Author Topic: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)  (Read 21157 times)

Offline Boofer

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Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« on: February 05, 2012, 06:30:53 PM »
I've been a little reluctant to add anything to my curds for fear of corrupting the cheese and relegating the expense and effort to the garbage bin. I finally bit the bullet and committed to this cheese. It offers some variety to my little cave effort.

There are two spellings for this cheese style: Leiden and
click here>Leyden Sally
    Kind of stretching here.... 8)

The recipe I followed was from 200 Easy Cheeses.

Note: Edited thread title to correct spelling of cheese per member hoeklijn.

Calibrated Exstik PH100.

4 gallons Twin Brook Creamery whole creamline milk (pH 6.76)
1/4 tsp Aroma B (meso)
1 tsp CACL diluted in cool distilled water
1/16 tsp Renco dry calf rennet
1 TBS cumin seeds, boiled in 2 cups water, allowed to sit covered overnight to soften

8:00AM - pH 6.57 @ 85F <<== dropped from 6.76...Wow!!
No preripening here. Added 1 cup of the cumin seed liquid, culture, allowed to rehydrate, stirred it in.
Added CACL and rennet, stirred in.

8:27AM - floc'd in 20 minutes; I'm using 3.5x so that's 70 min to wait.

9:40AM - pH 6.55 @82.8F; cut the curds to 1/2 inch; rested 10 min.

9:50AM - Whisked down to 1/4 inch...recipe said "navy bean"; rested 10 min.

10:00AM - Stirred and began to raise temp.

10:05AM - Removed 1 gallon whey in two actions, saved 1/2 gal for whey-brine.

10:10AM - Replaced lost whey with 140F water to raise temp to 98F; stirring.

10:20AM - Curds @ 98F; held at that temp, stirring, for 20 min; let curds settle.

10:40AM - Drained whey; added cumin seeds and rest of liquid on top of curds; mixed in by hand.

10:50AM - Put the curds into the prepared mold with Plyban; seeds had fallen through curds to bottom of pot. I had to collect them and press them with spread fingers into the molded curd mass to distribute them.

11:00AM - Pressed under whey, using my Dutch press with just the weight of the lever arm and piston (11lbs) for 30 min.

11:35PM - Rewrapped and pressed under whey for another 30 min.

12:10PM - Drained whey, rewrapped and pressed with 5lb and 2 pulleys (which delivers ~ 1.9psi) for 4 hours.

4:15PM - pH 5.56 - Rewrapped and pressed @ 1.9psi.

11:00PM - pH 5.15 - Removed from press; into whey-brine in refrigerator.

2/5/2012
5:00AM - Flipped and back into the brine.

10:00AM - Out of brine to air-dry at room temperature; 11 hour brine.

I reduced the 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds down to one. Even that may be a little much. I do believe the overnight soak helped to soften the seeds. The knit seems decent although there are a few Plyban marks. Those will probably fade with wiping, washing, and rubbing. The Plyban does stick a little, but it doesn't wedge itself into the curd like muslin or cheesecloth. It sticks lightly to the outside of the cheese. Nice stuff.

-Boofer-
« Last Edit: June 26, 2017, 11:35:53 PM by Boofer »
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Offline Boofer

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Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2012, 03:45:45 PM »
There wasn't much whey leakage since it came out of the brine. The pressing obviously expressed a lot of the residual moisture from the wheel.

This morning it joined the ranks of Tomme #5 and Tilsit #2 in the white cave. I'll let it sit in there for a week or so for additional drying. I think the rind should be fairly clean so I'm thinking once it has had a little time in the cave, I'll vacuum-bag it. The recipe calls for a double layer of wax.

I don't have much information about the care and feeding of a Leyden. We'll see how it fares.

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Iezzo

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2012, 05:11:20 PM »
I just recently received a wedge of Leyden (for my second monthly cheese).  Ironically enough, I just watched a Discovery channel episode entailing a few cheese histories, this particular one being rumored that the first instance of cumin use was actually a mistaken sandwich crust dropped in the batch.  I digress.  When I first tried Leyden, I found the flavor rather complex and the cumin fighting for superiority.  After I got through roughly half the wedge, the other flavors began to show themselves; nutty and mildly buttery (which is surprising due to the traditionally lower fat milk base).

The jury is still out on this particular cheese for me but if you are looking to add depth to your cave repertoire, Leyden is defiantly going to accomplish it.  It looks like a beautiful wheel and I wish you luck with it's maintenance. 

As an aside, it doesn't appear like copious cumin was added to your make which I may like better; my sample wedge was riddled with seed, so I'm leaning toword another brand (preferably with less cumin) so as to ruminate fairly.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2012, 10:10:25 PM by Iezzo »

anutcanfly

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2012, 05:41:05 PM »
I am very interested in knowing the outcome of this cheese.  I can't even begin to imagine what it will taste like!  :)

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2012, 03:57:36 AM »
Looks great hon. One thing I will say is this cheese gets really stong (cumin) if you leave it age for more than about  months. might be okay if you are a huge cumin fan but i am not. i found the same recipe is better with toasted seseme seeds.

Offline Boofer

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2012, 07:18:13 AM »
As an aside, it doesn't appear like copious cumin was added to your make which I may like better; my sample wedge was riddled with seed,
The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of cumin seed. I tasted and compared caraway seeds and cumin seeds. The cumin was a little bitter but I wanted to get closer to the true style so I used the cumin, cutting the amount in half. I didn't want a teaspoon of seed in every bite but I did want flavor.

I didn't use partly-skimmed milk but went with whole creamline which should produce a richer, slightly off-style cheese.

Debi steered me to a description that calls for the rind to be colored red/red-brown with annatto. That would make it interesting. It also talked about saving back some curds without seed so that the top and bottom flat rind faces could be made without seeds. No I didn't do that.

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Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2012, 03:02:45 AM »
Ah but it looks so kewl when you cut it Boofer!

Offline Boofer

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2012, 08:00:10 PM »
Well, I did try to dye the rind as per the big boys, but the milk fat said "No, you're kidding, right?". It has a little darker complexion, but not like the ones Debi steered me to. Eh!?

Today seemed like a good day to bag it up. So it joined my Tomme #5 and Tilsit #3. It's a party!  8)

-Boofer-
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anutcanfly

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2012, 08:53:35 PM »
Party?? Cool, I'll be right over!  :P

kookookachoo

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #9 on: March 20, 2012, 01:39:28 AM »
Just saw this, Boofer!  I absolutely love cumin.  One of my favorite recipes is a variation of keftah a friend in college taught me to make....the kids absolutely love it (cooked in sauce with potato slices on top)..and it's heavy on cumin.  I've got my tomme & probably butterkase to make tomorrow, so I may try this for the weekend!!  Looks good, too. 

Offline Boofer

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #10 on: March 29, 2012, 07:55:21 PM »
I can't be entirely certain, but it looks like I'm getting a little swelling in this wheel. I believe I was targeting the middle of April to cut this cheese.  Very curious.

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anutcanfly

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #11 on: March 29, 2012, 09:30:39 PM »
Now here is a cheese obviously puffed up with pride.  You spent all you're time sweet talking this one!  That's why you're other cheese died!  A broken heart for sure!  ;)

Offline Boofer

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #12 on: March 29, 2012, 10:43:16 PM »
Now here is a cheese obviously puffed up with pride.  You spent all you're time sweet talking this one!  That's why you're other cheese died!  A broken heart for sure!  ;)
Wait a minute! I have a dead cheese? Okay, where is it? Lemme look behind the sofa....

Oh yeah, there's that smell. No, sorry, just my Esrom stinking up the place.

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Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #13 on: March 30, 2012, 02:39:14 AM »
LOL I saw the quote and didn't even have to look to know who it came from!

anutcanfly

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #14 on: March 30, 2012, 04:55:27 AM »
 A)