Author Topic: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese  (Read 16727 times)

jillyphish

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #15 on: January 20, 2009, 01:48:57 AM »
These all look great.  Just this weekend, we bought some Cahill's Irish Cheddar with porter ale too!

My partner brews beer - and I'm starting up on the cheese making. We - like you - think the combination is a natural!  (and yes, to start, a ploughman's lunch will do just fine!)  :)

Looking forward to your findings!
Jill

jillyphish

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #16 on: January 20, 2009, 01:51:12 AM »
Oops - also meant to mention that if your experiments don't work out visually, you can melt them into a nice beer/cheese soup!  LOL

chilipepper

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #17 on: January 21, 2009, 06:15:48 PM »
Well I had a ploughman's lunch and a couple extra pints for good measure and took on the challenge of making one of these marbled cheeses... I'll start a new tread in the Cheddar forum with my results which are still in the press.  First off for a completely under experienced cheese head and maybe a little case of no fear (could have been that extra pint)... I fairly hopeful on this one... there was a lot of trial and error and pulling curds at different times to see if and how they would absorb the ale....

I'll hopefully get something up tomorrow after I get my pictures and notes sorted and the cheese out of the mold this evening.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #18 on: January 21, 2009, 07:36:35 PM »
Sweet thanks for taking on the experiment. I'll go check out the thread.

Tea

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2009, 08:47:01 PM »
Well you're ahead of me on this one, I was going to have a go this weekend.  So I think I will sit back and see what your experiements show, before I give this a burl.

Can't wait for the pics.

chilipepper

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #20 on: January 21, 2009, 11:24:54 PM »
Attempt #1 posted HERE.

Thanks to everyone for all the advice and lets keep this discussion going as I don't think we've touched the tip of what can all be accomplished with this style/technique!!

Cheese Head

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #21 on: February 08, 2009, 03:36:53 PM »
chilipepper & All

Just tripped across this ;D.

Six minute Video Interview of Dan Cahill of Ireland Cahill's Cheese on their Wine, Porter, and Whiskey Sharp Cheddar Cheeses.

I find the the video feed from that original website is poor, but it's also available - rebroadcast at
www.Howcast.com

Of interest is that video shows:
  • Cheeses being individually hand pressed.
  • Dan Cahill says they are Sharp Cheddar based.
  • Dan Cahill says @ 3:37 seconds that their Irish Porter Cheese uses jug/1 pint of Porter style Stout beer blended with soft curd.

chilipepper

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #22 on: February 08, 2009, 05:35:20 PM »
John, Thanks for that!  It is a great contribution to this thread.  They didn't give out too many trade secrets there but it certainly helps shed some light on the process.  I would really like to see how the curd looked before going into the molds and hand presses/mixed with the stout.  From most of the pictures there is such a curd size variance in the visible marbling of this cheese.  I suspect they must cut the cheddared curd rather than mill it and then cut it fairly randomly at that.

Anyway great find and thanks for sharing!

Cheese Head

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #23 on: February 08, 2009, 05:55:46 PM »
Ryan

Agree, not much videos etc inside the make room. Also agree, I think they somewhat randomly chop up fresh white cheddar (he says Sharp/Aged Cheddar in video).

Also, also, from the measuring Pyrex type jug of porter beer on make table, it looks like they manually add porter to the mix in the mold until they get the right consistency. This would mean that they don't separately combine presumably fine ground cheddar and porter to make the mortar, before adding to the chunks.

Lastly, I think they manually make each cheese with needing to ensure even distribution of large chunks and the mortar and to ensure that no voids.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #24 on: February 08, 2009, 07:17:56 PM »
I'm freakin' amazed at the obsure videos some of you find. Good job.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #25 on: February 09, 2009, 12:39:24 AM »
The best part is they show the actual part that was baffling most of us. At least we now know they just pour it in on soft curds and form by hand, probably so they don't break the curds and get the porter in the cheese but surrounding the cheese.

FRANCOIS

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #26 on: July 14, 2009, 02:42:28 AM »
This is hilarious.  here I have a team on cheesemakers trying to crack the cheese and the answer was on the forum if I just searched.  We are trying to find a way to repreocess off cuts to make better margins.  We had already thought that the cheese was made from cheddar and a soft cheese blended in.  I have two trials in the cooler now and will be running another tomorrow afternoon.

The problem we are having is that we are using a low protein/high mositure cheese, melted, to bind the chopped cheddar.  When it sets it's still rather soft.  I waxed a few, but I thinkwe will simply have to age them to get some moisture out.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #27 on: July 14, 2009, 02:53:23 AM »
There is a video on U-tube posted here somewhere about a britsh compnay making the porter cheddar cheese I think. Looks like the lady was adding beer to the mold and squishing the curds into it by layers. She fussed a good long while with the curds in the mold.

Cheese Head

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #28 on: January 10, 2010, 07:12:42 PM »
Bought some Irish Cahill's Porter cheese to try, nice sharp cheddar taste with of course porter-stout beer flavour.

chilipepper

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Re: Cahills Plain Porter Cheese
« Reply #29 on: January 10, 2010, 08:14:48 PM »
I'm going to have to give one of these a try again!  I had the sage derby which is the only stuff I can find around here.  Good post John and thanks for resurrecting this thread and my interest! ;)