Author Topic: AGING EXPERIMENT  (Read 9422 times)

dthelmers

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #15 on: July 15, 2013, 12:27:30 AM »
That could be argued, Boofer. But i was kind of anxious that my wife would invade the Brew Room and discover it, so I gave it a good sniff each day to make sure that She Who Must Be Obeyed would not call in the hazmat team, as with one of my early attempts at bloomy rind. That one smelled like low tide.

tnbquilt

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #16 on: July 15, 2013, 01:20:42 AM »
I had a camembert that started to smell. At first I thought it was a normal foot cheese odor, but then it got real strong. When you came in the back door you could smell it, and it wasn't a good thing. My husband finally said something like "What is that smell?" and I told him it was coming from the cheese cave. We had to trash it, but I'm sure it had gone bad for some reason or other.

Offline Boofer

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #17 on: July 16, 2013, 01:52:33 PM »
That one smelled like low tide.
Classic, Dave! :D

That aptly describes a few cheeses I have experienced.

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

dthelmers

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #18 on: August 10, 2013, 05:10:27 PM »
Here's the second cheese I made this way, my modified Caerphilly recipe and room temperature aging. No mold this time. It's just shy of four weeks old, and it tastes pretty good. This goes into the regular roster. The most noticeable difference in flavor from Caerphilly is a Grana type of sharpness. The flavor is rich, sharp, and pleasant; a good table cheese and good in a salad.
Dave in CT

Geodyne

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #19 on: August 11, 2013, 09:52:45 PM »
Hello (new poster here).

Your cheese looks fabulous - I particularly like the almost crumbly look to it, and the name stamped into the top. How have you achieved that? And do you have much of a rind?

I made my first Caerphilly a little over a week ago, and am inadvertantly conducting a similar experiment. After 5 days of drying at room temp I waxed it yesterday. It will now spend a fortnight in my hall closet at ~15C completely ignored while work takes me away. I waxed to remove the chance of unwanted colonisation but you're giving me the courage to try a natural rind.

dthelmers

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #20 on: August 12, 2013, 01:03:52 AM »
It's just slightly crumbly, but slices easily. The rind is pretty thin and eatable on this one; the previous one had mold and the rind wasn't tasty, so we cut it off with minimal loss.
Aging at these higher temperatures changes the cheese quite a bit from Caerphilly, but it is a tasty cheese. I walked a student through it this afternoon, and will post back about it on this thread in a month.
Dave in CT

mjr522

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #21 on: August 12, 2013, 02:25:10 AM »
Great thread--thanks for posting.  I'm going to be making a number of little Caerphillies this coming weekend, and now I think one of them will not make it into the cave.  I think it will have to go into an aging box, rather than sitting out on its own, though, as my ambient humidity can get pretty low and it will be a relatively small cheese. 

As a side note, the wife almost fired me after my first Camembert crop started smelling like a dry p-trap...because of my inexperience, I hoped it was just a stage and we kept them for a while before they were taken out.

dthelmers

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #22 on: October 23, 2013, 01:18:41 PM »
I've now replicated this cheese for the third time, and we still like it quite a bit, so, a keeper.

Offline Tiarella

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #23 on: October 23, 2013, 02:28:05 PM »
I've now replicated this cheese for the third time, and we still like it quite a bit, so, a keeper.

 How on earth did you end up with that one not molding at all???????  I can't imagine how that could happen.  Did you wax or cream coat?

dthelmers

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #24 on: October 23, 2013, 02:52:02 PM »
I've now replicated this cheese for the third time, and we still like it quite a bit, so, a keeper.

 How on earth did you end up with that one not molding at all???????  I can't imagine how that could happen.  Did you wax or cream coat?

I didn't do anything to discourage the mold; I think it was just dry weather and good air circulation. The window was open a bit, and it was breezy.

dthelmers

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #25 on: October 23, 2013, 02:54:46 PM »
The latest one I made had very little mold grow on it, and I just knocked it back with a nail brush.

Offline Tiarella

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #26 on: October 23, 2013, 03:18:18 PM »
and yet it wasn't too dry and forming cracks?  Did you somehow hit the sweet spot of humidity?  I'm going to try one of these again now that it's less humid.  I haven't opened my "Tomme de Neglecte" because it hasn't been enough months to expect much from it.  It did go into a chest freezer after a while but that's so humid it's having an incredible crop of wild blues.  Maybe I should bring it out again to dry off.  I could do that after it's routine brushing......maybe coat it with olive oil or something to limit cracking.  I'm going to think on this.   ???

dthelmers

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #27 on: October 23, 2013, 03:42:28 PM »
Well, it's never really dry here in central Connecticut, so drying and cracking haven't been an issue, but mold is pretty regular. I think it was the air circulation that helped keep the mold down. These are pressed under a fair amount of weight, so they don't have much moisture to lose, which helps avoid cracking.

JimSteel

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Re: AGING EXPERIMENT
« Reply #28 on: January 20, 2014, 06:49:38 PM »
Just found this thread today.  Another Caerphilly was next on my list to recover my Christmas-cheese-losses.  I am inspired by your successes.  Very impressive.