Author Topic: Horseradish Cheddar  (Read 6734 times)

High Altitude

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Re: Horseradish Cheddar
« Reply #15 on: March 21, 2013, 02:59:04 AM »
In a subsequent make, would you perhaps hard wax over the cream wax to help keep it from drying too much?  If only I had read this post about 2 hours ago, I could have added some horseradish to my farmhouse cheddar (I was trying to think of something to add).  Dang it...well next time.  I will be cream waxing and hard waxing this cheddar to see if there is any difference from the first attempt with only hard wax.  I love the stuff (cream wax)!

Fantastic pics by the way :-)!  A cheese for your artistic trigger finger.

Offline Boofer

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Re: Horseradish Cheddar
« Reply #16 on: March 21, 2013, 02:38:52 PM »
In a subsequent make, would you perhaps hard wax over the cream wax to help keep it from drying too much?
I have cream-coated and then vacuum-sealed. I prefer the vacuum-sealing to waxing. Several pounds of cheese wax are sitting unused out in my garage.

Thanks for the cheese. I take a few pics and then triage them to post the pic that best tells the story. Sometimes the pic needs to be cropped, brightened/darkened, with flash or no flash. I'm afraid that one day the camera will unceremoniously drop into a kettle of wet curds. :P  I like to document a process with a cheese because it may be a long time before I make that cheese again or something unusual may be picture-worthy. Sometimes it's easier and more efficient to snap a picture rather than try to explain what is going on or how something looks. In some of my earlier cheese efforts I encountered some strange-looking foreign invaders and I posted to try to get some expert opinion.

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

High Altitude

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Re: Horseradish Cheddar
« Reply #17 on: March 23, 2013, 03:43:55 PM »
Boofer...how are you keeping your pot warm for all those hours that you are pressing in the pot?  Double boiler system maintaining a steady temp maybe? 

Don't think I'll try another cheddar until I figure out a way to do that effectively & efficiently.  During the first traditional cheddar attempt, I had to put heating pad under the s/s whey draining plate the morning after pressing just to get the ends knitted well, and still the sides had slightly weaker knit toward the center anyway.  Applied the heat for about an hour on each end.  It worked well enough for appearance sake, but I just hope the process didn't compromise the cheese in any way. 

Do you see any problem with doing the horseradish addition to a farmhouse cheddar (I have better success with those :-)?!

igasho

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Re: Horseradish Cheddar
« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2013, 05:36:25 PM »
Wrap an electric blanket around the pot

Offline Boofer

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Re: Horseradish Cheddar
« Reply #19 on: March 24, 2013, 09:40:23 PM »
Boofer...how are you keeping your pot warm for all those hours that you are pressing in the pot?  Double boiler system maintaining a steady temp maybe? 
I do use a double boiler which maintains the heat fairly well. I just need it for the first hour. The curds should have fused by then. I've also used a seed warming mat (a tip of the hat to Sailor for that idea.) if the ambient room temperature is really cold. I also shroud the kettle with a clean towel to hold in the heat and keep out any cold drafts.

I would think the horseradish would work well in a Farmhouse Cheddar.

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

High Altitude

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Re: Horseradish Cheddar
« Reply #20 on: March 25, 2013, 01:07:42 AM »
Awesome...thanks Boofer.  And uuhhh, love the belt!  Oh, I discovered warming belts for wine carboys recently...might work quite effectively on stainless steel pots too :-).