Limburger 1

[John@PC]

This is a cheese I've never made but always wanted to so here goes:

Limburger #1:  Recipe by Jim Wallace, Cheesemaking.com

Ingredients:
-  2 gal. whole pasturized cows milk
-  1/4 tsp. MM100
-  1/16 tsp. Geotrichum
-  1/16 tsp. B. linens
-  1/2 tsp. CaCl2
-  1/2 tsp. single strength veal rennet

Recipe and notes:
1. Heated 2 gal. milk to 88F (pH 6.6)
2. Added cultures (MM100, Geo and B. linens)
3. Ripened 30 min. @ 88F
4. Added 1/2 tsp. CaCl2, 1/2 tsp. single-strength rennet
5. Wait for clean break
6. Cut curd to 3/4" (recipe calls for 1/2" to 5/8" but I only had a 3/4" square cutter available to use)
7. Wait 5 min.; stir for 20 min.
8. Increase temp to 92F over 10 min. stirring as needed
9. Stirred @ 92F for 15-20 min. or until curds start to clump between fingers
10. Remove most of whey; transfer curds to un-lined forms (curd pH 6.1)
11. Flip minutes after transfer, then several times over 1 hr., then every hour for four hours;
12. Let drain overnight
13. Brine 1 1/2 hr. with saturated brine (I went 3 hr. with a med-heavy brine @ room temp)

Affinage:
1. Start at 95%RH and 58F in ripening box
2. Turn daily for 4 days
3. Start washing with light brine + 1/16 tsp. B. linens; wash 2 to 3 times over next 2 weeks (I plan to do more freq.)
4. Continue aging at 55F and high (90%) humidity

Note:  I plan to sample this every month or so and refrigerate in foil before it becomes olfactory incorrect

Note 2: In middle of flipping the form so will post the pics I have and update later.

[AeonSam]

Innovative Box, man. I've never been brave enough to try Limburger but I'm gonna have to just to see what it's like. Looking forward to pics!

[John@PC]

Thanks AeonSam.  I'm using outdated cultures so I'm rolling the dice a bit.  My new order from Dairy Connection isn't due in until tomorrow but I couldn't wait to get back into making cheese.  My DVI cultures are over 2 yrs. past their "best buy" date so it will be interesting to see if they are still virile. pH marks looked good.

[AnnDee]

Certainly love the mould!

[awakephd]

John, it's nice to see you getting back into the curds and whey!

[John@PC]

Thanks Ann and Andy.  I figured my 18 month sabbatical from making cheese was long enough . 

[Kern]

Thanks Ann and Andy.  I figured my 18 month sabbatical from making cheese was long enough .

Praise the Lord!   

[awakephd]

I'm making cheese today, and as I was looking at my log, I was shocked to see it has been two months - not an intended sabbatical, but just too darn busy! Clearly I am overdue for replenishing the cave ...

[OzzieCheese]

Hi John.  Welcome back. I too had a bit of a break and now getting back into it.

--Mal

[DoctorCheese]

I am going to give you a cheese for that cool box you've got. I am looking forward to watching this cheese progress. Please post pics.

[John@PC]

I am going to give you a cheese for that cool box you've got.

Thanks DrCheese.   I kept looking at pictures of bricks of limburger with the striations and realized all you have to do is use two sushi mats and make a couple of ends using wood (I used some 3/4" hardwood but it could be pretty much anything that wouldn't impart an off taste as if you could tell considering it's a Limburger ).   Use some heavy duty rubber bands to wrap the mats, one for the bottom and after filling one for the top.  Worked like a charm and was perfect size for a 2 gal. make.  And by the way I did find some sushi mats on Amazon for a pretty good price and quick delivery (about half the price of Cheesemaking.com's ).

[DoctorCheese]

sushi mats

Sushi mats scare me. Unless you sterilize them really well, who knows what kind of nastiness they came with. Plus, they act as little sponges to harbor bacteria, mold, and the like. I stopped using them when I heard them referred to as "black mold factories" by someone. It all probably comes back to proper hygiene which I am sure you use, so no worries. I am just a scaredy cat.

[awakephd]

Jobe, they're easy to clean:

Soak in 30% bleach solution for three days
Pressure wash on the highest setting, minimum of 5 minutes per side
Boil for 3 hours (or can reduce to 30 minutes if using a pressure canner at 10 psi)

At this point, your mats are sterilized.



In all seriousness, I don't use the mats, so don't know what sort of microbiological concerns they may pose. There are some really interesting studies about the way wooden shelves and cutting boards work vs. plastic - with the wood winning - but I would hesitate to extrapolate to the mats, since they include bamboo (technically a grass; does this work the same way as, say, maple or pine?) and string ...

[John@PC]

Sushi mats scare me. Unless you sterilize them really well, who knows what kind of nastiness they came with. Plus, they act as little sponges to harbor bacteria, mold, and the like. I stopped using them when I heard them referred to as "black mold factories" by someone. It all probably comes back to proper hygiene which I am sure you use, so no worries. I am just a scaredy cat.

I wish I had read your (and Andy's) comments before shelling out $9 for a package of black mold factories.  Actually as the picture shows they don't discriminate when it comes to mold as I found they are quite fond of white.  I've got another thread about these Camemberts that "became quite attached to" my pretty new sushi mats and the damage that resulted.   As of now there is one thing that me and my sushi mats have in common:  we've been retired  .

[Boofer]

I've got another thread about these Camemberts that "became quite attached to" my pretty new sushi mats and the damage that resulted.

I don't recall seeing this little tidbit on the Failures thread.

That might be helpful to others using the bamboo mats.

-Boofer-