Recipe from 200 East Cheeses
I wanted to make another Caerphilly, but I also wanted some cheese curd to make a Yorkshire Curd Tart**, so I upped my usual 8 litre mix to 9 litres, so that I could take some of the curds for the tart. I found that even after taking 200mg curd for the tart, the remaining cheese was larger than expected.
9 litres Pak n Save standard milk
1 drop std meso, 1 drop Flora danica
6.3 ml Renco rennet IMCU 65
2ml calcium chloride
Heat milk to 32°C , add starter (allow to hydrate for 5 mins before stirring in)
After 30 mins add Calcium chloride
5 mins later add rennet, floc factor 3.5
Floc reached @ 16mins.
After 56 mins cut curd to ¼" cubes.* A very clean break
Allow to rest for 5 mins
Next step, in theory, is to heat slowly from 32°C to 35°C taking 1/2 hour, whilst stirring
In practice the temp had dropped to 30°C, and it took 20 mins to reach 35°C! Whoops!! I noticed that towards the end of the half hour the curds were forming large clots in the bottom of the pan, not sure if this was good or bad, but I continued to break them up.
Rest for 45mins
Drain and into mold.
Press 30mins 5kg
Press 90 mins 12kg
Press 22hours 17kg
Into 18% brine for 20 hours. Results look very good at this stage.
* I have become paranoid recently about curd size. Ever since I cut too large a cubes on my red leicester. Also playing the videos from Mrs Kirkhams cheeses; Graham, the owner, emphasizes the removing of much whey otherwise it will be a very different cheese.
My research has found Caerphilly recipes showing cubes ranging from 1", down to ¼".. Normally I cut to 1/2 " so the result may be interesting.
** Yorkshire Curd Tart, a dish going back well over 200 years, the farmers wife used the leftover curds to bake a tart (or flan), mixed basically with eggs, sugar, and currants. Absolutely delicious, and a must-have for any Yorkshireman. As I live in New Zealand and these are unheard of here, I am resigned to baking my own.
