During the Easter break, I was able to break into three of my cheeses: Manchego (CH’s recipe), Tomme au Marc (Ricki Carrol’s recipe) and Tallegio (Peter Dixon’s recipe). All three cheeses were made with raw jersey milk.
I was very happy with all three, given that they were first attempts, but have already made another Manchego and Tallegio as replacements and know for sure that there will always be a Tallegio at some stage of ripening in my cave.
I cut the Manchego at 4 weeks, but will probably let it go longer next time. At four weeks, it was good – a slight rubbery texture with a mild flavour.
I kept the Tomme almost three months, but was too impatient to allow it time to dry, so scraped off the skins as they were very wet. The cheese has an almost semi-matured cheddary texture and flavour (if a bit open) and there is a definite flavour of the red wine there. For me, this will be a cheese that has lots of experimental potential. As I mentioned in another post a few days ago, I would like to try this with acerola cherries (which I have growing) and perhaps some other fruit as it comes into season.
