Author Topic: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese  (Read 6033 times)

Dragonfish

  • Guest
My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« on: March 10, 2012, 12:37:55 AM »
Hello all,

So happy to finally use my pyramid molds!  What fun!  I have a question about aging these guys.  After they have completely bloomed, should I be patting them as I do with my brie?  (brie #5 is almost ready and looks great - yay!)  The recipe I am using is from the "200 Easy Homemade Cheese" and it says to leave them untouched for 2 weeks.

Thanks so much,

Susannah

Dragonfish

  • Guest
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2012, 05:05:18 PM »
OK, so after I had PC bloom I did turn and pat just like I do for my goat brie.  And I started tasting at 22 days (16 days ripening).  I really like this cheese.  The crust is a bit thicker than my brie.  I have never tasted a Pouligny-St.-Pierre from France so I can't compare.  These look like the photo I found on wikipedia France but that article indicates an affinage of 4-5 weeks.  So I will keep tasting mine weekly (I have 6 of them left).  However, I have a feeling that my humidity is too low to keep them from drying out more than they should.  We shall see.

If anyone can point me to an on-line source for cheese in french than is better than wikipedia.fr, I would love it!

Susannah


Offline DeejayDebi

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Connecticut
  • Posts: 5,820
  • Cheeses: 106
    • Deejays Smoke Pit and DSP Forums
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2012, 11:35:47 PM »
Susannah
That is looking lovely!

iratherfly

  • Guest
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2012, 05:50:42 AM »
Nice start Dragonfish!
The original French version has very thin rind (in fact far thinner than Brie). It's geo with some spotting of PC and in later weeks it may get random blue spotting (depends on the environment). It shouldn't have a snowy white rind and no liquidation under the rind (these are suppose to be dry, chalky and flaky, never supple, smooth or oozing like a Camembert).  The good news is that you are not too far; just drain it more (much more, twice as long even) and age it slower in lower moisture and temperature.

Aging information about this cheese is indeed published in a confusing way. After de-moulding, salting and 2-4 days of initial draining/drying where the cheese is in cave temp but lower moisture, you should age it for about 14 days (basically, same temp of approx 54°F but get the moisture up to 85%. Don't go as high as 90%-95%!!!). At that point the cheese will bloom and considered aged, but do not consume it quite yet; move it to a refrigerator (38°F-43°F ideal). You can now wrap it or put it in a container and give it those taps whenever you need to spread or flatten mold growth. You can do this for 1-3 weeks as the paste quality improves and the cheese hardens further. The flavor and texture will not dramatically change. When you get to week 5 this would be a rather hard and flaky cheese on its way to becoming into grating cheese. They are sold as such in the markets in France as some people prefer them this way but ideally 21-28 days from production is considered a peak period for this is done properly. A second version of larger format is sometime made (100mm instead of 80 mm, sounds insignificant but it's actually 50% extra weight). This one requires more affinage time and also has longer peak period. All those Loire Valley cheeses take a bit of practice but are well worth it.

Ideal 3-4 weeks. Random blue spotting, random PC spotting, rind of Geo with signature wrinkles. Stark white and not too wet inside, thin yellow rind:


Proper, 3-4 weeks old, raw milk. This one is a little wet and shows some goo under the rind because it was in a plastic packaging:


Proper, 3-4 weeks old:


Looks to me about 4-5 weeks old:


Probably 6-7 weeks old: (Obviously if the cheese is too moist it would turn into ammoniated liquid by now. Keep it dry enough to age this way instead)



hoeklijn

  • Guest
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2012, 06:24:18 AM »
Nice cheeses Dragonfish, that's an other cheese on my todo list. Maybe this link is interesting to you?
http://iledefrancecheese.com/index.php/cheese-family.html

anarch

  • Guest
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2012, 08:39:19 PM »
OK, I love the way ALL the variations of those look, from soft, to chalky, to dry and grating worthy.

I might need to invest in some pyramid molds.

Susannah, lovely!


iratherfly

  • Guest
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2012, 05:51:21 AM »
They are so worth it!

Dragonfish

  • Guest
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2012, 04:55:43 PM »
Thanks all!  Thank you, hoeklijn, for the link and Yoav (I hope I have your name right) for all the detailed information. 
I made this again and this time I pre-drained the curd for 7 1/2 hours before packing it in the molds.  This first time I pre-drained the curd for just 2 hours, so this is much longer.  The cheeses were salted last night, now draining further and this afternoon I will put them in the ripening containers and in the cave.  I will follow your instructions and move them to a lower temperature after blooming.
I still have two cheeses from the first batch in the refrigerator.  They certainly shrunk as they ages and dried.  The paste is dense and, I guess, tending towards chalky.  The flavor is strong.  They would be 5 weeks old now.

Caseus

  • Guest
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2012, 09:15:35 PM »
Are they dense and dry enough to grate?  They sound like just the thing to liven up potatoes au gratin.

iratherfly

  • Guest
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2012, 07:18:15 PM »
Yes, it is Yoav. How are those cheeses doing now?

Dragonfish

  • Guest
Re: My first Pouligny St. Pierre type cheese
« Reply #10 on: April 29, 2012, 09:43:07 PM »
Batch no. two was delicious!  Lots of compliments which is always nice.  I am not sure if the rind was a whole lot thinner, I think it was some what thinner.....  They are all eaten except for one which we kept and I am sure it will be eaten in a day or two.  Here are two photos.  I wonder if I should drain the next batch even longer?  I am happy with this cheese.

The longest I kept one of the first try was about 5 weeks and it did not dry out enough to grate.  It was very firm but not grating quality.