All I want for Christmas is cheeeeese...

[Stinky]

Here's a photo of the cheeses that were cracked open in time for Christmas Eve.

From the left side of the fork all the way around we have:

Colby, 2 months. It was pretty good, decent flavor, but not necessarily my favorite.
Gruyere, 3 months. Delicious. Had nice strong flavor and great texture. Most people's favorite.
Jarlsberg, 2 months. My personal favorite. It had a delicious sweet, nutty taste to it. Unfortunately the eyes were small, but what can you do.
Asiago, 38 days. This was great. Not too salty, nice and mild. Great on bread.
Tomme, 3 months. Quite good, had a bit of a cheddar taste, but definitely could tell that there was thermophilic in there
Brick, 6 weeks. It definitely was stinky... 

[Danbo]

Great work! :-)

A cheese for you...

:-) Danbo

[Spoons]

Very nice assortment, Stinky! Congrats on your cheese plate!

About the eye formation of the jarlsberg: eyes will be small in a small cheese but here's what to do to maximise the eye growth:

* Ph level of whey expelled from wheel no lower than 5.40. This means you only press a few hours, most likely 3-3.5 hours. Proprionics don't like it too acidic.
* brine a little less than usual. More like 3 hours per lbs. Proprionics like to read the sodium content of a label.
* and of course, the cold and warm phase as described in your recipe book.

A cheese for you for your spread!

[Stinky]

Thanks, guys.

I've also been reading from multiple sources that starting the pressing under whey helps the eye formation. I plan to try this on the Emmental which is hopefully not far in the future.

Thanks for the tips! 

[John@PC]

 A cheese as well Stinky for the nice spread.  I didn't know pressing under whey contributes to eye formation but I'm a believer for using that method for washed-curd and some cooked-curd cheeses.

[Jamco spreads]

One of our friends who knows well how much we love cheese gave us a cheeseboard with 5 different cheeses and a box containing different crackers. Sorry, no pics to show as all the cheeses and crackers are in our tummy.
we tried different combinations: cracker A with cheese A with banana and raspberry spread, cracker A with cheese B with banana and cranberry spread so on and so forth. Anyway we tried many combinations using our spread selection and we have recorded some great delicious tastes.

Now that I am part of this forum, I will post pictures for you to drool on hahahaha

 

[Stinky]

Ah nice, that sounds delicious.