Caerphilly with raw jersey and nubian goat *Tasting notes added*

[scasnerkay]

I gotta say, having free milk is a great way to enable experimentation! For this I will volunteer to muck many stables! At any rate, I came home Friday with 2.5 gallons of Jersey and .25 gallons of Nubian (she was stingy). I did not chill the milk fast enough, and I think there was already quite a bit of native LAB activity going on by the time the milk got into the pot. It was 6.5 to start off! I followed my usual caerphilly approach, but just bumped every target down one notch. Probably the wrong idea, because the final whey pH in the press was 4.9. Next week, I will try to chill the milk better before transport home.

[John@PC]

Pretty cheese and nice yield; free milk is as good as free cash money  .  6.5 sounds a bit low but the milk I use (a low-temp pasturized, non-homoginized) is typically 6.6 to 6.7 when fresh but I've had a couple of batches start that low.  I've been wanting more to understand more about the chemistry involved with milk fermentation / lactic acid generation as it relates to cheese making and just purchased this book.  It's first publication was last December so I'm curious if anyone else has read this.  As to pH changes over time I found an interesting paper with a graph which helps to understand the time vs. pH during the fermentation phase.   A lot to learn and a short time to get there  .

[scasnerkay]

I cut into this for Thanksgiving. Lost about 10 ounces in aging. It was a very nice cheese, though not as crumbly or tart as usual. Not as much flavor as the prior caerphillies which had pretty wild rinds on board. This one started growing a lot of stuff, but I scrubbed it with salt and vinegar, and after about 4 weeks, the rind seemed very stable and much as it is in the images. The divots on the top were from the cheese resting on a wavy draining mat - not a great idea because the depressions were great for growing stuff. Maybe the colorful rinds on the prior makes added to the flavor. Or maybe since I was relying on a faulty pH meter, rather than trusting myself, the make notes are invalid!
Good cheese either way though.

[Danbo]

Very nice! :-)

[Stinky]

Free milk?  Life is unfair. 

[John@PC]

The divots on the top were from the cheese resting on a wavy draining mat - not a great idea because the depressions were great for growing stuff.

Susan, I can guess where you got those mats  .  Looks like you fended off the nasties and came up with a nice result.  A cheese for your perseverance.