Lancashire Cheese Making Recipe > Bandaging Discussion

[george]

My Knox Blox are slightly more stuck together, but not by much.

Smiling, I was GOING to press mine that night, but I fell asleep.  Ack.  And then I had to press it in the unheated dining room since I don't have clear access to the kitchen on Sundays - it had been on a shelf in my closet, probably around 70 degrees, and then went into the press in the 50-or-so-degree dining room.  So other than already being too dry, the cold certainly didn't help the knit.  I went ahead and vac'd it after a few days air-drying - all those crevices made me nervous.  Next one I'll put straight into the press per Sailor's method.  I do very much like the idea of a cheddar-like substance that's good right at 60 days (or even 30, according to Easy Cheeses).

(Not sure if I'm guilty of hijacking here, but thought it was better to not have two threads going on the same subject in the same timeline?  Sorry if I'm wrong.) 

[MrsKK]

George, I think you stole my Lancashire!   Mine is still in the ripening container and isn't looking too bad.  Surprisingly enough, it has only developed a slight fuzz occasionally and I've been able to remove it with salt and vinegar.

I'll use Sailor's method next time, too.

[morfeo]

Hi-

I think this cheese will be fun to do, I'm planing to use this recipe that I found on the forum to do the Lancashire cheese

Lancashire cheese

Ingredients:
1 gallon of whole milk
½ pint of active  buttermilk
4 oz. plain active yogurt ( I used Danon)
1 oz.  kosher salt
Rennet

Procedure:
Bring milk up to 88°F  or 31°C
Shake up the buttermilk and add it to the milk and stir vigorously.
Take some milk and mix well with the yougurt then add to the the pot.
Mix  rennet per instructions add to the milk and stir well.
Cover and leave for 90 minutes at 88°F  or 31°C  until a clean break is achieved.
Once a clean break is achieved cut the curds into 1/4 inch cubes.
Gently slide lift the curds upwards so that they turn over, cutting any big ones that you find.
Leave the curds covered at 88°F  or 31°C  for 30 minutess.
After 30 minutes the curds should have sunk below the whey. Drain of the whey until it is just covering the curds and leave it sit for another 30 minutes stirring gently so they don’ t matt together.
Put some cheese cloth into the colander and gently scoop the curds into the colander to drain.
Tie the corners and hang curds to drain for 30 minutes.
Press this for two hours at about 10 pounds pressure.
Unwrap your curds and break up into cherry sized pieces then add the salt.
Place the curd in your mould and press with 10 pounds of pressure for several days turning at least 4 times the first day.
After three days the cheese can be removed from the mould and aged or eaten fresh. I recommend a minimum of 3 months - 6 months is better!

My question is:
The recipe says that it should be pressed for 3 days. Does the temperature of the room matters???
My house is usually 75F I don't know if I leave the cheese at that temperature for 3 days it will be spoil or to acid.

[george]

George, I think you stole my Lancashire!   Mine is still in the ripening container and isn't looking too bad.  Surprisingly enough, it has only developed a slight fuzz occasionally and I've been able to remove it with salt and vinegar.

I'll use Sailor's method next time, too.

Depending on how much milk I get next week, I might do it again mid-week or so.  At the moment I've got my first batch of cams bloomin' away, and a couple of bries (I got lazy a couple of weeks ago and wanted really fast makes).  So other than trying to get up a stash of cheddars (flavored or no), another Lancashire seems the best way to go right now.  While I would dearly love to start trying to duplicate those Stiltons, I'm still afraid of the pervasive p. roqueforti everywhere - or at least not till I sterilize my cave from the LAST batch!

I'll keep ya posted.  No pun intended.   

[steampwr8]

To any one here. I am wondering what the yogurt, a thermophilic culture, brings to the cheese aging and flavor profile since we don't ever raise the temperature into the higher range to get it active.

[smilingcalico]

Hey Steam, I believe I recall reading that the thermophilic is active albeit more slowly, and that it can work better in higher acidity than mesophilic can.  Anybody, correct me if I'm not recalling correctly. 

[MrsKK]

I replied in the other thread where you asked this.  The Lancashire recipe doesn't call for yogurt, the culture is either mesophilic or buttermilk...

[smilingcalico]

MrsKK, if you look back in this thread, the recipe I made my Lancashire from is an old traditional Lancashire, and includes both meso and thermo cultures.

[MrsKK]

Sorry, I read your question in the other thread first and looked back at the recipe on that one!

I think you got a pretty good answer from Sailor on the other thread.

[smilingcalico]

I'll post pics soon of this, but as I just spent a half hour typing and adding pics on my phone, all to have it disappear, I'll just do a quick write up here.

I was going to hold out till the 7th this month to unwrap the cheese, but I just couldn't wait!  There was a fair bit of blue mold and geo on the cloth (which I'd buttered a second time on it's 30th day).  Underneath I found the same blue mold on the rind, but happily it went no further. 

The rind was thin.  There were no surface cracks whatsoever.  The paste inside was also perfectly knit.  The texture was moist for the most part, with just a hint of dry.  I don't have another Lancashire to compare this to, so I don't know if I'm spot on or not.  I couldn't see it in the photo's but up close, you could see at least 2 different days worth of curds (remember it was a three day make).

As for taste, there's a quick hit of cheddar tang, which mellows fast, but the finish is long and creamy.  This was from goats milk, but I didn't notice any goatiness (though I like that taste, so may not have noticed it).

I don't regret having improperly bandaged it.  I think it turned out quite well.  I will try a proper bandage next time however, to see if I can keep the blue from growing under the cloth in the first place. 

All in all I'd say it was a successful make.  Perhaps I'll post again when I decide to open the second wheel.  I still recommend this cheese to the home cheesemaker who doesn't have the equipment to make a larger wheel all in one shot.  And judging by the way the three day old curds smelled, to how the cheese tastes now, it's very forgiving!

Thanks to all who've been following this thread!

[smilingcalico]

1. Clothbound and moldy
2. Unwrapping
3. Unwrapped, some mold on the rind
4. The inside

[george]

I was going to hold out till the 7th this month to unwrap the cheese, but I just couldn't wait!

You know, I was going to noodge you about this to find out how it was, but then I went back to the beginning of the thread and realized you said you were going to wait 3 months, so resigned myself to waiting along with you.  So is it inappropriate to say I'm glad you jumped the gun?   

Anyway - very happy it came out well.  Someday I'll most likely get around to doing it your way with the 3-day curds - now that you've done all the experimenting for me.   

[smilingcalico]

I have a second one still ageing, hopefully it will last 3 months! I am still practicing trying to get patience! I wish I could do the 3 day make at work, but with the make schedule, it would never work out. This'll have to be a special home make only.

[smilingcalico]

I have lazily been eating through this cheese and finally took a picture that captures the mixed curds.  The cheese, by the way, isn't yellow, that's the glow from the sun.  This is goat milk, so the paste is actually white.  I still have the second cheese from the make, and it'll probably not get opened for a while as I've been eating lots of Gouda and Feta.