My latest Caerphilly

[dthelmers]

Here's my latest Caerphilly, made from pasteurized homogenized milk. At Linuxboy's suggestion, I added the culture to the cold milk the night before, right in the jugs and kept them refrigerated. I believe he was talking about innocculating the milk with straight L. diacetylactis, but all I have right now is MM100. The milk showed a little pH drop very soon after it came up to temperature, and the whole make went well. I used plastic letters and numbers from the scrapbook section of the craft store (thanks for the tip, MightyJesse!) to mark the cheese. I made this on Saturday, and let it dry until Wednesday, and it's now in the cave. The smell is really nice, it smells like when I make it from my nice  local Jersey milk. I'm going to try it at three or four weeks.

[anutcanfly]

I like the markings.  That's a great idea!  Hope your cheese a good one!   

[JeffHamm]

Looks very good Dave!  Is the 33 for March 3rd or is this really your 33rd Caerphilly!  The lettering looks great.

- Jeff

[dthelmers]

Thanks, Jeff! Yes it's for March 3rd. I think that it is probably my 9th Caerphilly, I've lost count - never kept records because my first efforts were rather marginal successes. I'd say the last two were the first that I felt quite comfortable throughout the make, everything going according to plan, and feeling like I understood what was going on in the milk.
I'm fond of the lettering; I hope it won't be a safe haven for unwanted mold; time will tell.

[zenith1]

Dave-how will you proceed with the aging?

[dthelmers]

I'll age it for 3 or 4 weeks in my cheese cave, a little refrigerator that holds 55 degrees f and 85% rh. If it goes like previous makes, it develops a little white powdery look on the rind (pc?) and if other mold appears I hit it with a brush.

[DeejayDebi]

Dave I love the letters great idea Jessie!
Here's how I keep track of my cheeses I date my computer folders with the date and name of the cheese. I also rotate molds so If I make several of the same type they are all slightly different shapes one gouda shape one tome shape. I used to use a toothpick with annatto and write on them. Tried to find a fountain pen but I couldn't find the kind you suck up the ink from a well so a toothpick worked. The ole pigeon feather crossed my mind but I didn't want to risk it.

[zenith1]

I found food coloring pens at a crafts store. They look like regular chubby felt tip pens that are in a number of edible food colors. Then I just code the edge of the wheel.

[DeejayDebi]

Really? That would be nice. We do have a craft store in the next town south. Never even looked there.

[dthelmers]

Follow up on this cheese: opened it this past weekend, and it's quite good. The pre-ripening of the milk in the refrigerator did give it more flavor, so it taste better than store milk usually does, but not as good as when I mix store milk with my local raw Jersey milk. The best of all is when I make it completely from raw milk, when I can afford that. But for an everyday cheese, this is quite good, and my moister version of Caerphilly has become my favorite cheese to eat.

[JeffHamm]

The improvement due to cold innoculation is interesting.  Since that puts the culture in the milk right at the start, I wonder how much one would benefit by adding the culture when you start to warm up the milk rather than when it reaches temperature? 

Anyway, caerphilly is one of my favorites too.  There is one south island cheesemaker that does something they call caerphilly, but it's a fresh cheese that is made for next day sale.  I've not seen it, but the "Cheeseman" (sells cheese at local farmer's markets and such) has mentioned it to me.  I gave him a piece of my last caerphilly, and told him it should be something like a cheddar type cheese, not a fresh one.  He was polite enough to say he liked it!  

- Jeff

[dthelmers]

I've not had any Caerphilly to compare it too, just descriptions which mostly say it's crumbly. I've made three changes to the recipe from 200 Easy: I've increased the flocc multiplier to 4, and cut my curds a little larger, and I brine for less time, 12 instead of 20 hours. I don't know how true to form it is, but it has a bright pleasant tang, like cream cheese, and a texture much like Cheddar. It slices easily with a knife or cheese plane, but breaks easily if bent. It's a perfect snack cheese, or great for a ploughman's lunch.

[JeffHamm]

Hi Dave,

Like you, I've not had any caerphilly except what I've made.  I've not found anyone who sells the stuff made here on the south island.  The "NZCheeseman" just told me about it one day while we were chatting and I mentioned caerphilly.  He said he didn't stock it because it didn't last long enough, which I found strange, but then he explained that the version is a "made today sell tomorrow fresh cheese type thing", so I don't think it's similar to the Welsh version.  When I gave him some of mine he said they were definitely different cheeses.

I generally make the Tim Smith version (with cheddaring) with a few tweaks here are there.  I've made the one from 200 Easy Home as well, and the taste is similar between the two makes.  My most recent one is based upon Peter Dixon's, which is a bit different again, so I'm quite interested to see how this one turns out. 

I get a similar outcome to what you've described, nice fresh but not overpowering tang, texture like cheddar, and so forth.  We must be doing something right if we're getting the same results!

- Jeff

[dthelmers]

Jeff,
Yes, we seem to be having the same results. Do you find cheddaring giving any advantage over the 200 Easy Home recipe where it just settles in the whey? Peter Dixon uses a mix of meso and thermo; I've done that with my fast ripening cheddar, which is overall rather similar to the Caerphillys I've made. What starter cultures do you favor for this? I've been using MM100. I used Flora Danica for the first two, then started using MM100 and haven't been able to see any difference from the missing Leuconostoc.

[JeffHamm]

Hi Dave,

I've only made the 200 Easy version the one time, but I didn't notice a huge difference between the two.  The Tim Smith version has a pretty short cheddaring schedule (about 10 minutes), but I increase that to 3 flips over 30 minutes.  It helps to get rid of a bit more moisture, as I tend to have cheeses that seem to hold their moisture quite well. 

Generally I've been using Flora Danica and ripened buttermilk as my meso's, but with Peter Dixon's I also through in some ST-B01 (Strep. thermophilus).  I don't have a large variety of cultures (in fact, toss in the LH I have and that's all of the ones I have, FD, Buttermilk, and ST!).  I probably should pick up another meso, just to see how things turn out differently, but as I end up making a bunch of ice cubes, and they last me a long time, it takes up a lot of freezer space.  Hmmmm, a bigger freezer would do it!

- Jeff