Author Topic: 4th Caerphilly  (Read 9784 times)

JeffHamm

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4th Caerphilly
« on: September 03, 2011, 06:53:37 AM »
Hi,

Well, I've decided to make another Caerphilly.  I just got 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes, and this is the first cheese I'm making from it.  I noticed the Caerphilly make is quite different from the version I'm used to following (which is from Tim Smith's book, making artisan cheese).  Anyway, this version doesn't include any stacking or milling of the curd.  I'm curious to see how it turns out.  The one thing I've learned recently is that apparently it is best to add the Calcium Chloride with the rennet rather than with the starter.  I got a great curd set this time, and I think it was a better than usual so maybe that helped?  Anyway, I blew it on the heating over 30 minutes phase and reached temp in about 10 minutes or so.  I've normally done well with that, but I tried doing it a different way this time (in the double boiler rather than in the sink) and it got out of control.  Oh well.

Anyway, here are the make notes.  It's in the press right now, so tomorrow morning it goes into the brine.  Will get a photo before it goes in.  From the look of it during the flipping, it should be a good knit.

Caerphilly (fr: 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipies): Saturday, Sept 3, 2011 (overcast, cool, < 18C)
10 L Home brand Standard
0.6 ml rennet
½ tsp CaCl
2 ice cubes Flora Danica (started prep around 12:15)

1)   Warm to 32 C
2)   Add starter, ripen 30 min (start time: 12:45 end time:1:15 start temp: 32.1C: end Temp: 31.8 C)
3)   Stir in CaCl in egg cup of water
4)   Stir in Rennet in egg cup of water (Time: 1:18  Temp: 31.7 C)
5)   Floc time 11 min 30 sec.  3x multiplier = cut after 34 min 30 seconds (AT 6min30sec, had to lift pot out of sink as temp heating too much ; at 32.5C; book says cut at 45 min)
6)   Cut into 1.25 cm (1/2 inch) cubes (great curd!)
7)   Let curds stand 5 min to firm up (start time: 2:05 end time : 2:10 temp: 32.5 C)
8)   Slowly warm to 35 C over 30 minutes (start time: 2:10 end  2:20  end temp: 36.4 C ) too fast
9)   Hold at temp for 45 minutes (start time: 2:20 end time: 3:15  end temp: 34.6 C ) (add time from step 8)
10)   Drain whey
11)   Transfer curds to cloth lined mold
12)   Medium pressure (10 kg) 30 minutes (start time:3:35 end time: 4:15 ) (in pot)
13)   Flip redress, press 30 min (10 kg 0.7 psi : 4:15 – 4:45) (in pot)
14)   Flip redress, press overnight (20 kg = 1.4 psi )
15)   Place in saturated brine (24 hours)
16)   Air dry 2 or 3 days
17)   Age 3 weeks at 10-12 C, 85% humidity.

darius

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2011, 01:24:19 PM »
Uses only Flora Danica? The recent recipes I've tried had half FD, half regular meso...

I'll be watching!

Offline fied

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2011, 02:59:08 PM »
A neat recipe! I've noted this in 200 Cheese and mean to try it. The method I use is to cut into 1" curds and add salt to  them prior to pressing and I only press to c. 25lb per 2 imperial gallons of milk in a 6" press because I like Caerphilly to be a little curdy and crumbly.

The current one we're tasting was a bit of a disaster. I was showing my husband how to make the cheese in a cheesecloth with weights on top of a board and this method means the cheese knot has to be tightened at intervals up to final pressing. My husband was attempting to hold the cheese tight while tightening the knot, used too much force and the whole cheese crumbled! I managed to get it back together again, but there were some deep cracks in the sides and I knew there would be early trouble with blue mould because Glasgow has a naturally high relative humidity. After fighting the mould for a month, I gave up, cut off the blued parts of the rind and decanted the cheese to the fridge to be eaten. The taste and texture are fine, if too young for me - I like it at about 8 weeks. Lesson learned: husbands may need to be sent on a cheese-making course.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2011, 03:04:40 PM by fied »

Offline pliezar (Ian)

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2011, 06:16:57 PM »
Hi Jeff,

The 200 cheeses recipe is the one that I had used, heavily modified with stuff from you and Greening with Gavin.  I did notice that it did not have the stacking of the curd and it said brine instead of salting the milled curd, I am interested to see the results and know the how the different process effects texture and flavour. My wife has requested I make another one soon.

On a side note, I am glad to see that the little one has not interrupted you cheese making too much.  I hope I can use you as an example for when our "Daughter" (Doc is 80% sure it is a girl), to prove that it can be done, as my wife has said that cheese making should halt after the birth.

Cheers,

Ian


JeffHamm

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2011, 06:47:27 PM »
Hi All,

Darius, you're correct, the book calls for a 50/50 mix, but I only have Flora Danica.  I really should pick up something else, but this works ok.  So far, all my cheese making has used only two cultures (FD for meso, and a thermo, whose name escapes me at the moment).

Hi Fied.  I've tended to get more mechanical holes in my caerphilly (but made by salting the curds, and stacking and milling, etc), so I tend to go for heavier weights than the books call.  This still only ends up at around 1.4 psi once I'm up to 20 kg, so it's still quite low pressure.  That reminds me, must pick up another 10 kg worth of weights.

And Ian.  It is possible to make cheese with a little one.  A lot of cheesemaking, as you know, is waiting time.  So, during the waiting (as apposed to weighting) you look after little one, then during the make times, you hand off.  It is best to concentrate on relatively simple, hard pressed cheeses  I think, as the more attention demanding cheeses (stiltons, etc) are probably not a great idea. 

Oh, and here's the cheese.  It weighed in at 1438g after the press, but before the brining.  That's very typical for the weights I've had before (which were roughly 1.3, 1.5, and 1.4 kg).  So, it's not retained more moisture than other makes.  Should be interesting when the final results are in.

- Jeff

JeffHamm

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2011, 08:37:02 PM »
Oh, and today was Father's Day in New Zealand and I was given a vaccuum bag sealer!  I've tried sealing up a piece of Dunlop to age that out longer.  Some air seems to keep sneaking back in when I go to do the final seal, but hopefully I'll improve on my technique.  Anyway, I'll probably seal up some of the caerphilly as well, once it's aged a few weeks.

- Jeff

JeffHamm

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2011, 10:22:11 PM »
Hmm,

Looking at the brining time, 20-24 hours seems a bit long for a roughly 3 lb cheese.  I think the brine solution in the book, however, is 18% and I have a saturated one.  Based on a rule of thumb guide I got from this site, brine time is calculated around 1 hour per lbs per inch of height, which would suggest something more like 8-9 hours brining.  The longer brine time isn't limited to this cheese (as caerphilly is often on the salty side), so I suspect it has to do with the use of an 18% solution.

I think I'll reduce my brine time to 12 hours, as all my other cheeses of this size that I've brined in saturated brine have been for 12 hours.  Any thoughts?

- Jeff

Offline pliezar (Ian)

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2011, 10:41:45 PM »
Jeff,

the length of time in the brine has been my only complaint with that book, that and sometimes the author left out how long to culture the milk.   I usually only brine for about 12 hours using the recipes from 200 cheeses.  I think you are on the right track with that.

Ian

JeffHamm

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2011, 11:28:12 PM »
Hi Ian,

I just double checked and indeed, it indicates an 18% brine solution (the tip on page 223).  And, the tip to make this is 1 part salt to 5 parts water, but it doesn't say if the parts are by volume or weight.  By weight, you would have 1 of 6 parts salt, which is 16.67%, which is close enough that I suspect that's what's intended.  That would be a much lower concentation than fully saturatred, which is somewhere around 25% I believe?  Also, the book lists 20 hours, not 24 (oops!).  Interestingly, 20 hours times 0.1667 gives us 3.33 (time multipled by concentration producing a "constant", then perhaps we can reverse calculate by constant divided by new concentation to get the new time).  That would mean 3.33 divided by 0.25, ending up with 13 1/3 hours.  Hmmm, there might be something to this, though I suspect my "salt hours" constant overly simplifies the process.

- Jeff

JeffHamm

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2011, 11:34:40 PM »
Ooops, I took the value for the wrong salt!  apparently, at 20 C, you can dissolve 36g of sodium chloride in 100 ml of water.  that gives a solution of 136g, and 36g salt in 136g solution, is just over 26%.  My 25% was from using the 34g for potassium chloride.  Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this at all is because with the new values the new estimated brine time drops from 13 1/3 hours to about 12 1/2 hours, which is much closer to the time we've both indicated. 

- Jeff

P.S. Note also, if you used 20 * 18%, using the 18% soluation that the book tells you, then the above conversion would end up at about 13.6 hours, so an extra hour in the saturated brine.  This, of course, assuming this sort of equivalence "works".  Nothing in cheesemaking seems to be quite so straight forward though.  But as a rule of thumb this appears to be a workable rule.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2011, 06:32:12 AM by JeffHamm »

JeffHamm

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #10 on: September 04, 2011, 06:16:35 AM »
Ok, out of the brine now.  After 12 hours in the brine it now weighs 1394g, so it's lost about 44g.  Now, the waiting begins.  Fortunately, this one doesn't take too long to sample.  But 3 weeks isn't tomorrow either. 

- Jeff

dthelmers

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2011, 02:04:44 AM »
Jeff,
I've made 7 or 8 of these from the same book, using straight Flora Danica or MM100, and they've come out pretty good. The brining time makes for a rather salty cheese, but I'm supposing that it's true to style. I've heard that the miners used to eat this wrapped in a cabbage leaf, and I suppose that would mitigate the saltiness.
Dave in CT

JeffHamm

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #12 on: September 07, 2011, 03:04:09 AM »
Hi Dave,

Thanks for that.  I've made caerphilly 3 other times, but using a different make procedure where the curds are stacked, milled, then salted before pressing.  I quite like it, and I'm curious to see how this make compares in flavour.  I'll probably like it as well, just wonder if the taste will be the same or if they will seem like different cheeses. 

Hmmmm, I should have made one of the others as well. 

- Jeff

JeffHamm

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #13 on: September 29, 2011, 04:23:02 AM »
Hi,

Ok, having finished up a butterkase the other day it's time to test the caerphilly.  This one is about 26 days, so it's a young cheese but my previous experience with this is that it's quite good after three weeks.  I've followed a different make routine this time, so I'm curious to see the difference (a series of commercials from my youth is now haunting me).  Anyway, I put this in the cave a bit earlier than usual, and the rind is much softer and less developed than previous cheeses.  It's remained fairly easy to care for, with a few high salt wipe downs and the occasional brushing to remove early spots, but generlly well behaved.  It's a bit crumbly, which is good for this cheese.  It cut easily, and the internal knit looks good. 

Had a small taste when a piece of "crumbly" fell off.  It's got a tang, which is also promising.  Anyway, once it warms up a bit we'll have a proper taste and post a report.

Oh yes, and before I cut into it I weighed it at 1142g.  So a decent size from a 10 L make.

- Jeff

JeffHamm

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Re: 4th Caerphilly
« Reply #14 on: September 29, 2011, 04:34:40 AM »
Ok, so the waiting for it to warm up got vetoed and we've had a taste.  Very nice.  Creamy texture, and slightly salty but certainly not overly so.  It has a tang to it, which my wife thinks is quite mild but I find it to be quite noticable (but not excessive).  It is most definately a different flavour profile to the Butterkase (which is good of course).  I'm very pleased with it.  It is a bit different from the other makes I've done, but it's hard to tell how much of that is due to my increasing experinece and improvement with basic skills and how much to the different make process. 

Anyway, I quite like this.  I'm planning on replacing the butterkase this weekend.  I'll probably make another caerphilly once this one is gone too.  Maybe try a buttermilk/flora danica mix?

- Jeff