Author Topic: Caerphilly #1  (Read 5841 times)

Smurfmacaw

  • Guest
Re: Caerphilly #1
« Reply #15 on: May 02, 2013, 01:12:57 AM »
Couldn't wait for the weekend.  Cut the cheese tonight  ::)   and it was awesome.  Externally, it has developed a white powdery coating (geo?) and a few little brown spots.  Smell is very nice.  Cheesy but mild and the cheese is pretty firm.  I cut a wedge and it seems to have the texture I remember from the commercial Caerphillies I had many years ago.  Something of a crumbly texture which seems right (although I thought a 4x floc time would yield a smoother cheese.)  Aroma is mild and cheesy.  Taste is what I remember.  Slightly salty and a little tart.  This one is probably a little less tart than what I remember but quite a nice flavor.  Texture is right on so i can't complain at all.  I think next time a little more salt and something to let it get a little more acid.  Don't know what folks like Tiarella do to get the cool rinds but more to learn.  Overall I'm really happy and this is a really good cheese.

« Last Edit: May 02, 2013, 01:21:34 AM by Smurfmacaw »

JeffHamm

  • Guest
Re: Caerphilly #1
« Reply #16 on: May 02, 2013, 02:41:52 AM »
Well done!  That looks like a really good outcome, and the taste and texture sound spot on too.  A cheese to you.

- Jeff

Offline Tiarella

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Chester, MA, US
  • Posts: 1,748
  • Cheeses: 81
  • Default personal text
    • Farm Blog
Re: Caerphilly #1
« Reply #17 on: May 02, 2013, 09:59:50 AM »
Although you canage  Caerphilly for longer if you want and it'll taste great and will have had enough time to develop various molds.  Also, I do think Alp's rind treatment would work fine on a Caerphilly but it might not be worth it unless you're going to age it out quite a while.  It would likely keep all molds away though.

Offline Vina

  • Mature Cheese
  • ****
  • Location: Latvia
  • Posts: 130
  • Cheeses: 4
  • Default personal text
Re: Caerphilly #1
« Reply #18 on: May 03, 2013, 09:26:52 AM »
Looks great!
Caerphilly is one of my favs to make as well. :)

Offline Tiarella

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Chester, MA, US
  • Posts: 1,748
  • Cheeses: 81
  • Default personal text
    • Farm Blog
Re: Caerphilly #1
« Reply #19 on: May 03, 2013, 10:09:37 AM »
It does look wonderful and the proportions of it remind me of my first Caerphilly which was my first hard cheese too.  SO exciting, right?   :D.   And there's something neat about those tallish slightly skinny wheels......  This IS one of my favorite cheeses to make and yes, a cool one for playing with rind treatments.  I'll soon be cutting open one that got a thick layer of smoked paprika rubbed onto it.  That's an easy rind treatment.

Smurfmacaw

  • Guest
Introspection
« Reply #20 on: May 16, 2013, 11:11:29 PM »
Now that I've eaten the cheese and the whole "gee, I made that" feeling is behind me, here's some after the fact thoughts on this make.

1.  In all reality, the cheese texture is most likely more chalky than a caerphilly should be.  Probably attributable to over acidification and cutting the curd inexpertly too small.  I'm going to use a pH meter in the future to assess where the acidification really occurred (I suspect in the press but could be wrong.  I also used a fair bit of starter (1/2 tsp total) which may have had an impact.

2.  I think I'd like it more salty than it was.  It was somewhat difficult to tell with the texture though.  I'm thinking next time I'm going to cheddar and salt it rather than brine it.

3.  Not sure if it detracted from the taste but I think I'm getting a handle on my rennet.  This one flocc'd really fast.  About half as much as I used will be about right.  I've started counting drops but I guess I should use something a little more precise like a syringe or a pipette.

4.  I'm either going to find someone that sells or make myself a horizontal curd knife.  The diagonal cutting is pretty imprecise (plus I like having the right tools for the job.)  My curds are getting better with practice but after watching videos of real curd knives I'm jealous.

That's really all the bad things I guess I can think of.  Nice part is it was edible and I enjoyed it for lunch a number of days and various snacks.  Also it let me get the first hard cheese out of the way.  I've got several more aging right now but I'm doing another Caerphilly next week with the aim of improving technique and turning out an even better cheese.  I'll start another post to get recommendations on pH targets and their effect.

thanks

Mike
« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 11:21:09 PM by Smurfmacaw »