Author Topic: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)  (Read 21221 times)

hoeklijn

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #15 on: March 30, 2012, 06:36:36 AM »
Nice cheese Boofer! The Dutch spelling is Leiden, believe me, I know. I'm living in between the cities of Leiden and Gouda ;-)
About not much whey leaking: That's due to the use of cumin, it makes the cheese drier.
Officially here in Holland Leiden is made from skimmed milk, but personally I prefer to make it from whole (raw) milk.
At the moment I have about 5 lbs of Leiden waiting in the cave for consumption...

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #16 on: March 30, 2012, 01:42:47 PM »
Thanks, hoeklijn, and thank you for the corrected spelling. I originally had it as Leiden but was steered towards the "y" by something I read that claimed it was more correct.

Do you have a more correct recipe, including the amount of cumin to add? The recipe I used was from 200 Easy Cheeses, but I cut the amount of cumin in half. I wanted cumin-flavored cheese, not cheese-flavored cumin.  ;)

When I read your "5 lbs" I was at first shocked because that seemed to be a lot of cheese. Then I was reminded that each of my cheeses is 4 lbs.  ::)

You say the cumin makes the cheese drier. Even if I have boiled and cooled the cumin and it is moist when added to the curds? Should the cheese be dry and firm, semisoft, or semihard? Mine seems to be headed towards a soft Gouda.

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anarch

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #17 on: March 30, 2012, 09:35:17 PM »
The only Leyden that I've had is this one: http://www.jamesranch.net/cheese/our_cheese/ from my local artisan cheesemakers.  Theirs is somewhat dry, but not approaching anything I'd grate.  Definitely more of the medium to hard gouda texture, not soft.  But then again, they do age theirs for 6 months.  Very good! 


hoeklijn

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Re: Leyden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #18 on: March 31, 2012, 03:23:32 PM »
Hi Boofer,

Here is the short version of the recipe from "Rondom boerenkaas" ("Around artisan cheese") which has been a dutch standard for the cheese farmers since 50's and is updated frequently. It is a book published by the union of artisan cheesemakers, with help from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Beware: It's a recipe also for 100 liter and at this moment I'm too lazy to convert it to US-metrics  ;D
Warm the milk to 29C, add per 100 liter milk 0.5 liter culture, 45 ml nitric acid (HNO3) and 15 ml CaCl and 25 ml rennet in 60 ml water. Let it coagulate for 30 minutes. Cut the curd into pieces of 1.5 cm (takes up to 20 minutes). Let it rest for 5 minutes. Remove 1/3 of the whey. Use almost cooking water to heat the curd up to 32C. Stir for 15 minutes. Let the curd rest for 15-30 minutes. Drain as much whey as possible. Put a part of the curd away for the "white bottom" of the cheese (this is common for the bigger Leiden cheese, you can skip it for the sizes we make. It is to prevent that cumin pierces the rind) and mix the cooked cumin (50-75 gram per 100 liter) with the remaining curd. Fill the bottom of the mould with white curd, fill with the mixed curd and cover with white curd. Let the filled moulds drain for an hour, flip half time. Press depending on the size between 20 and 24 hours, shorter if you use Kadova moulds (form a better rind). Weight to use is the same as for Gouda. After pressing brine the cheese in a 20 Beaumme solution for the same time as a Gouda, depending on the size.
Texture should be medium to hard, depending on the age, but indeed somewhat firmer that a Gouda. But it's no rocket science, artisan cheese WILL show some variety. One degree up or down, 1 ml more or less, the quality of the milk is also depending on the time of the year. At the end the taste is all that counts...

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #19 on: March 31, 2012, 11:48:05 PM »
Thanks, hoeklijn. Nitric acid?  :o What does that do for the cheese? I have known to add sodium nitrate to milk when making Jarlsberg. Does it provide the same function?

No worries about conversion to U.S. measurements. I have read about saving part of the white curd for the top and bottom, but the sides would still have the cumin piercing the rind.

At this point, I would say my cheese is semi-soft to medium.
 
Are those your cheeses in the photo? If so, they look wonderful. Nice labels too. How long do you age your Leiden cheeses? They're fairly young when cut, correct?

By the way, I corrected the thread title, per your advice.

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« Last Edit: March 31, 2012, 11:58:37 PM by Boofer »
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hoeklijn

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #20 on: April 01, 2012, 12:37:00 PM »
Hi Boofer, I'm not sure Google Translate gave me the correct translation, that's why I added HNO3. Here we call it "salpeter" and I think I heard somebody call it Potassium in English. Here in the Netherlands it is allowed for cheese to prevent forming gas in an early stage of development caused by B. coli and to prevent forming gas in the late stage of development caused by butyric acid bacteria.
Yes, the cheeses are mine, I always coat my hard and semi-hard cheeses with a plastic coating. It's the same coating as is used by artisan cheesemakers here, as well as by the big dairies for Gouda, Edam, Leiden etc. I have it in yellow and transparent. With e.g. Gouda I use 2 layers of yellow and stick the label on the wet coating and when it's dry I use one transparent layer as a finish. For cheeses as Cabra al Vino I use only transparent coating.
The coating allows "breathing" of the cheese, prevents it against molds and is very easy to clean. I have the labels also with the image of a goat.
I think I will cut the first one about 7 weeks after production, depending on what's available in the fridge downstairs for lunch...

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #21 on: April 01, 2012, 02:36:18 PM »
Hi Boofer, I'm not sure Google Translate gave me the correct translation, that's why I added HNO3. Here we call it "salpeter" and I think I heard somebody call it Potassium in English. Here in the Netherlands it is allowed for cheese to prevent forming gas in an early stage of development caused by B. coli and to prevent forming gas in the late stage of development caused by butyric acid bacteria.
Yes, you are referring to sodium nitrate (NaNO3, "saltpeter"), not nitric acid. It is for "late blowing" as you have described. I recently used "Holdbac" to prevent late blowing in an effort to not add chemicals in my cheese. It's too soon to know whether it worked.

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hoeklijn

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #22 on: April 01, 2012, 05:09:58 PM »
I had a look at the site of Danisco but I can't figure out what HoldBac is made from, I suppose it's not their name for HNO3 or NaNO3  ;D
Anyway, it's hard to get stuff of Danisco here. I've been looking for their cultures for a while, but without success, unless I want to buy enough for a professional dairy...

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #23 on: April 01, 2012, 11:54:57 PM »
It has two cultures. This is from the Danlac.com site.

Note: I noticed that there were two types of Holdbac available by Danlac. One has P.S. added. The one I used did not.

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« Last Edit: April 04, 2012, 11:50:15 AM by Boofer »
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Oude Kaas

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #24 on: April 02, 2012, 12:44:32 AM »
In Holland they add sodium nitrate (NaNO3, alias "saltpeter") to the recipe to prevent late blowing in the cheese. This is a common practice in Holland because cows are often fed on silage and otherwise fermented feed. Gouda is very susceptible to late blowing. Ever been to Holland and seen those plastic covered hills of feed, weighted down by tires in the countryside? I loved how they smell.

Supposedly Holdbac does the same thing but if you use milk for your cheese which doesn't come from cows fed on silage, there is absolutely no need to add any of those substances to your make.

hoeklijn

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #25 on: April 02, 2012, 06:34:47 AM »
Hello Oude Kaas,

I assume you have a Dutch background, considering the name "Oude Kaas"? What you describe as the reason for adding saltpeter is new for me, I don't think it's even mentioned in then book "Rondom boerenkaas" or "Around artisan cheese" which is considered to be the Dutch standard work on artisan cheese. Next weekend I am going to make a new batch of Gouda and I will ask at the farm if they feed silage. I suppose they do, because it's most common to feed that during winter. Cows are still at the stable, we had temperatures here up to 17C, but they expect again nights with -5C and snow...

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #26 on: April 02, 2012, 01:23:01 PM »
In Holland they add sodium nitrate (NaNO3, alias "saltpeter") to the recipe to prevent late blowing in the cheese. This is a common practice in Holland because cows are often fed on silage and otherwise fermented feed. Gouda is very susceptible to late blowing. Ever been to Holland and seen those plastic covered hills of feed, weighted down by tires in the countryside? I loved how they smell.

Supposedly Holdbac does the same thing but if you use milk for your cheese which doesn't come from cows fed on silage, there is absolutely no need to add any of those substances to your make.
Yes, but how do you know if the cows have been fed silage? You could most likely assume that during the colder winter season. I believe it is added as insurance...just in case.

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Oude Kaas

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #27 on: April 03, 2012, 02:44:52 PM »
Quote
Yes, but how do you know if the cows have been fed silage?
Ask your farmer. Of course, this is a problem when using store bought milk but in general I think there is no need to add saltpeter or holdbac when using such milk.

Quote
You could most likely assume that during the colder winter season. I believe it is added as insurance...just in case.
Assume why? First of all, the use of silage doesn't always lead to late blowing cheese. The butyric bacteria spores in the milk have to be high.
The farmer I get my milk from doesn't feed silage to his cows. The entire winter he feeds his cows on dry hay. Recently he asked me if I had noticed any difference in the milk. He had started to feed second cut hay. This is hay cut in September or October and tends to be higher in nutrition and has more caroteen. Indeed, the milk was much yellower, almost like summer milk.

Quote
I assume you have a Dutch background, considering the name "Oude Kaas"?
Dutch indeed.

hoeklijn

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #28 on: April 07, 2012, 06:34:29 AM »
Asked about silage this morning and they are feeding it indeed. I forgot to ask if they add saltpeter when making cheese because we had a discussion about sheep milk, but I will ask them next time. I once had an early blowing Gouda to which I added stinging nettle, that was before I  started adding saltpeter to my Gouda. Maybe it was caused by not sufficiently cooked nettle? Anyway, I never had it again since I add saltpeter...

Offline Boofer

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Re: Leiden (Cumin Cheese)
« Reply #29 on: April 07, 2012, 03:25:34 PM »
Asked about silage this morning and they are feeding it indeed. I forgot to ask if they add saltpeter when making cheese because we had a discussion about sheep milk, but I will ask them next time. I once had an early blowing Gouda to which I added stinging nettle, that was before I  started adding saltpeter to my Gouda. Maybe it was caused by not sufficiently cooked nettle? Anyway, I never had it again since I add saltpeter...
I thought nettle was used for coagulating like rennet. How much saltpeter do you add for how large a volume of milk?

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.