I’m sure that we have all had our disasters from time to time; I thought I would tell you about my latest one and see if anybody has any thoughts.
I live in the land of Feta (Greece) and can buy probably 15 different types and there’s plenty of Gouda and Gouda derivatives available but nothing with any real punch; no strong Cheddar or Stilton. That is how I got into cheesemaking a few months ago.
My first couple of attempts at making Stilton were something of a disaster mainly because I had no idea what I was doing and having to use pasteurized and homogenized milk.
Having learned so much more now, (mainly from this forum, thank you everybody) I decided to have another go again using the P and H cow’s milk.
The recipe I used this time calls for 8 litres of milk and ½ litre of cream. The only cream available is definitely UHT but I decided to add it anyway and just see what happened.
In brief, heat to 32C, add starter and PR. Ripen 30 minutes.
Add lipase and calcium chloride. Rest 5 minutes.
Add rennet (only ¼ teaspoon), wait for flocculation
The recipe gives a total time to clean break as somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes.
This is the point at which things got interesting – I was expecting the bowl to stop spinning at perhaps 12-15 minutes but I was only getting slight resistance at 25 minutes.
This only increased very slightly and after an hour I still had not reached what I consider to be a decent flocculation.
I checked again at 90 minutes but again, nothing approaching what I would have expected.
It was one of those, ‘OK, what do I do now’ moments and I could have been tempted to just throw the lot away and start again but I thought I might just as well carry on and see what happens; nothing to lose at this point, shoot or bust time.
I left the whole thing for a total of 3 hours before attempting to cut the curds. I use the term ‘cut’ loosely. There was no way it was going to cut, everything just tore apart. Trying to lift the curds from the bottom of the pan using a slotted spoon saw the curds just beak apart and disappear through the slots.
I very very carefully ladled the slurry into a cheesecloth lined pot; I knew from my first experience that any slight pressure would see them break through the cheesecloth and disappear down the sink.
I left the curds in the whey to soak for 2 hours after which I carefully drained them. I would normally tie the cheesecloth up and hang them to drain but I was so concerned that I just placed them in the cheesecloth in the colander to support them. I was convinced that trying to lift them unsupported would be a disaster.
After 4 hours draining they were a little more manageable but forget about them being ½ inch cubes, they were more the size of grains of rice.
There was no need to mill them, they just all fell apart anyway. I added the salt and looked to put them in a mould.
I abandoned the idea of using my 8 inch mould and instead used 6 of my 4 inch Camembert moulds for a bit of support. Again, they were so fragile I had to ladle them very gently and even then some of them escaped through the drainage holes. The recipe suggests turning them within half an hour of moulding but I had to wait an entire day before I felt comfortable that I would be able to flip them without losing the lot.
I then flipped them 4 times a day for 4 days at room temperature (23C) before putting them in my cave at 13C.
By day 12 there was a good covering of PR on the outside so I pierced them and continued to ripen at 13C turning once a day.
I was obviously hoping that they would start to dry and firm up but by the three week mark it was clear that if anything they were actually getting softer and by the time 4 ½ weeks had passed I was unable to even pick them up because they were so soft.
I wrapped them in briewrap and foil and just hoped that they would at least be edible although quite clearly they were going to be nothing like stilton.
Total disaster, I thought …………………. until I tasted them.. Woo Hoo – an absolute joy. Best described as something approximating the flavour and texture of Camembert but with that wonderful blue added.
The most valuable lesson I learned from this just reinforces advice taken from Gavin Webber’s book – Keep Calm.
Don’t panic. You are making artisan cheese here and you will rarely make two cheeses the same. Whatever happens, unless to do something quite dangerous you are still making cheese. OK, it may not come out how you expected it to but it is still cheese and it will still be edible.
