3 goat cheeses.

[gasblender]

Aka Saint Marcellin.
1) 4 weeks without ash.
2) 3 weeks with ash.
3) 2 weeks with ash.

[Oberhasli]

I think they look great!  Let us know how they taste!

Bonnie

[mainelycheese]

I just put my curds in the molds tonight for this cheese. First time here. Hope mine look even half as good as yours!

[iratherfly]

They look great but why do you call them St. Marcellin? That's a tiny semi-lactic cow's milk cheese that is so runny and such thin rind - it needs a ceramic dish to hold it together for shipping. No ash is ever used in it.

If anything, this looks more like a Selles sur Cher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selles-sur-Cher_%28cheese%29)

Did you make them at 3 different batches? Or just ashed them at different time and they are all the same batch?  Would love to see one opened up!

Anyway, nice looking stuff!

[mtncheesemaker]

Yoav, I am making some of these little ceramic containers to try and make the St. Marcellin. Do you have a general recipe for the cheese? Also, is it aged in the ceramic cup or put there after aging?
Pam

[gasblender]

OK It was my mistake to assign any name to these cheeses.
They are from three different batches. First was without ash and two others with it.
10 L raw goat milk.
MA4002, PC Abl, rennet: 2 tips of a knife of the Ranco dry calf rennet.
In general: semilactic coagulation (12-16 hours) at 73F.
Draining in molds for 24 hours.
Dry salting (with- or without ash).
Drying for 48 hours at room temp.
Pate is rigid, but with aging becomes "melted" from the rind.
I'll try to make the photo tonight.
Now I'm trying to do smth like this: http://www.chevre.com/clasblulog.html
If you have any tips... Please...

[iratherfly]

My advice is first to change your starter to MM100 for this particular cheese.  Your make sounds very proper.  The blue goat's log is considered kind of gimmicky by many. It doesn't really have the blue cheese character and it's almost only looks. P.Roq is acid sensitive and semi-lactic/lactic is pretty much as acidic as you can get. What they do is wait for a rind to bloom (geo, yeast, maybe PC), then they spray tons of P.Roq on it and let it set foot.

I have done a reversed version of it and it was very difficult. These are goat's cheese lollipops. They age like Crottins but there is one line of blue going towards the center. It took me a long time to figure it out. One of the reasons is that the combination of the natural lipase sharpness, the citrucy flavor of the semi lactic goats and the blue can really intensify towards the bitter.

[gasblender]

Cut of the 6 weeks old cheese with ash. ripened pate is not "melted".

[gasblender]

One more cheese. This one was pre-drained in a bag & packed in small size apperitif moulds. 5 weeks.

[mtncheesemaker]

How do they taste? They look good.

[iratherfly]

Love the round one, looks like a mini Bucheron. You should cut it like a Bucheron too; each round slice is cut to wedges. Great way to serve it.

What temp are you aging it? How big is your ashed wheel?.  Slap some ash in the middle, call it Humboldt Fog

By the way, you seem to be using lots of ash, you can probably save yourself half of it. The french typically wither sprinkle it lightly from a strainer/sifter very high up above the cheese, or they put their hands in the ash and then gently pat the cheese (enough ash remains on their skin or latex glove to ash it sufficiently), or they make a paste of ash with lots of water (or whey). They take a soft brush, dip it in it and then lightly smear the cheese.  Your ash is not over the top but if you go too far with it than it will be felt in the mouth as if it was some very fine sand. It may also color the teeth of whomever tastes it which could be embarrassing...

[gasblender]

2 Pam
I find it difficult to describe the taste of any cheese. Even in my native language. But they tastse great.

2 iratherfly
Cheese is so small that there is nothing to cut. (Mould: Aperitif size, 50gram cheese, cylindrical, fresh style. Top inside diameter: 1.8 inches (45 mm), bottom inside diameter 1.6 in. (40 mm), height: 1.95 inches (50 mm)). A couple of times bitten and cheese over. I have 12 such Moulds. Ordered 12 more from Steve Shapson.
First week passes at room temp (+-70F). After the complete formation of the P.c. mold I wrap them in clear cellophane and move in a modified refrigerator with a temperature of + - 47F.
Thanks for the tips on how to use the ash.  :)I'm really somewhat overdone.

[iratherfly]

Gasblender, yes; I got such molds from a cheesemaking supplier in Israel. I am using them for the smaller (45g-60g) Crottin. 70F seems very high and 47F seems kind of low... (but this is why you get a micro Bucheron and not Crottin...)  If you modified the refrigerator, why not keep it at cave temperature of about 55F?  Age the cheese there and then move it to a normal refrigerator in an aging container.  There is really no need to wrap. Steve Shapson had convinced too many home cheesemakers to wrap their cheese...  I suppose it sells lots of cellphone but it is unnecessary and more often than never just destroys the rind and causes the PC to recede or the cheese to ammoniate prematurely.  Do it like the French do; just tap lightly, rub gently and turn - once a day.

As for describing cheese, well just like wine cheese too has a commonly used vocabulary of descriptive terms that everyone use. Pick the right words and everyone would know what you mean: Citrucy, Sweet, Acidic, Barnyardy, Grassy, Nutty, Mushroom, Cellar, Musty, Smoky, Brittle, Flaky, Creamy, Tangy, sharp, peppery, ammonia, alkaline, mineral, chalky, dry, moist, lemony, aromatic, floral, fruity... Nothing too complicated; simple English.  It is helpful to read up about similar cheese and see what authors have been using to describe it so that you can see if you feel the same way.  Murray's for example describe Crottin as "lush and creamy with lemony, earthy, tangy, lactic flavors." Artisanal describes it as "Mild, milky and creamy with hints of citrus." Formaggio describes is as "lemony and tangy when young, growing more intense as it matures." Culture Magazine describes it as "bright and citrus-like when young, with a hint of minerals, grass and hay. Flavors intensify with age, becoming more animal-like, with aromas of cellar and earth." - so as you can see, there is a consensus that this type of flavor profile is usually refereed to as "citrucy" by most.  Describe it that way and people will know what you mean.

Pam, I am going to follow up shortly with a traditional St. Marcellin formula.

[mainelycheese]

Not to go too far off topic, but those little apertif molds, do you have to use cheesecloth with them? I saw that glengarry carries them and wondered. How many of those molds can you fill with a gallon batch?

[iratherfly]

mainelycheese - No! They are so tiny that there is no way to put cheesecloth in them without taking up 3/4 of the space with cloth rather than curd...  They are perfectly dense to take on cut or ladled curd and drain it just right naturally.  They yield cheese that is 45g-60g (1.5-2oz, this is the size of an espresso shot, to give you proportion; imagine lining up an espresso cup with cheesecloth, REALLY tiny!).

Okay Pam, I have never made St. Marcellin but I collected data from various sources which confirmed pretty much the same recipe.  This is not an AOC cheese so the recipe is liberal and can dramatically change from one producer to another, so nothing is set in stone here.  Please note that there are twi derivitives of this cheese; The first is Saint Félicien which is nothing more than a double-size Saint Marcellin (same height approximately, but larger diameter, also sold in terracota dishes). The second is Pitchou, a young Saint Marcelin from pasteurized milk, marinated whole in grapeseed oil with Herbes de Provence with salt and maybe some peppercorns.

You do not use the terracotta dishes to age the cheese. St. Marcellin ages on a grille configuration (which gives it those trademark indentations).  It is a rather delicate cheese with thin rind and a very gooey pate. It is a bit too gentle for shipping and stacking in stores, (especially as it grows ripe) so the clay dish is a perfect packaging which protects it as well as stabilizes the moisture very well.  It is mostly however a very effective marketing ploy and branding element. Some industrial examples that arrive in plastic packaging.

The formula:
This is a semi lactic cheese, but you would use more rennet, slightly higher temp and shorter time here than you would with Chaource or Crottin. You can make it more tangy by reducing the temperature to the 68-72F range, cutting the ripening culture dose in half but extending the milk ripening time to 24 hours.  It shouldn't be a very tangy cheese. It's more about creamy and gooey, salty with a hint of milky sweetness and sometimes light mushroomy notes.

• 2 Gal Non-homogenized Cow's milk - bring to 75F
• Pre-ripen milk with
  • 1/4 tsp MM100
  • 1/8 tsp Geo 15
  • 1/8 tsp PC (I suggest 'Neige' because it grows very fast in such conditions)
  Let reconstitute for 5 minutes, then mix thoroughly, let rest for 30 min.
• Dilute 1/8 tsp rennet in 1/3 cup water, combine
• Ripen in room temperature for 12-15 hours. You can cover to protect temp and block dust and contaminates.
• Cut curd large, let whey release for a few minutes, then Ladle into St. Marcelin molds in rotation, topping them off. A proper St. Marcelin size would be produced is 700ml of curd (24 Fl. Oz) in the mold
• Let drain freely in the molds for 6 hours. Flip the cheese and salt only the top of the cheese. Drain for another 6 hours, then flip the cheese again and salt the new top. Let drain for a 3rd 6-hour period
• Remove from molds and set on cheese drying mat. Leave at room temp for 24 hours
• Flip and move the cheese to the cave, still on the ripening mat (not in an aging box). They need to continue drying for a 2nd 24 hour period but in low temp and lower humidity: 60F @ 70% RH
• Move to aging container, set them on a grille configuration (they need the open air, a mesh mat would trap too much moisture). Age for 14 days at the same 60F but raise humidity to 85% RH. Flip daily. Having some blue showing up is apparently normal. This is a Geo-rich cheese so you should aspire to get a creamy looking moist rind that is not overly covered with thick dry PC flora

When ready, move to terracotta dishes and cover with cellophane. (perforated cellophane is best). Move to refrigerator. It should store nicely for a few weeks with such packaging.

Wanna make one together? This seems like an easy fun cheese.