Author Topic: Gruyere style cheese recipe  (Read 7964 times)

linuxboy

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Gruyere style cheese recipe
« on: June 14, 2009, 06:06:37 AM »
Here's a recipe for a gruyere style cheese. This was originally intended for raw cow's milk, but should work with pasteurized cow's milk.

  • Warm 2 gallons milk (17.2 pounds) to 90 degrees F
  • add 1/4 tsp Thermo C or 1/8 tsp each of LH 100 TA 60
  • add 1/8 tsp propionic
  • Let set for 5 mins, and stir for 20 strokes, up and down.
  • Ripen for 10 more mins
  • If needed, add CaCl2 diluted in cold water (40 parts water per part CaCl2 for 30% solution)
  • Add .4 ml double strength rennet, stir up and down 15 strokes (again 40 part dilution, 16 ml water)
  • Wait for flocculation, multiply by 2.5 to get total ripening time
  • Cut into 1/4 inch cubes
  • Increase temp to 122F over 1 hour. The curd should be rice grain size
  • Drain in vat or warm colander. Let curds mat and press slightly under whey.
  • Press under own weight turning at 15 min, 30 min, and 1 hour increments.
  • Press until pH is 5.4 or overnight.
  • Brine in fully saturated brine 4 hours per lb of cheese.
  • Ripen with washed or natural rind.
  • Age 3-9 months.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2010, 12:56:48 PM by linuxboy »

newbie001

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2009, 12:53:19 AM »
Doesn't gruyere use a propionic culture? I thought it had slight holes. Also I have read that it is best to add the cacl to the milk before the culture when using homogenized milk. Have you found a difference in when adding it?

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2009, 01:06:46 AM »
Some do Mai. The recipes I have do but there's more than one way to anything I guess.

Some people swear by the use of cacl for pasteurized milk others don't. I think it make nicer looking curds but after cooking and pressing doesn't seem to affect the cheese IMHO. I have yet to find a significant difference yield or anything. And  have seen a few recipes that don't use it even though they suggest pasteurized milk. Go figure?

linuxboy

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2009, 01:14:30 AM »
Propionic is an interesting consideration because Swiss Gruyere has no holes, and French Gruyere styles like Beufort or even Comte also have no holes. I think with raw milk, you will get some naturally occurring propionic, which contributes to CO2 production and flavor. The extra propionic in some areas makes more of a Emmethal or Swiss/Jarlsberg type cheese. Similar history and technique. I would not add priopionic to a base gruyere recipe unless I was going for a baby swiss or added depth.

This recipe should produce a Gruyere style cheese, and of course can be modified to fit your flavor and style needs.

I don't think it matters when you add CaCl2 if the ions are diffused by the time you rennet, because it is at rennetting that CA++ makes a huge difference. I've seen no difference in my sets and usually do not add CaCl2 unless it is winter milk or the balance is off for some other reason (feed, lactation cycle, etc)

FRANCOIS

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2009, 09:51:40 AM »
I beg to differ, having lived there and also made gruyere on two continents.  It has holes.  Not massive swiss eyes but definite inclusions.  We run a prop. culture in it here. 

Here's some trivia for you.  I used to live near a very old university that had a dairy history.  One day the idea dawned on me that they probably had some old texts in the library that covered cheese.  Off I went and low and behold, in sub-dungeon B I found the mother load.  One book I recall, written in old german script on Alsace cheese, hadn't been checked out since 1941.  Anyway, there was a book on swiss cheese manufacture.  It talked about collecting the flowers off clover in the high alpine pastures and brewing a tea from them.  The tea was then used to dose milk.  I never tried it and I thought it was pretty odd.  I couldn't figure out why they'd do it (flavor?).  Then, while in Switzerland, I mentioned it to an old cheesemaker and he knew the answer....wild propionics.  Clover is where they derived them from.  Just in case it ever comes up on Jeopardy.

linuxboy

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2009, 05:16:54 PM »
Very interesting. I stand corrected. How much would you add, Francois, per 1,000 liters?

FRANCOIS

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2009, 08:19:36 PM »
Add of which?  Shermanii?  You'll have to get the cut sheet for whatever pro. you are using (I usually default to fromagex since you don't need a password).  If you are asking about the tea, it didn't say.  The book was printed in 1865, so it was pretty vague on some points.   I would think it depends on strength of the tea.  Personally I wouldn't bother trying, for the same reason I buy blue mold and don't bake my own bread to rot and then sprinkle in curd... 

goatherdess

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2009, 10:36:27 PM »
I know this is an older post but - Oh, my gosh!! I think you just gave me the answer as to why my Romanos sometimes have tasty wild propionic flavor and holes. It's the ones I make when the red clover is blooming. Light bulb! Thank you! I harvest the red clover as tea for winter use, and dehydrate it in the same room. Was it red clover they were using to dose the cheese? I have to try this - the red clover is blooming right now.

FRANCOIS

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2009, 01:57:38 AM »
I don't recall if it specified the kind of clover.  I'm not sure what they have up in the alps.

goatherdess

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #9 on: July 21, 2009, 05:03:59 PM »
I'm going to try it with my next cheese - tonight or tomorrow morning - with red clover. This'll be fun. I'll let you know how it comes out. The worst that can happen is that I ruin a couple of quarts of good raw goat milk. If that happens the chickens will benefit. If not, perhaps I will at last be able to identify the source of my occasional tasty "swiss" Romano cheese batches.

Zoey

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2009, 12:53:58 PM »
goatherdess, did you ever try this? I'd love to try it and I could use any notes you have on the issue.

goatherdess

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2009, 10:10:38 PM »
Yes, I did. And I'll be posting with photos ASAP. Tonight if I can, or in a few days - as soon as I review my notes and write it out.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2009, 10:24:38 PM »
Hey that's kewl Tea. I look forward to your post!

Zoey

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #13 on: October 22, 2009, 10:37:56 AM »

Wow, I'm really looking forward to that post. :)

Offline Gürkan Yeniçeri

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Re: Gruyere style cheese recipe
« Reply #14 on: November 26, 2009, 01:21:34 AM »
GoatHerdess, I am waiting for your results to.

There is a Turkish Gruyere which has large holes almost like emmental. It looks like Gruyere and tastes like emmental. I am disecting a commercial recipe of it for home application at the moment. It is a little bit different than this recipe, and the temperatures are a little higher. It also has Lactobacillius Bulgaricus and Streptecoccus Thermophilus which can be supplied with yogurt. I will try a mixture of  thermophilic culture and yogurt along with P. Shermanii.

Red Clover tea is certainly interesting, I would like to hear more about it.