I tasted my 5 month old cheddar today. I have tasted it until it is almost gone! I was working on my cheddar recipe, trying a few different timings to see what the difference was. I was comparing the 200 Cheese Recipe version my recipe. I wanted to know the difference in flavor with the temperature and time differences between mine and hers.
So this cheese is my recipe, where I cooked it for 40 minutes and cheddared it for 2 hours like Ricki Carrol. I developed my recipe by reading a lot of recipes and that CHR Hansen papers that I downloaded from here. There was a lot of information in there. I would attach it but I don't know where I put the pdf.
Anyway I am tasting my 5 month old cheddar. It has a nice cheddar flavor, the right texture, and the right knit. It's not dry! (I used to have a problem with dry and crumbly.)
There is a slight flavor on the back side of it that I can't identify, but after you eat a few pieces you don't notice it anymore. It's not bitter, it seems to just be a little bite to it. Not really a tangy flavor, but it might develop into one later.
I'm going to call it the NOT READY to eat yet flavor, but I'm not sure. I have never had home made cheddar so I'm thinking that it might be what cheddar tastes like, instead of the store bought Kraft stuff. It's just a little bite in the flavor, maybe a twang but not a tangy.
Any thoughts? Does your home made cheddar have a slight twang? I actually like it, it adds character.
I have 9lbs of cheddar that I made in January and February. I'm going to let it sit until November or December.
