Hi from south-west Germany

[Revilo]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been checking this site for a while now for various problems that I’ve had. Thought it was about time I joined

My diet as a kid was pretty much 50% cheese, but only this winter did I start to make some when I was given a recipe for paneer. I found it relatively easy, so I thought I would try mozzarella. It was then that I realised that it isn’t all so simple. After chucking away quite a lot of ‘broken curds’ from supermarket milk, I was about to give up (nicely put) when someone told me about a raw milk tap at a farmer in the next village. From then on, I have mainly been making Camemberts and am waiting on couple of Stiltons. Wish I had more aging space and time now …

Looking forward to be able to ask questions and hopefully answer a few too 

[hoeklijn]

And a "welcome to the forum" from Holland, neighbourhood of Gouda to be more accurate....

[shaneb]

Welcome. 

Shane

[H-K-J]

Welcome to the forum, sooner or later somebody's gonna ask this question,
 Where's the pics?

[qdog1955]

Welcome to the Forum. My step daughter just returned from Switzerland-Germany and was highly impressed with the cheese making-----seems you live close to some of the best in the world----we should be asking you the questions
Qdog

[OzzieCheese]

Welcome also from the Land DownUnder .  This place is full of amazing people with wonderful cheeses and a fantastic willingness to share.  Have fun and hope to see some of your Cheese efforts.

-- Mal

[Revilo]

Hi,

thanks for all the welcomes  Been pretty busy the last week, sorry it took a while to reply.
I live pretty close to France as well, which means you can get a lot of different cheeses (Camemberts particularly) from the supermarkets there that you can't in Germany. They're pretty good 
At the weekend, I cut open a Bleu d'Auvergne which I had been ripening for about 2.5 months. I thought it was a lost cause, because after 3 weeks or so of ripening, a brown/red/furry mould covered it. I scraped it off though and was amazed that the cheese turned out pretty nice (rather intense  ). Here's some proof

[H-K-J]

That looks like a nice blue cheese, quit scraping the rind  it give the cheese it's character
Still let me give you you're first cheese,
AC4U

[Andrew Marshallsay]

let me give you you're first cheese,
 

... and a second cheese from me. A great looking blue.
Welcome to the forum.

[Revilo]

Thanks for the Cheeses
I cut the mould off because it was smelling like mushrooms, but I guess every cheese is unique
Looking forward to cutting open a Stilton at the weekend 

[John@PC]

Nice work.  Added a cheese so you're batting 3 for 3 .  And welcome to the forum!

[Revilo]

Thanks John 
Been loving all the pictures of cheeses developing, so will try and add some of my attempts later

[hoeklijn]

And a cheese from me as well. Are you ripening in a separate container? From the picture it seems that the cheese had a fairly thick rind for a cheese that aged 2.5 month. In his own container the RH will probably be higher...

[Stinky]

Do you Bergkase?

[Revilo]

Thanks for the cheese Hoeklijn
I had the cheese in the plastic container inside the converted wine fridge (about 85-90%RH) until the rind looked 'tough' enough and then I just put it the wine fridge without the container (which has about 70%RH). Maybe that humidity is too low and dried too much into the cheese. I recently cut up a Stilton that was aged in a similar way and it also has quite a thick rind. It was still really tasty though (similar to 'real' Stilton with something else)

Would love to make a Bergkäse Stinky. Need to construct some kind of cheese press  first though It's also really hot here in Germany at the moment, making aging tricky. Is there a relatively simple recipe to start with?