Author Topic: Found the steps to making the "smoke barrel" aged cheese in a jar !!  (Read 3639 times)

teegr

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Hi, I originally was asking if anyone knew about this old homesteaders way of making a soft smoke barrel cheese that was aged in mason jars.  Here's the original link
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2985.0.html 

Anyhow, I was able to make contact with this gal who was raised in Alaska on a homestead and she makes this cheese as her grandmother did.  I made it before and it was really good and reminded me of jars/crocked of smoked barrel cheese I had experienced as a child.    My concern as mentioned on the other board was ...does this cheese actually "age" after being packed  into jar...and if it would be a good idea to heat pasteurize the jar of cheese for shelf life and safety for giving as a gift to a DIL who can only eat soft cheeses when she is not on Chemotherapy.  We found out the hard way that something like feta cheese was considered a soft fresh cheese despite fact the feta was stored in brine. 

Thought you guys might be able to explain to me how can a high heat acid coagulated cheese could have enough bacteria in it to "age" after being put into a sterile jar.  I understand microbiology fairly well...but guess I am possibly mixed up on how high temperature cheeses (for instances Mozz) go bad just like softer low tempurature cheeses do in a few weeks.  I'm waiting for the light bulb to blink in my head.  LOL

I have a link to You Tube where she demonstrates her way of making this particular barrel cheese.  See link below text if it doesn't imbed it to the message. 
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

« Last Edit: January 29, 2010, 09:24:09 AM by teegr »

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Found the steps to making the "smoke barrel" aged cheese in a jar !!
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2010, 10:26:30 AM »
Good job Teegr!

I typed out the instructions

Cottage Cheese to Cream Cheese to Smoke Barrel Cheese – C & J Cline
From: http://www.exploreourplanet.org

Ingredients:
4 gallons of milk
4 cups of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of sea salt

Place milk in a pot and heat to about 150°F. If milk is scorching turn down the heat.
Let it heat for about 4 hours until curds separate.
If you still have some milk add more lemon juice. Or raise heat until all milk turns to curds.
Scoop out the curds and add more lemon if needed.
Place curds in a cheesecloth bag and drain. Squeeze the bag to get out extra whey.
Twist the bag and place a 5 pound weight on the cheese to aid in draining for about 1 hour.
Remove curds from the bag. Save the whey.


Cottage Cheese
Take 6 cups  of the cheese curds
½ teaspoon of sea salt (or to taste)
½ cup of cream

Cream Cheese
Take 6 cups of the cheese curds
1 teaspoon of sea salt (or to taste)
½ cup of whey
 Mix with a beater until smooth

Smoke Barrel Cheese
Take 6 cups of the cheese curds
1 teaspoon of sea salt (or to taste)
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
4 drops of yellow food coloring
2 drops of red food coloring

Take a sterile mason jar and place a canning funnel on the mouth and pack in the cheese to within one inch from the top. You may use a plastic bag to press the cheese down into the jar.
You do not want the cheese to touch the top or it will rust.
Sprinkle a tiny bit of sea salt on top of the cheese.
Put the lid on and store in your cheese cave at 48 to 54°F. Cheese is edible as is but age for 60 to 85 days for a sharp smoke barrel cheese.

teegr

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Re: Found the steps to making the "smoke barrel" aged cheese in a jar !!
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2010, 07:45:49 AM »
That DeejayDebi,  I wonder if you have ever had this sort of cheese made by your family when they were on the farm?  I know I had something similar as a child, and in fact this was just about the only cheese I ever had other than slice Kraft American for lunchbox.  Storebought orange Cheddar or Brick cheese was a bit expensive for us back then...so we made or traded what we made for what others made...LOL. Bread,preserves, canned stews, cured meats were traded for fresh game or side of beef, etc.   While I have grown up since then and prefer a GOOD REAL cheese...I do still love the simple kitchen style cheeses that were made unhomoginized milk.  The lady that made that video for the smoke barrel cheese actually lives in a remote rural area not too far from myself and we have been chatting for a couple of years about the things we were taught by our grandparents.  She was raised in a make do type of family as was I...so I tried her acid coagulated cottage cheese (I prefer my rennent/starter) and the curds are basically ricotta so I used it as such.  I made one large jar of the SMOKE barrel cheese using those curds but chose to not whip it up and packed it into the jar well and salted top and sealed it.  Within a month my sons saw it and wanted to try it and well they ate it all...and I tasted it...it was ok.  Certainly not like a velveeta..more like a light cheese dip.

My only concern is the "aging" of this product since it is Coagulated and sets at a hi ricotta type temp.  I assume this stops starter bacterial action.  But because it is tech a high moisture cheese...and while packed into jar...there has to be some amount of air present.  I am just wondering if there is a saftey issue for someone takes chemotherapy.  My DIL wants to be able to each cheese spreads and cheese balls (now that she is allow to eat soft cheese between transplant periods).  She wanted some of the smoked barrel cheese and I wouldn't let her try it although my adult boys were fine with it.  I'm just hoping I can make her some soft cheese and age it 60 days at least so she CAN eat it without any worries about listeria.  When she told me they told her she couldn't have any soft fresh cheeses she was bummed and I probably told her wrong...but told her that I figured she could still eat Feta as long as it was aged/pickled in brine.  I guess I was wrong...it was not okay for her to eat...so you can imagine how I felt when she turned up to have a Gastric symptoms and a blood infection and rush to hospital.  Took a few days before they realized that she would have had to rub alot of cheese onto her chemo port inorder to get listeria from feta.  So I was sort of off the hook...but I'm trying to make sure I understand how the whole thing works and why or why not certain cheeses get on the bad list for chemo patients.

Thanks for the help.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Found the steps to making the "smoke barrel" aged cheese in a jar !!
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2010, 04:19:32 AM »
I often wonder looing back why Mama never made cheese? We had more milk than we could handle and we were alwasy giving it away to the rest of the family but the only cheese Mama made was riccotta or something similar from whole milk. Grandma made Crosta Rossa but she passed when I was very little.

I do plan to try this when I get a chance. I am kind of busy right now making sausages and working on a few translations for traditional Italian capricolla. Capocollo Calbria (my grandma was Calabrese) and  Coppa Piacentina. If you make it first let us know how it went.