Author Topic: About natural rind for a Caerphilly  (Read 2905 times)

felku

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About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« on: August 11, 2015, 02:03:31 AM »
I was trying to make a  Caerphilly using the recipe on Cardwell's book. The recipe is a for a natural rind. After 2 weeks I must say that the natural rind doesn't look as what I expected and in fact looks kind of scary. I will post the pics because I don't know if remove the mold or leave like that.


JeffHamm

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2015, 08:22:29 AM »
Get a nail brush and brush it when the mould gets fuzzy enough to feel sort of soft and felty.  The wild moulds are sort of scary looking.  The black bits are probably indicating the humidity is a bit on the high side.  I get smaller black spots (it's a dark green mould, but it looks black) if the humidity is up, so I'm assuming you've got the same thing.  I'll pour boiling water in my ripening boxes before putting a new cheese in after giving it a good wash with soap in order to try and remove any spores from previous cheeses.  That can help reduce the black and blue moulds.  Anyway, in the end, when you eat the cheese you'll be cutting the rind off anyway, and be comforted in the fact that looks can be deceiving.

- Jeff

felku

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2015, 04:38:11 PM »
Thanks for the reply. I have the humidity on 90 because that was what the recipe called but I guess I needed to clean my  cave first because the result doesn't look nothing similar to the pic lol. There are somes that looks like it has hair, I guess I will clean does.

JeffHamm

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2015, 07:47:07 AM »
If you have a very controlled cave, where you've got the mould spores you want in there, then the high humidity will help them grow.  However, in most home caves, you've got what's in the air, so all sorts of wild moulds will call your cheese home.  These can still produce some great results despite looking a bit awful.  I find regular brushing helps to develop a nice rustic wild rind, and I'm generally pleased with the results.  However, if I don't clean the ripening boxes and the cave every so often, the wild blue moulds will take over.  And they are not the good tasty blues of Stilton etc.

felku

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2015, 05:07:10 PM »
If you have a very controlled cave, where you've got the mould spores you want in there, then the high humidity will help them grow.  However, in most home caves, you've got what's in the air, so all sorts of wild moulds will call your cheese home.  These can still produce some great results despite looking a bit awful.  I find regular brushing helps to develop a nice rustic wild rind, and I'm generally pleased with the results.  However, if I don't clean the ripening boxes and the cave every so often, the wild blue moulds will take over.  And they are not the good tasty blues of Stilton etc.

Thanks for the advice, I will follow your advice and get a nail brush. By the way you brush it without nothing or you add something?

JeffHamm

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2015, 01:04:08 AM »
I just brush it.  Don't need to add any salt or vinegar, as the goal is just to keep the moulds down.  They will form a wild rind.  You're not trying to keep it pristine and the moulds will spread and discolour the surface, but rather, you're just trying to keep the fuzzies down so it doesn't start to look like a wild cat.  Eventually, the moulds eat up most of the lactose on the surface and stop growing quite to vigorously.   Mind you, caerphilly usually gets eaten in my house pretty young, so it doesn't age all that much.  I cut into it at 3 or 4 weeks.  Good luck with yours.  I'm sure it will be tasty.

John@PC

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #6 on: August 16, 2015, 01:01:28 PM »
Thanks for the advice, I will follow your advice and get a nail brush. By the way you brush it without nothing or you add something?
If dry brushing doesn't get as much as mold as you would like you can add a little bit of salt + water and brush.  It will inhibit natural rind formation a bit so it's pretty much personal preference.  Note that when a cheese is young it is a "mold magnet" and 90% humidity will jump-start it even more (some bad analogies there, I know  :-[).  If you do want 90% a minicave would give you a bit more isolation but you will  still need to fight back mold.

felku

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2015, 06:28:24 PM »
After a few dry brushed and a month this is the current state of the cheese. Probably will cut it today, although I'm a little scare but also like the mushroom odor.


JeffHamm

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2015, 08:59:11 PM »
That looks fine.  Give it a good brush before cutting it.  I usually remove the rind when eating it as wild rinds, while they flavour the paste nicely, don't themselves taste all that great.

Looking forward to seeing the innards and getting a tasting report.

felku

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2015, 01:34:45 AM »
Thanks for the advice, I decided to cut it tomorrow and I will upload pics. By the way you remove the rind piece by piece or all the cheese ?

JeffHamm

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2015, 08:49:34 AM »
I just cut the rind off the piece I'm going to eat.  Leave the rind on the cheese that goes back into storage as it helps protect it still.

John@PC

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #11 on: September 02, 2015, 10:28:34 PM »
I just cut the rind off the piece I'm going to eat.  Leave the rind on the cheese that goes back into storage as it helps protect it still.
Jeff, your comment made me remember that when I save (bag) cut pieces of semi-hard or hard cheeses in time it will grow surface mold EXCEPT if it has a BL washed rind.  I've even seen that putting a piece of washed rind cheese with other cheeses seems to "protect" the others to some extent (talking about standard ziploc bags here, not vac bagging).  Is this my imagination or does BL serve as a shield against surface mold in the bag / container?

Felku, some of the best caerphilly's I've made had a BL wash.  I like the flavor but also it also "beat down" other volunteer surface molds.

JeffHamm

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Re: About natural rind for a Caerphilly
« Reply #12 on: September 03, 2015, 09:19:21 PM »
Hi John,

I think the BL, once established, will generally outcompete moulds, although if you play with the humidity you can get moulds to then overgrow etc.  Boofer has done some pretty cool multi stage rinds; on some tomme's if I recall correctly, which would be lucky.