Author Topic: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months  (Read 13769 times)

Offline Al Lewis

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Port Orchard Washington
  • Posts: 3,285
  • Cheeses: 179
    • Lou's Food & Drink
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #45 on: February 08, 2016, 04:46:59 PM »
I never splurged either.  I just ate them while I was in the country of origin.  They were cheap there.  Twenty years in the Air Force will take you a lot of places. ;D
Making the World a Safer Place, One Cheese at a Time! My Food Blog and Videos

Offline awakephd

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: North Carolina
  • Posts: 2,351
  • Cheeses: 240
  • compounding the benefits of a free press
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #46 on: February 09, 2016, 06:36:28 PM »
Indeed! But, as I said, I did try some camembert while I was in France, and was, frankly, disappointed. It was in a small cafe, so I have no idea if they were serving me "real" camembert or something they got from a tin ... but it was not very soft / not the least bit gooey, and had little flavor. :( Next time, if there is a next time, I will go to a cheesery (or whatever the proper term is) and see if I can try some that purports to be the real thing.
-- Andy

olikli

  • Guest
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #47 on: February 09, 2016, 07:10:34 PM »
Indeed! But, as I said, I did try some camembert while I was in France, and was, frankly, disappointed. It was in a small cafe, so I have no idea if they were serving me "real" camembert or something they got from a tin ... but it was not very soft / not the least bit gooey, and had little flavor. :( Next time, if there is a next time, I will go to a cheesery (or whatever the proper term is) and see if I can try some that purports to be the real thing.

That was the worst you could do, and I hope you didn't take this experience as "proof" that French camembert is crap. Many French cafés buy the cheapest possible stuff to save on costs. You don't go to these places for the culinary experience (there are of course exeptions). Not every small town has a proper cheese shop, but the larger supermarkets will always have a decent selection and you should find some raw milk cheeses there. And If you happen to be there on a market day, you're saved ;)

Offline awakephd

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: North Carolina
  • Posts: 2,351
  • Cheeses: 240
  • compounding the benefits of a free press
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #48 on: February 10, 2016, 05:53:39 PM »
No, not at all -- I assume there is much better French camembert available, and for that matter much better US-origin camembert-like cheese -- hence the intention, next time, to go to a shop where I really should be able to expect to find "the real thing." I admit that I did cherish the romantic notion that perhaps the cheese one gets in an "affordable" cafe in France would be markedly better than the cheese one gets in an "affordable" restaurant in the US, but alas, at least in this one particular case, it was not so ... :( On the flip side, I bought some Parmesan in one of the the gas station/cafe/rest stops on the highway in Italy; it was incredibly cheap ... and I worried that I was throwing my money away, considering the source ... but it was incredibly good. :)
-- Andy

Kern

  • Guest
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #49 on: February 11, 2016, 12:11:44 AM »
At the risk of steering the subject a little bit back on course, I made a one gallon Belper Knolle batch starting late yesterday and finishing today using the following method:

1 gallon of whole cream top milk with 1/4 tsp calcium chloride and 30 grams of lactose.
1/8 tsp Flora Danica ripen for 60 minutes @ 86F
6 drops of SS Calf's rennet.  Stir and set aside for 16 hours.  The towel wrapped pot was 80F in the morning.
Cut into 1-inch cubes when the pH has dropped to 4.6 or below.
Allow to settle until curds expel enough whey to sink
Drain to curd level, ladle into cloth lined draining vat
Remove from vat when most "free" whey has drained and place into non draining tub.
Hand mixed to uniform consistency and added mashed up garlic and salt. 
Form balls and place on plastic cutting board or SS cookie sheet and put in cold fridge to firm up.
Roll firmed balls in toasted and ground pepper to thoroughly coat.
Immediately put coated balls on drying rack with fan blowing air on them.  60F+/- and 70%RH +/- is ideal.  Time should be 24 to 48 hours and rind should be hard.
Put in cave @ 55F, 85%RH for 2-8 weeks or more.

My goal was to get to a "moldable" consistency like that in the video with an acceptably short enough drain time.

I don't know if the lactose is necessary.  I used it because I wanted to make sure I could get the pH down below 4.6 where the whey proteins should precipitate.
At 16 hours quite a bit of whey had separated and the curd lump seemed firm and had reached a pH of 4.55.
The curd was cut but was too soft and some shattering occurred.  Apparently, the large lump seemed firm because a lot of the separated whey came from the outer portions.
Final draining was in a cloth bag but went fairly well regardless.
All the whey was collected and heated to 190F to check for any whey protein precipitation.  There was none so it all must have happened within the curd mass when the pH got down into the  4.6-4.7 range.
The balls were easily formed, held their shape and the consistency looked very similar to that of the pumped plops in the video.  They weren't sticky.
The balls stiffened up very nicely in the cold fridge and held their shape much better than previous makes - very little slumping.

Next time I'll repeat the above but pump the rennet up to ten drops and let the pH drop to 4.5.  Cutting the hopefully firmer curds and allowing more "bathing time" prior to draining should allow for draining without a bag as was done in the video.

 



Offline Al Lewis

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Port Orchard Washington
  • Posts: 3,285
  • Cheeses: 179
    • Lou's Food & Drink
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #50 on: February 11, 2016, 03:47:04 PM »
Very glad you did Kern.  I finally received my Chèvre from New England Cheese making and plan on picking up a gallon of raw milk today to start this.  Apologies to AnnDee for hijacking her thread. Sometimes things just get a little carried away.  Anyway, she has inspired me to make this gorgeous cheese so bless her little heart and a cheese to her!  She can feel free to hijack my threads anytime she likes. AC4U!!  I'll do a separate thread for the one I make.;D
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 04:47:35 PM by Al Lewis »
Making the World a Safer Place, One Cheese at a Time! My Food Blog and Videos

LauraT

  • Guest
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #51 on: April 19, 2017, 10:43:21 PM »
My apologies for posting in such an old thread, but this thread is amazing!!

I just started making cheese a few weeks ago, starting with 30 min mozzarella, moving on to cheese curds, then a batch of halloumi last weekend.  I want to venture into Belper Knolle next and found this thread.  WOW what great information!!

I have a question about the drying portion of the make.  A 60 degree drying room isn't an option for me right now with the equipment I have accumulated so far... and this is April in Texas (highs in the mid 80s)!  I have two options:

1.  Place in my thermostat-controlled mini-fridge at 60 degrees with not much air circulation
2.  Place in my spare room at about 74 degrees with a fan blowing on the BK

Which option do you all think is best for this cheese?  After drying, I plan on putting it in my mini-fridge for aging at the proper temperature and hopefully close to the right humidity (I have a hygrometer now).  This will be my first attempt at aging a cheese so I think my humidity will be trial and error at the beginning to see what works best for my setup.  Any advice is GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks everyone!

Kern

  • Guest
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #52 on: April 20, 2017, 02:49:09 AM »
With the given options I'd go for initial drying with the fan.  This starts out as a very wet lactic cheese and it is important to get the skin dried enough to hold its round shape.  Try drying for a couple of days at 74F and then go to the mini-fridge and back to the fan if the surface starts to feel damp. 

Offline Gregore

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Santa Barbara
  • Posts: 993
  • Cheeses: 43
  • Default personal text
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #53 on: April 20, 2017, 04:31:52 AM »
Good advice kern I  too would choose the fan over the cooler temp.

And thanks for the idea that lactic cheese is not lactic if the whey is cut before 4.6. Never really made that connection , that the proteins would leave the curd  into the whey.

A cheese for you

LauraT

  • Guest
Re: Belper Knolle: aged for 2 months
« Reply #54 on: April 20, 2017, 06:27:16 PM »
Thanks guys!!