 lbs for 18 hrs.
Brine in medium whey brine for 24 hrs.  Air dry 1-2  days. Wipe with salted vinegar.  Dry 10 min.  Wax.  Refrigerate.
Planned Affinage:  at least 2 months.

Cheese makes need to fit my schedule and situation now, so some of my "techniques" are less than ideal, but if it weren't for these  compromises I wouldn't have any of the  homecrafted cheeses that I've been enjoying.  I haven't graduated to using a floc multiplier yet, planning to do so this winter.  I don't have an aging cave set-up, so I'm making due at fridge temps. 

I didn't have any FD or other mesos and, suspecting that the complexity of the cheese depends on varied lactic action, I let the flora in the raw milk bloom a bit and added the pinch of thermo.  Not sure if that will make a difference. No press either, I use tubs of rice, books, etc, hence the lighter pressing weights.

Lots of discussion on short versus longer aging of this style.  I'm thinking of cutting this little wheel in half (semi-circles) before brining to see the difference.  This will be the first cheese I wax.  Excited there. 

The curds are in the press now, any comments are welcome.  If there are glaring concerns with my brining and aging plan I can still make changes for this cheese.