Finnish cheese-maker says hi

[Zoey]

Here it comes: HI everybody!

So, I'm a Finnish cheese enthusiast trying to work my way through the beginning challenges.

Road map so far consists of two cheeses, both made with a simple gouda recipe, although they turned out pretty much different from gouda... having an open texture with teeny-tiny little holes and a lot of white mold on them, which I was washing out during the entire, 3-week maturing period.

Also made fresh cheese: finnish "home cheese" which is pretty much just curds drained and left to settle to form a solid mat, which is then cut fresh and eaten with sallads or on bread. Yummy. Ricotta also turned out nice, as did fresh goat cheese (see the "home cheese" description).

However, I now am pretty much obsessed with making perfect semi-soft to hard cheeses. This has pretty much to do with the fact that I'm also obsessed with moving to the countryside and getting a household cow.

Other than that, I'm a young female, working as a lawyer and renovating a row-house apartment. I have some Dutch roots, so that's why i'm starting with gouda... although we come from Leiden, so I guess I'll have to try the cumin cheese also...

 - Maria

[Cheese Head]

Hi Zoey and welcome to our second Finn!

Nice intro, FYI I've opened a Finland Board in the Geographic Boards in case you or riha (who I think is our only other member in Finland) have any local type stuff to chat about.

I've just made 3 washed curd type cheeses over the last two weekends, records in that Board, in case you have any advice. In there I built and posted "4 Gouda Making Procedures Compared" and Peter says that Gouda's can have open texture and Wikipedia page on Gouda says the same.

Welcome!

[Zoey]

Thanks John, I've read your gouda reports and they seem very useful!
I've been thinking probably my problems have been:

- no pressing-under-whey - should try two test batches to see the difference
- no drying after brining - I understand maybe I should dry them with a cloth or similar, before setting to air dry.
- maybe not enough brining - i've used 3hrs and maybe my brine wasn't saturated (that was the plan, though... probably less salt means more undesired mold growth?)
- maybe my fridge isn't clean enough (sometimes have moldy vegetables or old food lying around) or maybe it's too moist. don't have a humidity meter so no idea.
- surface not even enough... more flipping during pressing and less wrinkles in the cheesecloth

Well... this probably isn't the right board to discuss this further anyway, but just listing up some thoughts.

[zenith1]

Welcome to the forum Zoey. You sound like you enough extra energy to make cheese-a lawyer, a housing renovator, and a cheese maker! The only cheese from Finland that I have heard of is Juustoleipa. It is made from reindeer milk if I remember correctly. Have you eaten this cheese, and if so how would you describe the flavor?

[riha]

Awesome! Another Finn! Hello Zoey, where (in Finland) are you from?

Questions: What kind of mold do you have for pressing your gouda? What kind of press do you have? Where do you get your goat milk?

My latest cheese, cheddar, is also developing mold very actively while air drying (3 days now). Goudas did the same and they were in much more humid place while they dried.

Very nice to know that I'm not alone making cheese here in the cold north

[DeejayDebi]

Hello Zoey welcome to the forum!

[Zoey]

Thanks for all the many replies!

Riha - I believe you already read my post about molds - so I am indeed using a vegetable steaming pan for 1kg cheeses.

Unfortunately no tips for getting goat milk, because my goat milk came from my mom's own goats, which don't exist anymore.

About Leipäjuusto or Juustoleipä (whichever word is fine) - I have the impression it's usually made from cow's milk, but it's probably not in the definition. Never heard of anyone using reindeer milk (since reindeer are not cattled really, but kept in large hedged areas without daily care), but i'm not saying it doesn't happen. Leipäjuusto is a type of non-matured cheese that pretty much compares to halloumi, I think. It is less salty, however, and not brined. The specialty is that its surface is baked afterwards to form dark spots. The spots give it a kind of roasted flavor, but not similar to smoked. Really easy to make, you should try it. "leipäjuusto recipe" keywords in Google should give you multiple results to try.

Made my third gouda during wed-thu this week, should be posting a picture soon. This one is turning out pretty nicely after I prolonged the brining time. It feels dry and solid already, no pores and smells great!

[DeejayDebi]

I found this process a while back but I haven't tried it. It actually came from a forum in Findland.

This cheese is considered as the specialty of Finland and Lapland. It is a round cheese of various sizes made from cow's or reindeer's milk. The production of this cheese is following:

The curds are drained and pressed into a flat, wooden platter with a rim. Then it is placed in front of the fire until the outer layer is "toasted". Then the cheese looks like bread and that's why it got its name which means "cheese bread". It is creamy and smooth under a crusty surface. The period of ripening is only a few days. Juustoleipa is served for breakfast and tastes nicely with jam.

[Zoey]

Erm...I noticed I didn't answer half of riha's questions...

So here's the rest:

- I'm from Lohja, although currently I live in Helsinki. Also, I spend a lot of time in Loimaa, which is probably going to be my home in the future.

- I don't have a press. My latest cheese was pressed using a staple of books. To me it seems that a good press is a lot less important than a good mold.

[zenith1]

and probably more important than that is paying strict attention to the details of the recipe,and maintaining sterile conditions of your equipment.