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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => STANDARD METHODS - Aging Cheese => Topic started by: caciocavallo on December 26, 2008, 08:58:06 PM
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Hello Everyone, enjoy this forum.
Our family is used to make hard cheese and we age our cheese in oil. This of course is after we let them dry in air and rubbing them with oil/vinegar and chilie peppers. The results are amazing and we have cheeses that have been in oil for the past 3-4 years. As long as they are stored in a cool area (cold room). Last year we decided to vacuum pack them instead, since when they are in oil it requires a Little work to clean them up before cutting pieces.
Anyone else do this?
I have noticed that in the vacuum bags the taste has not changed as much as it would have if we left them in oil.
Anyone know why?
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A couple of reasons with a vacuum bag there is absolutely no air exchange and when cheese ages it gives off a lot of different gases.
Do you rub them with oil or actually have them completely submerged in oil? Sounds interesting.
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This is also knew to me, aging "in" oil.
Like Cartier, also appreciate more info, such as temperature? Plastic container? What type of oil? When you say rub with chili's, what type and fresh or dried? Thanks in advance!
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This sounds intriguing!! So could you age a provolone in say EVOO and rub the surface with say, garlic and herbs??
Also what do you mean by the clean up process of the cheese? How does this process effect the exterior of the cheese?
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Evoo, Tea? Someone's a Rachel Ray Fan.
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umm who is Rachel Ray?? Never heard of her.
I usually don't like acronyms, but I figured someone who used oils in their business would know what EVOO was and I would have to write it out in full. For those that don't here goes. Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
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Are you pulling my leg, you really don't know who Rachel Ray is?
She's the cooking equivilant of Oprah. She has 4 shows on TV right now, Books, lines of cookware for sale and a magazine, my girlfriend loves her.
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Cartier, Tea is in Oz and maybe Rachel Ray hasn't got there yet and you while and might like watching a woman do a TV cooking show, I suspect Tea would prefer a guy like Crocodile Dundee (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X1726pwQIE) :o.
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LOL...I don't watch Rachel, my girlfriend does.
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I suspect Tea would prefer a guy like Crocodile Dundee .
ROLF Ch, please, give a girl some credit, he's old enough to be my father!! and no he is definately not "my type" ::) That was purely a "spoof" character and if there really are any they are found only in the deep recesses of the Aussie outback, or are already eaten by croc's. :D
I think you American's have some weird ideas about what goes on here in Aussie land.
Cartierusm, Oprah I know of, but Rachel Ray I don't.
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Tea, I was just teasing, ouch, sorry, rarely seen him since this movies, forgot he's aged since that movie, :-\. My family and I spent one month in Perth & south and 2 weeks in Gold Coast/Brisbane in 90's, so have reasonable idea of Oz. Sadly I guess Olivia Newton John has aged also as Grease movie was a while ago. (PS, I'm mostly Canuck and there are lots of those characters there too, also a bunch here in Houston as lots of Cajuns and Coonass's from Louisiana and Alabaman's on our block).
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I hope we didn't forget Yahoo Serious!
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I know you were teasing, just having a tease back myself.
I was 14 I think when I first saw "Grease", so yes, I think she has aged a little, but gracefully from what I see.
Now see I have no idea at all what any of the following means;
(PS, I'm mostly Canuck and there are lots of those characters there too, also a bunch here in Houston as lots of Cajuns and Coonass's from Louisiana and Alabaman's on our block).
I am assuming that this is local "speak" for you, but I am at a loss to decipher it.
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Hello Everyone.
I was a little surprised that no one else has done this with cheese. Let me explain in more detail.
After making cheese we age it in our cold room which is normally (we always make our cheese in the winter so as to get good temperature in our cold room) about 14-16 deg Celsius.
We air dry our cheese turning them daily and having added salt only once to each side. Once we get a nice firm rind and whey stops seaping out we place them in pastic container and add oil, vinegar and dried ground chili peppers (just enough so that we can cover them with the mixture by turning/rolling them in it (1/4inch).
We turn them in this oil mixture every day for about 14-20 days, the rind will be hard and yellow. Then we simply submerge them completely in oil using a plastic container, the oil is simply canola oil, EVO will become a gel which is why we wouldn't use that.
We can keep this for years in a cool place, we do the same for sausage we make.
The "work" required when you want to have one to eat is having to remove it from the oil letting it drain. There may be some mold which will form at the top of the oil which is normal and you may have to clean that every now and then. After that simply clean the rind which has softened because of being in the oil.
That's it. I will try and find some pictures if I can and post it here.
Let me know if you need any more info.
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Many thanks Caciocavallo for this information. Reg, is the person who advised me to oil my cheese, but I don't know whether he actually immersed them completely in oil. I know I was surprised at the rind that the provolone produced, I was expecting a soft mushy surface.
Also once the cheese is submerged in the oil, does it need to be kept in a cave, or could it go into the fridge? (I live in the tropics.)
When you say "clean the surface", do you mean it needs to be wiped or cut.
Yes I would love to see some photo's of this process.
Thankyou very much.
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Thanks cac and good questions Tea, that explains why the only cheese I have ever oiled I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil and I didn't like the result, next time try canola oil. I like the crushed chili's idea.
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Ok, as I also soap, I have lots of different oils on hand. Could you use for the initial oil bath a different oil like avocado, or macadamia, or mustard, or pumpkin etc. Would they impart their flavour as well?
For the second immersion, did it have to be canola, could you use say a rice bran, or grapeseed oil, sunflower?
My mind is running wild on the possibilities at the moment, and I definately know what I am trialling next weekend.
Curious as to why the Olive oil gels? Is it just the virgin oil, or would the light gel too?
Sorry if this is too many questions.
CH the provolone that I oiled I used Olive oil, but as I didn't have any virgin on hand I just used the light. There was no flavour imparted into the cheese, but it definately benefited from the oiling.
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Hello Tea,
I have never tried any other oil but you could do some experimenting and surely get some good results.
Canola oil is what we use since it is the least expensive due to the amount you need to make sure that the cheeses are completely submerged.
When I say clean they surface it could be a combination of wiping and or cutting some of the rind off. It depends on how it comes out but mostly you need to cut or scrape the rind to remove the softness.
As for where you can keep them if you don't have a cave/coldroom then you will most certainly will have to place them in the fridge or wherever you would normally keep your cheese.
Tea, where are you from if I may ask?
I have attached some pictures for you to see what our cheese looks like. These are ready for submerging completely in oil for final aging process.
Cheers everyone!
Cac
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Tea, you have some wicked oils...wow. I would make a large batch of cheese something you're familiar with or monterey jack always works with peppers and spices. Anyway, I would make a large batch and make some 1 pound wheels and try different combinations. You could start a boutique cheesery.
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Cartier, they are cac's in Montreal, not Tea in Queensland Australia's beautiful chili rolled cheeses.
Cac, they look wonderful, congrats, assume they are all pressed cheeses, would be interested in how you press that many concurrently and how they look like in oil.
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Sorry I meant the oils that Tea has, she listed them in the above post.
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Caciocavallo, I live in the tropic of central Queensland Australia, and the humidity is almost too much at the moment. Been having thunder storms every afternoon for the past few days, but that serves to only increase the humidity, as the temps are staying high :'(
Cartier, now it is my turn to be surprised, I would have thought that you would have had access to all that I mentioned. Everyone of those oil, except the pumpkin oil, I can get at the local supermarket. The pumpkin I can get at a local Asian foodstore that stocks just the most wonderful things ... drool. Whole spices, legumes, flours, oils, sauces, coffee's, tea's. I can spend hours in there just looking.
Actually I was thinking of making the provolone again, as it really benefitted from the oil rubs last time. As I can only do 10ltr batches at the moment I was thinking or either doing 2 batches, or dividing one batch into 4, and trialling different oils for the initial bath, and a couple of different oils for the final submersion. I would also like to leave one out to age normally after the initial bath, and see what different that too makes.
My only hesitation in dividing one batch into 4 is that I think they maybe too small, and the flavour "take up" might be disproportionally affected to what it would be in a larger cheese.
A boutique cheesery would be a dream, but first I would need a better supply of milk. ::)
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The cheeses are not pressed as such. We simply "press" them as we are filling the cheese forms. I don't have any in oil since we removed them all to be vacuum packed. I get you some pics of those.
The chili you see is simply on the outside of the cheese which is rubbed with oil. It helps in reducing the mold that forms.
Although I have made some of the cheeses with chili pepper in them (mixed in while forming) and they turned out great. I have another passion which is hot hot chili peppers which I grow in the summer.
Tea, I have friends in Perth. I have been there many years ago when I first got married. We went twice for 6 weeks each time. Great place!! The people are fantastic and very friendly. Would love to go back, when the kids are older.
You mention "better milk supply" in your last message. Is it because you cant get any milk "legally"? Here in Quebec we cannot buy raw milk legally and you it is very difficult to get a farmer to sell you some unless you know them very well. My last supplier sold his farm so I was out for almost 1 year until I found my current one.
Take care.
Cac
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Well yes I guess I was referring to a cheaper source of raw milk, that I could access constantly. If I were going to go into business, I would need to be registered as a business so therefore the dairy that I bought from would need to be also.
For now I buy quality milk, and I have a friend that sends excess milk my way. People can give me milk, and I can give away cheeses, but legally, there cannot be monies exchanged for such services.
BTW forgot to thank you for the pics. They are much appreciated.
Having re-read your imput, I think that I could maybe do a monteray jack for a trail run as well. Even though they are pressed, I don't consider then a hard cheese. So we will see.
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I was just impressed at how many oils you had in stock.
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Cartier that is probably only 1/3 of the oils that I have on hand.
Got the milk ordered for Thursday, now to decide whether I will do provolone or monteray jack.
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Um, I love Monterrey, California, and I love the cheese, but Provolone is pretty universal in cooking, that's my vote.
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Well thanks Cartier, just when I thought I had my mind made up.
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Well the family has decided that they want to go up the valley for a picnic and swim today, so I am not going to get the cheese down. Tomorrow hopefully.