I just opened a 10 Lb. wheel of Jarlsberg today. It is really delicious, and does taste just like Jarlsberg. I used Margaret Morris' recipe, with a few changes. Although I used raw milk, I didn't use the nitrate, because I have never had trouble with late blowing cheese and didn't want to put such a potent chemical into such lovely raw milk. I also only heated the milk to 107, not 108, as I really love to preserve the raw, living enzymes in my raw milk cheese. The biggest challenge was the eye formation ripening at 64 to 68 degrees for 3 weeks, since I made it during the hot months. We had to keep it in an air-conditioned room, turned down cool just for the cheese! Next time I will make it in the cooler months. In the two attached photos you can see the eye formation taking place in the first one, and the finished product in the second.
Meanwhile, how do you store your cut swiss-type cheeses? I made such a large cheese to get better eye formation, but that is a lot of cheese! I hate what plastic (vacuumed bags) does to cheese, so instead normally I cut my larger wheels (such as cheddar, etc.) of into usable sized chunks and wax them when they are ready to eat, but waxed swiss?
I have put a small piece of plastic wrap on the cut side only of the cheese, allowing it to breathe through the natural rind, which will work for a while, but eventually I will need to find a way to wrap the smaller pieces that will be left without a rind. Also, a 10 pound wheel takes up a lot of space in the fridge!
I think I will try both wrapping with the white cheese paper I use for chaource and camembert, and waxing, and see which works better.
August 7- made a 10 LB. wheel using 10 gallons raw jersey milk. 2 of the gallons were skimmed, since jersey milk is too rich for a Jarlsberg.
Brined in heavy brine for 53 hours.
Taken out of brine on August 9 and put in cheese cave.
Brought in house August 16. Aged between 66-68 degrees. Turned every 12 hours. Lots of swelling within days.
Put back in cave Sept. 6th.
Opened on October 29. Yummm. My husband is oh-so-grateful for his favorite cheese!
