Caerphilly #1 and #2

[Dragonfish]

So I've cut into my first attempts at a pressed cheese.  They aren't going to the chickens but there is room for improvement, as always.

#1 was started Dec. 16 with 2 gal. of raw goat milk using the recipe from web site, "Chickens in the Road" which I don't think is too different than the one in "200 Easy Cheeses".

All went well but being the first time I used a press, ( a spring press from NE Cheesemaking Supply that I have borrowed) I am sure I pressed too cold and with too much pressure at the beginning.  The knit was not great.  I decided to wax this cheese and to not wax Caerphilly #2.  You can see the lumps and bumps from the poor knit in this photo.  Waxing was another experience...haha. 

We cut into it 3 weeks after aging.  I aged it at 50 degrees in my small fridge/cave.  I only have room for 2 containers of water for the humidity and I was not able to get it over 70%.  Any suggestions for raising the humidity?  Would a wet towel changed daily be worth trying?

The cheese tasted ok, a bit dry and there was a few tiny spot of green moold under the wax.  No big deal to trim off.

Caerphilly #2 was started 12/19 also with raw goat milk - 3 gal. for a larger cheese.  I used all the good advice I found on the forum and obtained a much better knit.

Before going in the aging fridge it was developing a dry yellowish rind but after 5 days small black mold appeared.  I wiped the cheese with brine but ended up with a lot of colors of molds on the cheese.


I decided to cut into it today and it tastes pretty much the same as the first one.  Not bad, but dry.

Thoughts and comments will be greatly appreciated!  Thanks!

[dthelmers]

Looks like you got a good knit on #2, congratulations, a beautiful cheese! How is the taste? It looks like the texture/dryness I get when making this. It is by description a crumbly cheese, but it gets less so as it ages more. I like mine at six weeks, but not older. My last Caerphilly I increased the flocculation time a bit, and cut my curd a bit larger, to retain more moisture. It was much creamier and a great melter. Not true to style, but to my taste. I've not made one with goat milk, but I made one with half goat and half cow milk, and it was my favorite. I'm finding that brushing my rind is keeping the mold down better than the salt and vinegar rub. I use a nail brush.
As for humidity in the cave, I remember a thread where some one made a little humidifier with a computer fan and a cloth with one end in the water; anybody remember that?

[zenith1]

yeah Dave, I seem to remember that was Hande's innovation. I have a 16cu ft refrigerator that I picked up pretty cheaply. I added a $20 humidifier run through a ZooMed HygroTherm to control the humidity. Works pretty nicely. I can keep the range right where it needs to be and the ~1 gallon capacity of the humidifier lasts > 3 weeks.

[JeffHamm]

That looks very nice!  Like Dave, I brush my natural rinds with a nail brush and that seems to help a fair bit.  For the first while, I was getting a lot of black spots on my cheeses, but lately that seems to have stopped and I'm not sure why.  I think it had stopped before I started brushing - I started that to keep wild geo in check - so I'm not sure.  Anyway, I found it was only surface, and didn't penetrate into the cheese or seem to affect the flavour, so apart from it looking bad, it wasn't a problem.  Of course, I've been using store bought cow's milk, so we're talking apples and aeroplanes here!  

Anyway, congratulations on what looks to be a couple of successful first hard cheese makes. 

- Jeff

[Dragonfish]

Thank you!  I do have a nail brush and I didn't even think to use it.  So having all those colors isn't such a bad thing?  I didn't know what would happen if I aged it any longer.

As for taste, it is mild but tasty.  It slices and does not crumble, but it is a dry cheese.  I put some in scrambled eggs this morning and it didn't melt but it tasted good.

I've never had a Caerphilly so I wouldn't know how it is supposed to taste. 

[Boofer]

As for humidity in the cave, I remember a thread where some one made a little humidifier with a computer fan and a cloth with one end in the water; anybody remember that?

It may not be what you were thinking of, but here's what I did early on:

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2010.msg41660.html#msg41660

-Boofer-

[dthelmers]

Thanks, Boofer; that's the one I was thinking of.