Author Topic: Hello from Olive Branch, Mississippi  (Read 2210 times)

A Future Pilot

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Hello from Olive Branch, Mississippi
« on: December 01, 2008, 04:58:11 PM »
Hello my name is John Ackerman, and I really just started making cheese.

I am now as we speak making two batches of cheese, one has been pressed and is drying, and the other is pasteurizing in the pot. I'm making both of them as christmas presents (I know they won't be ready until after christmas) and I'm also going to make another one when this second one is finished. (I have 6 brothers and sisters, I'm making one for my parents, one for one of my older sisters and my older brother, and the third for my other older sister.) I am using the "basic hard cheese" recipe at http://schmidling.com/making.htm


I was wondering, down at the bottom of the recipe it says to wax and age at 55F for a min. of 30 days. Does it have to be at 55F and if 30 days is the minimum how long should I really wait before I try it.

Thanks in advance!

John

A Future Pilot

  • Guest
Re: Hello from Olive Branch, Mississippi
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2008, 05:18:50 PM »
I forgot to mention that the milk I am using is dry milk and cream under the milk page at that website.

Tea

  • Guest
Re: Hello from Olive Branch, Mississippi
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2008, 08:29:45 PM »
Good morning John and welcome to the forum.  I am a mother of 8, so bless you heart for wanting to make something special for your family. I hope they appreciate your time and effort.
I haven't tried a cheese using powdered milk, but I know that there are some excellent brie cheeses that are made on half raw and half powdered milk, so as long as you get the milk to a setting curd, I would presume that it should work fine.
Aging is to develop the flavours in the cheese, and the longer you allow to mature the stronger the flavour.  So you can, if you want to eat immediately, only you have to accept that if may not have much flavour.  The universal problem most of us have is letting the cheese mature long enough before we just have to open them and try them.

Just noticing you screen name and the car pic.  Was wondering if that was low level flying you are doing?  ;)

Anyway keep us informed on how the cheeses are doing.

Cheese Head

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Re: Hello from Olive Branch, Mississippi
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2008, 12:35:14 AM »
Howdy John and welcome to the forum. In your OP you said you were pasteurizing, don't think you need to do that with powdered milk and I assume store bought pasteurized cream. Aging is in my experience the toughest part of cheese making, of aging, humidity control is the toughest, but this should be reduced b sealing with wax. Temperature at 55 F is tough unless you have a cold area in basement as most household fridges are set at ~42 F, so you could do the cool box and change an ice block each day or go for colder fridge temp, which I think will result in a slower time to mature. Good luck :).

PS: Our next door neighbors here in Houston are from Mississippi, great people.

A Future Pilot

  • Guest
Re: Hello from Olive Branch, Mississippi
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2008, 04:00:33 PM »
OK Thanks!

I think I'll try to age it in the fridge and see how that goes  :-\

I was also wondering how should I wax the cheese, I have 1 pound of cheese wax from cheesemaking.com and I heard that that isn't enough for dipping the cheese into it, and that I should brush it on. Does brushing require a special kind of brush? I've seen some at different websites, but couldn't I use a basting brush?

Thanks for all yall's help!

Tea

  • Guest
Re: Hello from Olive Branch, Mississippi
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2008, 07:20:25 PM »
Hi John there is a thread here on waxing.  You might find that 1lb is not quite sufficient to wax simple because the wax should be deep enough in a pot that you can dip at least half of the cheese into at a time.  I had one cheese that was too large to fit into the pot so I spooned the wax over it.  The finished result was a bit rough, but it did the job.  I don't see why you couldn't use a pastry brush, simply because it has a wide brush and would make applying a little easier.
Aging in the fridge should be fine, just a little slower than usual.
Best of luck.