Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months

[AnnDee]

My first belper knolle, Aged for 2 months but we have been eating it along the way to taste the difference in aging time. My 12 year old daughter prefers it younger (4-5 weeks old), I like it older. I made 2 batches, 1 with garlic and 1 without. The ones with garlic definitely taste so much better.

Here's how I made them, adapted from the recipe on new england cheese making website.

1 gallon of whole milk
Cacl
60 ml Yogurt for the culture. (On the original recipe it calls for chevre culture packet)
A little rennet
1.5 tsp. Himalyan Pink Salt
3 garlic cloves
2 Tbs. Black Peppercorns, toasted and ground.

 
After adding the cacl, heat the milk to 30C, add yogurt. Mix it up and rest for 30 minutes. Add rennet, rest for 12 hours.
Drain into butter muslin, until it resemble a bread dough consistency. Add salt and garlic. Formed into balls by hand and coat with ground peppercorns. Dry and aged for at least 1 month. I aged mine for 2 months.

[Kern]

Delicious looking.  I've though of making these myself.  Is there much work required to age these besides sticking them in the cheese cave for a month or two?

[AnnDee]

No work at all. Just stick it in the fridge and forget about them. Today I saw them as I was taking out my other cheeses. I think this is easiest to make. No hassle, just goodness.

[Kern]

I started a batch of Belper Knolle last evening following the recipe on the New England Cheese website.  Milk was 1 gallon of P&H milk and modifications included using 1/16 tsp of Flora Danica along with 30 grams of lactose.  Four drops of single strength rennet were used.  The lactose and FD are most likely the ingredients of NEC's chevre culture.  The rennet quantity came from Caldwell's Mastering Artisan Cheese Making recipe for Lactic-set Bloomy Rind Cheese (page 186).

In about 4 hours the milk appeared to be set but I waited overnight for a total of 14 hours (per NEC) before loading the cloth-lined colander.  I expected the gelled curd to be firm like the photos shown in the NEC recipe but found that the structure fell apart on the way from the pot to the colander.  The consistency is like a mushy ricotta and the draining has gone slowly as one would expect.  Perhaps I can save it. 

Some Internet research revealed this video showing the product being made in Switzerland.  It is worth watching if you are interested in learning more about this cheese.  Some obvious differences jump out:

The cheese is made with raw milk.
Enough rennet is used to make a curd that can be cut. (Is it really a lactic set cheese as the NEC recipe suggests?)
The curd is fully drained and placed in a mixer where it is coarsely mashed.
The salt/garlic mix is added the the mixer.
The salt does not appear to be Himalayan pink salt.
The above mix is pumped onto sheets in little "massed potato" mounds
The mounds are allowed to dry to firm up and only then is the cracked pepper added.

I will be modifying the NEC/Caldwell recipe and switching to a vat pasteurized, non-homogenized cream top milk for my next attempt and will post the results in several days. 

[scasnerkay]

When I made mine a year ago, I used some leftover "chevre" style from cow milk - worked great. I forgot about them for many months in my house frig. They were still tasty, but rather chalky.
Loved the video, especially where he starts the siphon with his mouth, and the dog is down there licking up the whey! Can you imagine here in the USA?

[Kern]

I noted the dog also.  The dog's behavior hints at something significant in the way the cheese was made in the video.  Namely, that the whey pH was not to low at the first draining.  In other words it may have been sweet rather than sour and thus pleasant to the dog.  This would indicate that the major draining occurred at a pH in the high fives or low sixes.  At the time of draining the curds had been cut into cubes.  Looked to me like the cubes were large, perhaps an inch on a side.  It also appeared that the major portion of the whey was drained at the time the dog slurped it and then the curds were allowed to steep in the remaining whey for a period before being transferred to the cloth lined draining vat.  My guess is that this was done to drop the whey (and curd) pH down into the 4.6 range.  By this time the curds had lost more whey and firmed up and so were easily drained and loaded into the mixing vat at the right pH for the garlic and salt.  I liked how the moisture was checked on the little mounds with the laser device.  The point was to make sure the mounds could be "snowballed" without sticking to the gloved hands.

Contrast this with the NEC recipe I followed:  After 14 hours of gelling the whey pH was 4.40.  I don't think that the dog would have liked this!  It was quite sour.  I didn't load any curd in the draining cloth as it turned to mush as soon as I lifted it.   I've drained enough water to be able to add the salt and garlic.  At this point it is way too soft to try to roll it in pepper.  A photo of its current condition is attached.  I'm hoping that the salt and air exposure will firm it up enough to roll in the pepper.  More later.

[AnnDee]

It looks a little bit like mascarpone, I hope it will firm up with a little time. I put mine in the fridge in a colander (our room temp here around 30C/86F without aircon), and in the morning it firmed up. I think I want to make this again with raw milk with your suggested cultures.

Anyway, you are quiet the detective Kern! Useful information from that dog.

[Kern]

I've viewed the above referenced video several times more trying to glean additional information.  It looks like the milk is cultured and coagulated in the larger of the two polypropylene bins wheeled into the draining room (the small upper bin simply is used to transport the siphon hose).  This likely means that this cheese is not heated at all and is made from the warm raw milk coming directly from the cows.  (One heats metal vats but not PP vats).  The curds appear to be cut into columns and left an appreciable time in the vat after cutting.  This allows them to dispel whey, firm up and drop in pH while bathed in the relatively warm whey (cow temperature cooled slightly by time).  Initial draining (dog slurp portion) likely drains the whey to a couple of inches above the curds.  The vat was wheeled into the drain room after this for final draining through synthetic cheese cloth.  Following this the curds from several vats were combined (to preserve warmth??) and the curds were allowed to achieve their final pH (by tasting in the video but should be around 4.6) and then dumped into the mixer.  It appears that garlic cloves were cut into the salt by chopping until a smooth paste was achieved.  Using a mortar and pestle will grind the garlic but leave larger bits of "skin" (my experience).

The seasoned curd is pumped onto stainless steel cookie sheets that are wheeled into a separate room.  Based upon AnnDee's comment above I'd guess that this is a cool room to firm the mounds up prior to their being formed and peppered.   

[AnnDee]

Quite a thorough observation there Kern, this discussion makes me want to make it again soon.
whatever I made before was quite a hit addition for salads and pastas, I just have to make sure we don't keep it too long, as Susan said on her comment it gets chalky after a while.
I think with addition of the flora danica this can only get better (hopefully). I will post my make here, I have all the ingredients ready to go.

[Gregore]

One thing I can say is that our dog loves kefir when it is a day old , so we'll into the 4 s in ph  but if it is 2 to 3 days old he won't eat it .

If your interested I can check the ph when I return in a week or so .

Though I suspect you are in the correct ball park on ph  with out the  " dog  taste test "

[Kern]

The 24 hours in the cold fridge did the trick!    The white, gooey plops firmed up enough to be able to "snowball" them and roll them in toasted, cracked pepper corns.  The photo below shows the results.    I took a hint from the above video and toasted and ground enough peppercorns (about a half cup, 240ml) to be able to put them in a SS bowl and roll the balls around to evenly coat them.  They are currently in my 60F, 70% RH garage with a fan on them to help start the drying process.

In the meantime I've got a second batch going using some vat pasteurized cream top milk using a recipe based upon the aforementioned video.  I'll start a new thread on this make in a couple of days.  Thanks again AnnDee for your helpful suggestions.

Kern

[Al Lewis]

They all look great!!  Have to try this one!!  AC4 both of U!!   Okay, I just watched the video.  If they are shaving this stuff with a Truffle Shaver and with Truffles I'm betting it cost a ton and the flavor is intense.  I can only think it's due to the aging which must be quite a while to get that crust hard enough to knock on.  Still, this is a must try for me.

[Kern]

Thanks for the cheese.  I've got a second batch going based upon the procedure that seems to be used in the video.  I used Twin Brooks cream line milk for this one.  Right now the 1" cut curds are in their 4th hour of steeping in all the whey they are expelling and I am closely monitoring the pH to come up with the draining procedure.  I should have the recipe with some cheese porn posted Monday or Tuesday.

[AnnDee]

Yay, they are looking great! I'm also making more with your suggested cultures Kern, anymore pointers?
A cheese for you Kern.

Thanks for the cheese Al Lewis!

[awakephd]

Yep, a cheese for your successful redemption of the sagging curds!

So ... what does this cheese taste like? I'm guessing it is a pretty intense flavor -- ??