Author Topic: Drying Chevre--Banon style?  (Read 1746 times)

Offline Littlest Goat

  • Medium Cheese
  • ***
  • Location: Owens Valley,Calif.
  • Posts: 24
  • Cheeses: 0
  • Default personal text
Drying Chevre--Banon style?
« on: May 10, 2013, 03:04:51 PM »
I have been having extra Chevre  logs (4 oz size) leftover (my usual customers have been out of town)and have been playing around with drying them.I just let them dry an extra 4-5 days on the draining set up I have.Sometimes I rub a little salt on the surface to protect against mold.Once they get pretty dry they make a nice little slicing cheese.On the last ones I dried, I sprinkled them with a little kirsch,black pepper and wrapped in steamed cherry leave.I now have them in a small crock with a cloth over them in a cool place(about 60F).Has anyone played around with this?
   I read in the 200 Easy Cheese book about chestnut leaf wrapped goat cheese.She has you make a non cultured rennet coagulated base and then do the drying and leaf treatment.My chevre is cultured with a little MM100.Is traditional Banon cultured and inoculated with any mold? In all the photos I have looked at it almost looks like there is a moldy rind.
   After one week in the crock it seems like things are too dry.So I covered with plastic.I am also thinking my chunks of cheese are too small and prone to drying.I wonder if I should sprinkle with some more kirsch.Thanks in advance for any input.