My first Caerphilly

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

My name is Jeff Hamm, and I'm from Nova Scotia, Canada originally, but now live in Auckland, New Zealand.  My wife signed me up for a 1 day cheese making course last year for father's day.  I really enjoyed it, and so bought the equipment and have continued.  I've picked up Riki Carrol's book and have searched around the net for other recipes.

Here's the "just out of the press" photo of my first Caerphilly, which weighed 1.5 kg from 10 litres of milk (store bought, full cream ; silver top for those kiwis on the board).  This is supposed to be eatable in 3 weeks, which is why I made this one.  I have a Gouda and a wensleydale both aging as well, the first I want to age 9 months, and the second I'll age 3 months.  this gives me something to taste much sooner (in about a week now).

- Jeff

[Xnukwa]

Looks lovely!  Would you care to share your recipe?  This is a cheese I've been eager to try my hand at!

[JeffHamm]

I got this from a web site (Greening of Gavin), and he got it from "making artisan cheese" by Tim Smith.

The comments in the recipe are Gavin's.  After this are my "make notes" that I write while making the above cheese.

- Jeff

Caerphilly

7.5 litres whole milk (2 gallons)
1 quarter teaspoon (about 2 ml) mesophillic culture
1 eighth teaspoon (about 1 ml) calcium chloride diluted in 60ml cool unchlorinated water
1 half teaspoon (about 3 ml) liquid rennet diluted in 60ml cool unchlorinated water
2 tablespoons non-ionised salt

Heat milk to 32°C user double boiler (I use a smaller saucepan under the large pot).

 Add the calcium chloride if you are using homogenised milk. Stir for a minute. Then add the starter culture and stir for another minute. Cover and let rest for thirty minutes at target temperature.

Maintaining the temp of 32°C (90°F), add the rennet to the milk, stir for two minutes, then cover. Let mixture sit for forty minutes at the target temperature, or until you get a clean break.

Cut the curds into 6mm (¼ inch) cubes, keeping the size as uniform as possible

Slowly raise the temp to 33°C (92°F); this should take about ten minutes. Hold the curd at the target temp for forty minutes and be sure to stir frequently to keep the curds from matting. Let rest at target temp for five minutes

Drain the curds into a cheese cloth lined colander, and let whey drain for a 5 minutes. Cut the curds into 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick slabs, and stack on top of one another. Turn the stack over, top to bottom, two times in ten minutes. This will assist in draining a lot of whey from the curd.

Using your clean hands, break the curds into thumbnail-sized pieces, and blend with salt.

Fill a cheese cloth-lined 1kg cheese mould with the salted curds and press at 5kg (10 pounds) for ten minutes.

Remove the cheese from the press, take it out of the mould, and unwrap the cheese cloth. Turn the cheese, and rub a layer of salt on both top and bottom before rewrapping with cheese cloth. Press at 5kg (10 pounds) for ten minutes. Repeat the same procedure (salt), pressing at 7.5 kg (15 pounds) for twenty minutes. Repeat the same procedure, pressing at 7.5 kg (15 pounds) for sixteen hours. I finished this stage at 6 pm on Saturday evening, so I had to wait until 10 am Sunday morning for the next part.

Take the cheese out of the cheese mould, and let it air dry on a cheese mat and cheese board for about 3-4 days. Make sure you turn the cheese several times a day to ensure even drying and fat distribution.

When the cheese is dry to touch, it is ready to be ripened. Place in your cheese cave at 13ºC (55ºF) at 80-85% humidity for three weeks, turning several times a week. No need to wax this cheese. It will form a rind, and if any mould develops, simply rub the cheese with cloth dipped in some salty water. The salt in this cheese should retard mould growth anyway.

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Caerphilly: (note: temperatures look like in the hundreds, but he last zero should be for degrees! )
 Jan 22, 2011 (Sat)

Temp : 260C, Barmoeter: High Pressure; overcast
10 l Silver Top (Meadow Fresh full cream milk)
Starting time: 11:50.  Time when it reached 680C  (maintain for 1 minute): 1:07
Time when cooled to 320C: 2:39
Add ¼ tsp CaCl (50% solution)
Add 1 melted ice cue mesophillic starter
Stir 1 minute.
Cover and Wait 30 minutes: time at start of wait __2:40____ at end __3:10_____
Add 0.8 ml Rennet  (temp 31.5; put in sink with warm water @ 33-34)
Wait 40 minutes: time at start of wait: __3:11____ at end __3:51___
Cut into 6mm cubes : time done___3:59______ (clean break temp 31.70C; might be a bit milky?)
Raise temp to 330C over 10 minutes. (act temp at end of raising _33 in places, warmer/cooler in others_)
Wait, stirring occasionally to prevent matting 40 minutes: time at start___4:11______ at end _4:54__ (temp at end 33.1 – 33.3)
Rest 5 minutes
Drain curds through cheesecloth lined strainer.
Cut into 1 inch wide strips, rearrange in cheese cloth (to aid whey off)
Flip twice over 10 minutes.
Break into thumbnail size pieces (time at start of milling: _5:30 (had supper_)
Pressed at 5 kg 20 minutes (cleaning up) (6:00-6:20)
Removed from press, rubbed some salt all over, and pressed at 5 kg 10 minute (6:20 – 6:30)
Removed from press, rubbed some salt top and bottom, and pressed at 7.5 kg 20 minutes. 6:30-6:50
Removed from press, rubbed some salt top and bottom, and pressed at 7:5 kg over night.  7:00-11:00
Weighed cheese at 1532g (17-18 cm diam 6-7 cm height, which works out again to approx 1cm3/g)
(Sunday)
Placed in 18% brine solution (12 tbls in 1 litre) until next morning.
Air dry __3__ days, then moved to cheese cave (Wednesday, 6:50 pm)

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

I cut into this at 3 weeks, which I was planning on because it's been reported that this is a tasty cheese despite the young age.  And, it is.  It is a bit sour, and salty (the brine bath was probably unnecessary).  It's also full of mechanical holes, although the external rind looked like a good knit.  From reading this board I've realised that it's important to keep the curds warm during milling and salting, which I didn't know when I made this.  That's probably the primary cause of the holes.  The cheese is on the dry side, but not crumbly (which I understand caerphilly often is).  It weighed in at just over 1 kg (1014g) after 3 weeks in the cave, so it's lost around 500 g worth of moisture!  Anyway, I'll take some into work and wax 1/2 the wheel, which will allow me to age it further and try it again.  It's supposed to have quite a different character at 3 or 4 months, so we'll have to wait and see. 

Anyway, for my first pressed cheese I'm pleased with the result.

- Jeff

[Buck47]

Your Rind looks very nice. Congratulations 

Thanks for posting the photo.

[JeffHamm]

Thank you.  I air dried it for a few days, then it went in the cave (10C, humidity unknonwn I'm afraid).  I washed it every few days with a quite strong brine solution (close to saturated).

- Jeff

[Xnukwa]

Thanks for sharing your recipe, and the photos and details.  Look forward to trying this.

[OudeKaas]

As a newcomer to the hobby myself, I had to chuckle and identify with your timeline. I also began harder cheeses with a cheddar (needing 3-6 months or more), then a gouda (thinking min 2 months to taste), and then I was looking at these cheeses ageing and thinking I have nothing I can actually eat! I ended up making some fresh cheeses then to get me through.

Interested to hear how you treated your remaining pieces of the Caerphilly and how it tastes in a few months!

[JeffHamm]

Hi Brandnetel,

Yah, I figured it's probably a good idea to find out sooner, rather than later, if I'm doing things horribly wrong!  I've shared the caerphilly now with a fair number of people, and everyone has given it positive reviews.  A few people are familiar with caerphilly and say that this does resemble it - which is an outstanding success as far as I'm concerned given this is the first of my hard cheeses that I've cut into. 

As for the other half, I've just waxed it and will store it in the cave for a few months.  Will report on how it turns out as it happens.  I was worried it might be bitter, thinking I might have over renneted it, but nothing like that is happening.  It's got a "sourness" (in a good way) and saltiness to it, it's dry, but firm (I think caerphilly is normally more crumbly).  Basically, if you want something that is enjoyable in a few weeks, and isn't overly complicated to make, this seems a good one.  The next one I make of these I'm going to try Sailor's "pressing in the pot" method to see if I can get rid of the mechanical holes. 

- Jeff