Time to Provide

[OzzieCheese]

Doing my husbandly duties today - no not that !!! - yet.  Time to put food onto the table.  Our two legged mice seem to have found the cheese cave a tempting target.  They did ask before munching but, munched they have through the remained of the 12 month Gouda - I have a piece hidden - and the last of the cheddar.  I'm happy they did.  Its better for them than soft drink and rubbish.  Cheese on crackers, apple juice and water.  When did aliens come and change my daughters ? 

So today is a Caerphilly.  I realised that of all the cheese I make I haven't made a proper control sheet and this has been corrected and will post it later - with photos.

Curd cutting time.....

-- Mal 

[awakephd]

Mal, I share your mixed feelings -- it is gratifying when my daughters want to consume great hunks of the cheese that I have made. It is also a little alarming -- hey, wait, don't eat all of that at once! Do you know how long it had to age to ... too late.

[Sweet Leaves Farm]

Juat think about this: they won't have osteoporosis when they get older , since you have cultivated a love of good cheese in your girls!

[Al Lewis]

Yes, and the bathroom will be free a lot more. LOL

[OzzieCheese]

Ahhh Guys... I'm really not complaining .. Really..  Make sheet and images coming up.  Love my girls and just happy that at least a few things they are eating I know where it comes from and what is in it.  I know that might sound a little paranoid but, over the last couple of months with the branding of "Australian Made" that really isn't we are taking a lot more of those products "Made from Local and imported ingredients" out of our shopping list...  Although things like 'Baby Rays" and "Franks" will always be ....

-- Back soon
 

[OzzieCheese]

Not a long post today.  Caerphilly.  This has become a staple cheese in out house and as usual this one is again slightly different.  This one is made of two milks, my normal Maleny Milk and the 4Real milk.  Both are Local, un-homogenised milk and both pasteurise their milk to the barest legal requirements.  The method was the same as here
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13806.0.html
with the following changes
added 300 mls of 45% cream (the shop now stocks Maleny Cream) now.  I used it mainly to compensate for the lack of cream in the 4Real milk (Holstein Cows).

the details are in the control sheet.

Attached here also is the blank Template.
 

[OzzieCheese]

Here is the promised 'Cheese Porn'.

1. My Cheese space.
2- 5. The cast...
6-7. what 'Clean Break' Looks like.
8. Cut and Stack
9. Last stack
10. Into the press..

-- Mal

[OzzieCheese]

Opps forgot the press

I took the press to approx. 24Kg the cheese was cooling too quickly so I upped the press by 10kg.  This is still theoretical as I haven't done a proper weigh test with scales to compensate for the torque and angle losses on the actual piston weight although I'm sure I loosing a bit as the base plate flexes and the control box twists.  I'm not concerned really.  The knit at the end is the proof that is was sufficient..

3-4 weeks time the two legged cheese munchers can have another ....

-- Mal

[John@PC]

Beautiful form and finish as usual Mal.  That my friend is the cleanest curd break I've ever seen .  There's no doubt the better the milk the better the break and firmer the curds.  Have a cheese.

[OzzieCheese]

Thanks John, for the cheese.  I must admit to still holding on to the 'Old Ways' to confirm the Flocculation calculation cut times.  You only get one go at it and milk is not cheap well not the ones I buy $AU5.00 for 2 litres + $AU3.00 for 300mls of cream.  10 litres and cream weighs in at $AU28.00 making the 1.4 Kg (that will probably get down to 1.2) about AU$23 a Kg (approx AU$10.50 a lb).  Is it cheap - Not really taken all at once, Is it worth it - Hell Yes !!  though compared to buying it $8-$10 per 100 gms I still reckon we are waaaay! ahead of the pack.

-- Mal

[John@PC]

I must admit to still holding on to the 'Old Ways' to confirm the Flocculation calculation cut times. 

Yes, the telltale depression from your "floc sensor" dish shows in the picture.  I've gone to doing both as well (timing floc and checking for a clean break to verify) and have found the floc method to be very predictive.

[Boofer]

You only get one go at it and milk is not cheap well not the ones I buy $AU5.00 for 2 litres + $AU3.00 for 300mls of cream.  10 litres and cream weighs in at $AU28.00 making the 1.4 Kg (that will probably get down to 1.2) about AU$23 a Kg (approx AU$10.50 a lb).  Is it cheap - Not really taken all at once, Is it worth it - Hell Yes !!  though compared to buying it $8-$10 per 100 gms I still reckon we are waaaay! ahead of the pack.

When I was buying my creamline milk last Thursday for my latest cheese make, I checked out the artisan cheese offerings. I was already familiar with the exorbitant pricing for some of the cheeses there, but seeing the prices of $25.99 and more per pound (AU$33.65/454g) really underscored the relevance of my cheese efforts. My costs have been fairly consistent over the years. I buy raw milk from 2 sources at USD$9.99/gallon (AU$12.93/3.8 liters). Ignoring the electricity costs for the make and subsequent aging, the cost per pound of my cheese comes close to $10 per pound. The value of my personal effort is heavily discounted.

So yes, agreed, way ahead of the pack. 

-Boofer-

[JeffHamm]

A cheese to you Mal!  That's a fine looking caerphilly, and a nice press too. 

- Jeff

[OzzieCheese]

Thanks for the cheeses ... I'm really impressed with the Design of the press - my implementation leaves a little to be desired as it is a bit loose in the uprights and can tilt the cheese in the press.  I attempting to correct that.

-- Mal