Author Topic: First Lancashire  (Read 2556 times)

Kirkbybil

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First Lancashire
« on: November 02, 2013, 04:19:26 PM »
It's a horrible rainy day here in Harrogate so, to cheer myself up, I decided it was time to cut open my first Lancashire. I also wanted to try my new vacuum sealer (Andrew James reduced from £99.95 to £39.99 with 4.5/5 review on Amazon - an early Xmas present from my wife) and my home made cheese wire cutter (two bits of wood and a couple of feet of picture wire that I found in a drawer this morning!).

I made the cheese with 4gallons of whole milk (UK galls so 17 litres) on 28th September so just four weeks old. I followed Jeff Hamms recipe that I found on the forum - but I didn't have buttermilk so used a generic meso starter culture that I had frozen into cubes.

It was a really nice cheese to make and was no trouble to get to this stage. Regular brine wash and A little white powdery coating developed as you can see from the pix, and the occasional spots of something else that I wiped off with brine.

Firstly the cheese wire was a failure. I thought it would slice through straight and easily with no mess but, even though the picture wire was less than a millimetre thick, it was a struggle, it was difficult to cut in a straight line, and it didn't give a clean cut as you can see. I tidied it up with a knife so I could get a better picture of the paste.

It was very nice. I thought it would be very mild and tasteless at this stage but it actually tasted like a Lancashire. Slightly acidic, slightly salty, very tasty. It was a little 'claggy', not dry and crumbly as I'd hoped for but maybe that will come with a little more ageing? Very thin rind which is very edible (though the rind is usually a treat for the dogs). We ate the slice that you can see I took off to tidy it for lunch with toast, mmmm, and then I got to test the vacuum sealer.

It worked extremely well. Very easy, put the cheese in the bag, put the bag opening in the machine and press the button and wait about 30 seconds. Certainly took all the air out and I'll leave the cheese there, back in the cave, for another few weeks and see how it's progressed.

Delighted with it so far, thanks for the Recipe Jeff!

High Altitude

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Re: First Lancashire
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2013, 04:34:15 PM »
Looks like you did a fine job Kirk!  Let me be the first to give you a well-deserved cheese  ;D!

JeffHamm

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Re: First Lancashire
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2013, 07:06:16 PM »
Hi Kirkbybil,

Well done!  A cheese to you for a great result.  The Lancashire make is one I copied from Mrs KK, and I think it originates from Sailor.  It's a good cheese, and a nice one to start with.  It's designed to be moister, so not the traditional dry and crumbly, as this is what appeals to the North American market.  I would think, if you back down on the floc multiplier to 3, stirr more vigorously and for longer (at step 6, rather than stir for 10 minutes, go for 30 to 45 minutes).  You could also raise your temp from 31ish to 33ish C over this time period.  These should help expel more whey, and give you a drier cheese in the end.  Would be good for longer aging.  Still, this is a nice cheese, and ready in 2 months, and it can be aged a little bit, but the current recipe isn't designed for a long aging cheese (again, try the above modifications if you want to take this out to more than 4 months).

- Jeff


Geodyne

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Re: First Lancashire
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2013, 08:35:07 PM »
That's a marvelous looking cheese. I'm going to add to your cheeses for the result.

I've not eaten a lot of Lancashire as we eat a lot of Cheshire cheese, but I'm inspired to try some after my return last month to the UK. As part of my cheese explorations we purchased and tried an aged Lancashire, which was still moist, nutty, creamy and deliciously sharp. It's definitely inspired me to try a Lancashire and age some out.

Matthewcraig

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Re: First Lancashire
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2014, 07:00:49 PM »
This dosent really have anything to do with your amazing looking Lancashire but I fellow cheese maker in the small town of harrogate wow, I have been trying to find somewhere that sells good milk or delivers it, do you know anywhere?

Kirkbybil

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Re: First Lancashire
« Reply #5 on: March 05, 2014, 08:02:46 PM »
Hi, Sorry I didn't reply but I've not been on the site for a while, too busy making cheese!

I have looked for goat's milk because it is so expensive from the supermarket but there doesn't seem to be anywhere in Yorkshire. I found one place in the dales, they didn't answer the phone so I drove there and found it was closed down.

I've not really looked for fresh cow's milk. I asked at a local farm but was told that they sell it all to the supermarkets. Probably lazy of me but I find that I get good results from Waitrose in Harrogate whole milk and Sainsbury's has been fine as well.  I guess I should give it a go so I will have a look, if you find any please let me know.



Matthewcraig

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Re: First Lancashire
« Reply #6 on: March 05, 2014, 09:23:29 PM »
I sure will and I will have to admit I do get my milk from waitrose as well :)

Rizzo

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Re: First Lancashire
« Reply #7 on: April 10, 2014, 12:27:17 AM »
Looks great! do you have the recipe for this one? I'd love to give it a try. thanks
(p.s. I'm originally from Scarborough..but now in NZ)

Kirkbybil

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Re: First Lancashire
« Reply #8 on: April 12, 2014, 09:33:39 PM »
Hi,

I used Jeffs recipe which is here...

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,11113.0.html

Kirkbybil