Reg's Manchego Cheese Making

[reg]

Manchego. will be working with a four gallon batch. the recipe will be from Ricki Carroll's book, Home Cheese Making, page 128. in this cheese it will be the first time using lipase powder, should be interesting

reg

[DaggerDoggie]

Good luck.  Let us know how it goes and don't drop the wheel.

[reg]

well making Manchego was an interesting and a fun project. the 8" wheel looks fantastic and smells like an already aged cheese, kind of like provolone. interesting. that lipase powder is a very strong product. will send Ch a photo this morning.

DD when you made yours how long did you brine it ? did it come out of the brine with a slippery surface ?

reg

[DaggerDoggie]

I left mine in the brine overnight, so about eight hours, if I remember correctly.

Yes, it was slippery after I took it out.  That's the excuse I have for dropping it and breaking it.

[Webmaster]

Email and pictures below sent in by reg:

Morning John. Attached are a few photos of the Manchego cheese that i did yesterday. It went into the brine about midnight and came out at 7am this morning. The one photo is of the cheese on the window sill drying off a bit before it goes into the aging cooler. It smells pretty amazing already. Time should really do this cheese some justice.

The nice thing about doing cheeses of this size ( 8"x3") is that we can try it at different stages of the aging process then just revac it. According to the book this cheese can be eaten after only 5 days and is called manchego fresco, manchego curado is aged 3-12 weeks, manchego viejo 3-12 months and manchego aceite is aged in olive oil for more than one year. Pretty cool stuff !

reg

[DaggerDoggie]

Wow Reg, that came out great!

[Cheese Head]

So far looks great, always nice to see a new-to-the-world cheese looking out the window on the big wide world .

But little does it know reg's plans, which look like:

• 1/4 consumed as Manchego Fresco in few days.
• 1/4 consumed as Manchego Curado in 1-3 months.
• 1/4 consumed as Manchego Viejo in 3-12 months.
• 1/4 consumed as Manchego Aceite in 1+ years.

So young, so full of life, big wide world . . . but yet so short . . . a cheese's life is sad . . .

While other cheeses, get to see the world . . .

[reg]

well its been one week since i made the manchego. just flipped it and there is still a lot of moisture on the bottom every day but the smell is divine !

it seems to have a softer surface than all of the cheeses that i have made so far except for the stirred curd cheddar. they both seem to be about the same in surface moisture each day although the cheddar was made the week earlier. wondering if i don't have enough air circulation being that i'm using a large cooler as an aging cave. another thought has come to mind. most aging caves are using wooden shelves, now you have to assume that the wood will soak up a fair amount of moisture. i wonder is this one of the tricks we are missing when it comes to aging ?

DD, how is your manchego aging ?

reg

[DaggerDoggie]

I waxed mine last week.  It looked like it was doing well.