Butter Nut: Custom recipe

[DoctorCheese]

I have never really liked American style Swiss cheese all that much, but I have a little Swiss in my family history so I wanted to try this style of cheese. For the most part I used the "baby swiss" recipe off Cheesmaking.com located here. However, I am never one to use a recipe exactly so I did my best to fudge it up by putting a veritable smorgasbord of cultures in this poor cheese. There is likely a microbial war of epic proportions going on! Anywhoo, this is the biggest cheese I have made so far and it was a lot of fun (6 gallons of milk, 3 raw 3 P&H, weight of 6lb 9oz). I am really looking forward to the aging process with this one as I have never done a Propionic make before. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

[Boofer]

Looks good so far, Jobe. Did you brine it or dry-salt it?

I may have referenced this topic previously, but I feel it bears repeating: posted pics don't have to be the full resolution coming out of today's cameras. Shrinking pics still permits the viewer to enjoy the picture clearly with the added benefit of quicker pic loading/displaying. A resolution of 1024x768, for example, provides adequate clarity. For those few pics where the poster feels added resolution would help tell the story, then a larger pic might be warranted.

-Boofer-

[DoctorCheese]

Looks good so far, Jobe. Did you brine it or dry-salt it?

Thanks. I did a heavy brine for 2.5 hrs per pound as per the recipe. In regards to image size, I never even thought about it and will shrink future images down for ease of loading.

[DoctorCheese]

After two weeks of time in 55F 85% humidity, I am now beginning the warm phase. Everyone cheer on my little P. shermanii buddies as they try and make holes in this cheese.

[awakephd]

Jobe, what is the temperature where the cheese is in the warm phase? FWIW, when I set my swiss styles out on in the room where my cheese cave is (around 72-75° air temperature), I don't get any swelling that I can tell. But if I put them up on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen, it swells up significantly. I'm not sure what the temperature up there is - it doesn't feel overly warm, and I keep forgetting to put a thermometer up there to check - but there is some warmth coming up from the coils of the fridge, and clearly it is enough warmer to make a significant difference.

[DoctorCheese]

It is 75 degrees F. Do you think it needs to hit 80?

[awakephd]

I'd try it for a few days at 75° and see what happens. If it doesn't swell, then try moving to a little bit warmer space. I keep it covered with an inverted plastic container to avoid too much moisture loss, and watch it carefully - it will develop blue or other mold on the rind in the blink of an eye!

[DoctorCheese]

You are the second person I have seen mention a temp warmer than 72F, so I am going to put a heating pad in my closet to diffusely heat the surrounding air and raise the temp in my aging container. Inside the container is hovering right around 85% humidity, so I am pretty happy with that.

[DoctorCheese]

Update. Everything is going perfectly. It smells kinda like bread and its flat sides are like a memory foam mattress.

[Boofer]

Sounds like a yeast infection.

I had a cheese like that where just below the rind was spongey. Not good.

-Boofer-

[DoctorCheese]

Hmm, now it kinda smells like sweat. Not body odor, just salty wet skin. I hope it isn't a yeast infection.

[DoctorCheese]

B linens started to become an issue during the warm phase, so I gave it a good washing and then waxed it. The plan is to taste it in a few months. Hopefully, there is no yeast infection.

[DoctorCheese]

This cheese turned 2 months old today (about), so I cut it open and what a result! The warming chamber phase I did combined with the amount of cultures I added seems to have produced one massively holey cheese! I think that the make went really well other than the bit of b linens that opportunistically grew on the high pH rind of my cheese. However, what I realized a few weeks after starting this make, is that I really don't enjoy "swiss" type cheeses all too much. My plan is to try it melted on bread... how could I, or anyone for that matter, not enjoy it melted on bread? Enjoy these pictures.

[Duntov]

Looks good but with your modified recipe I thought there would be larger holes.  When I follow the recipe from cheesemaking.com, I got the same hole development results without any warm stage.  It does look fantastic however!

[DoctorCheese]

I got the same hole development results without any warm stage.

I do not know why my holes are small either. This way is cooler I think though because it feels like eating a morel mushroom when you bite down on it.