Cut into my Emmental today for New Years

[Gerry]

I decided to dig into one of my Emmental cheeses to help dress up a Charcuterie board I was bringing for our New Years family gathering.  Since I make everything from smoked salmon to procuitto to cured meats and salami of all kinds, my family pretty knows what to expect.  I've only started these alpine cheeses in 2017, so this cheese though was the first of its kind to bring and to my surprise it disappeared first!  To me that's a measure of some success even though I'd love to see a better isolation and even distribution of holes.  But taste and texture was spot on.  Being just under 5 pounds, I only brought about a quarter of it to our gathering and (re)vacpacked the rest to revisit in another month or two.  Glad I did, because I feel selfish now 

To improve the holes in my next one I'm going to try to extend the proprionic ferment by lowering the temperature. This thing puffed up like a round balloon on top of the warm fridge within a week which I think contributed to the crazy network of caverns near the center. 

[GortKlaatu]

Cool!  and Congrats!

[Al Lewis]

Looks great!! AC4U!!

[H-K-J]

WOWZ! THAT LOOKS AWESOME.
AC4U

[Boofer]

Very nice! Great eye formation. Would care to share your recipe?

Have a cheese, Gerry.

-Boofer-

[Gerry]

Thanks for the cheeses guys!

The recipe was based on the first thing that came up when Googling "making Emmental cheese" - the one on the Cultures for Health site.  There were just a few things I did differently, like multiplying the recipe to about 20 liters of milk for a chance at better eye development in a larger cheese.  In this case the cheese was a high as it was round.  8 liters of the milk used was whole homogenized because I didn't have enough 2%.  It was all just cheap supermarket milk.

 I used a heaping quarter teaspoon of PS, not measuring too carefully.  I also used thermo C culture because that's the only thermo I had on hand at the time.  I gave almost no time for "ripening" the cultures (just enough to fully hydrate after mixing), and started cutting the curd the minute I got a clean break.  I didn't cook the curd all the way to 120 F, because by the time it was slowly brought up to 115 F with near constant whisk stirring, the curd seemed way dry enough.  Any more and I would be making Parmesan!   I don't have a pH meter, but for sure the finished pH level was on the high side after immediately pressing for only 8 hours.  The tiny bit of whey left expelled after the last pressing still tasted sweet.  My pH tongue meter never lies! 

This recipe calls for a 24 hour dip in saturated brine for a 2 gallon cheese.  That's ridiculous.  I brined mine 12 hours (if even that, maybe 10?) for a 5 gallon cheese.  Propionic isn't incredibly salt tolerant, not nearly as much as Lactobacillus is.  After pressing, it went immediately to the cheese cave @ 12 degrees C uncovered in it's cheese box to dry out.  Then for that first week,  partially covered and wiped almost daily with a weak brine solution in the cheese cave.  After a week, I moved the box to the top of the fridge in the kitchen and just monitored it for dryness, adjusting the cover accordingly.  Mold never showed up thank goodness.  Within 7 days, it had grown to the point where I decided to vacuum pack it because I was worried about it bursting.  I should have taken a pic at that point!  I then put it back in the cheese cave, where it actually grew a bit more I think over the first month.  And that's it!  Another cheezy adventure! Hahaha

[Boofer]

Thanks for that detail. It helps to steer those of us who might attempt to duplicate your effort.

-Boofer-

[Gerry]

Happy to share Boofer.  Since I rarely follow recipes exactly as written after learning a bit about the process, I promise next time to take more notes and photos.  However it's now cheap pork time here in Canada, and whole ~25 pound legs are going for exactly $1 per pound this week.  Pork butts even less.  So it's prosciutto and fermented salami season again!  I'll be making another Emmental style within the next 3 weeks I think.  I seriously need a 3rd cave.  I have vacpacked cheeses balanced with their edges supported by the prosciutto I started exactly a year ago in my "clean" cave. That prosciutto will be ready before next Christmas.

[AnnDee]

Holey moley! Loveeee the look of those eye formation!
AC4U!

[Gerry]

I decided to start another one two weeks ago.  I followed the exact same recipe and procedure, except all 2% supermarket pasteurized milk and only 16 liters of milk (4 gallons).  So far it looks totally consistent with the last one I did above.  This is the morning of Day 4:



And here it is today, 2 days later on Day 6:



I'll vacuum pack it tomorrow and leave it at room temperature for a few more days to develop more of that proprionic taste.  I think I'll attempt an experiment with the next one and vacuum pack it right away, fresh from the cheese cave before leaving at room temperature.  I'd like to see if it affects the distribution of the eyes.  So far, the big eyes are always more numerous in the center which I think is because we're working with such small cheeses compared to commercial sizes.  I have a hunch that it might develop eyes closer to the edge if I let it go at room temperature vac packed from the start.  We'll see! 

[GortKlaatu]

AC4U!