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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => RENNET COAGULATED - Hard Other => Topic started by: Geodyne on December 30, 2013, 07:19:48 PM

Title: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on December 30, 2013, 07:19:48 PM
I've been inspired ever since Mike Richards did a crop of little Caerphillies. With a decent stock of basic cheeses now, a friend coming over to look at cheesemaking and 9 gallons of milk in the fridge, I'm planning a batch of little flavoured cheeses today. The plan is to make a 24-litre (6-gallon) batch of Caerphilly (because of its fast-maturing properties) today and to split the batch into 10 once it's at the milling stage. The 10 flavours we're planning to play with today are:


Photos to come. The rest of the milk is due to become feta and halloumi because we need some of those.
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: mjr522 on December 30, 2013, 07:59:02 PM
Those sound pretty exciting.  I look forward to hearing about and seeing the results.  A couple of observations from my experience, in case you need them: First, be aware that it takes a lot longer to mold/hoop a bunch of little cheeses than it does to do just one.  When I do it again, I'll be sure to consider how to expedite that process as well as ensuring that the molded cheeses can go directly into the press without any delays.  Second, try to get the molds filled as evenly as possible.  If you press in layers (not in a single tall stack), then any unevenly filled mold will lead to less filled molds not getting sufficient pressure.

Good luck!
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Spoons on December 30, 2013, 08:32:37 PM
Interesting flavours! Indian cuisine is among my fave! Looking forward to reading about the results. Makes me want to buy 500g moulds.

Mike, did your flavours meld well with caerphilly?
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: mjr522 on December 30, 2013, 09:50:53 PM
The flavors that were mixed in with the cheese--onion, garlic, peppercorn, and sage--all melded well.  Those that I used as coatings--cinnamom, cocoa, and paprika--had lost most of their potency by the time we cut into them.
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on December 30, 2013, 10:00:00 PM
All good things to think about, thanks Mike. We'll have three pairs of hands in the house to help, which ought to help with the mixing/moulding process. I'm planning to press these individually to reduce transference of flavours, so these will probably all have an individual weight balanced rather than sitting in a press.

Sage!! Thanks, I knew I'd forgotten a flavour I want to do. I've a huge sage bush in full summer growth right now. That's ten flavours, so each cheese will be about half a pound. I've had good success with a cheshire with smoked paprika and flaked chilli mixed through, then coated with smoked paprika for effect. The small trial cheese was a success, so we made a 5-gallon version last week to age out.

Spoons, we eat a lot of curry too. When dreaming up the flavours, DH suggested we just think about the things we like to cook. The vodka martini made it in as part of a joke, but who knows how it will turn out?
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Boofer on December 31, 2013, 12:04:01 AM
I'm planning to press these individually to reduce transference of flavours, so these will probably all have an individual weight balanced rather than sitting in a press.
Ten little wheels with ten little weights, all balanced perfectly...? ???

I haven't made Caerphilly...what does it require for pressing weight, somewhere around 5 psi? Can you do that for all of those little cheeses?

Why wouldn't you want to press evenly for all the wheels? Less hassle and less labor.

-Boofer-
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on December 31, 2013, 12:26:59 AM
Not enough press, Boofer! That's the reason. That, and they may end up in differently-sized moulds due to the sparseness of my mould collection. I have a very small press and haven't got around to making a larger one yet. It's on the list of things to do.

Hopefully I can get away with a slightly lighter weight, by pressing in the pan. That's an advantage of using the bain marie.

What can I say, I'm letting my enthusiasm for proof-of-concept run ahead of my equipment.  >:D
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Boofer on December 31, 2013, 02:49:01 PM
Yeah, you don't get penalized for trying! :)

Necessity is a mother...so you'll get it.

-Boofer-
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: JeffHamm on December 31, 2013, 04:35:03 PM
I get decent knitting on my caerphilly, especially when pressed in the pot for the first hour or so, with only 2.5 PSI.  This should be interesting. There's at least 3 different makes out there for caerphilly.  Which one are you using?

- Jeff
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on January 01, 2014, 09:33:42 PM
I used Caldwell's recipe, Jeff. I ended up stacking most of the cheeses in two towers to press, with a second jury-rigged press for the last two cheeses. There's been a little transferrence of flavour with this but not too bad, due to the order in which I stacked them. I was pretty happy with the knit on most of the cheeses, although they'll never win an award. It was definitely a leaning tower of cheese.

I have photos, but don't have a data cable with me so they'll have to wait!
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on January 13, 2014, 01:14:56 AM
Finally coming back to update this with photos.

The make went well. I opted to make a large, 24-litre make of caerphilly, following Caldwell's recipe, with the intent of dividing it into 10, roughly half-pound cheeses, each to have a different flavour. I ensured that the various additives were laid out well ahead of the time required. Thank goodness for owning vast quantities of little tapas serving dishes! I didn't take photos of the blending and milling process, as we all had hands covered in cheese.

We opted, in the end, to put most of the cheeses into crottin moulds, as they're stackable and I could press them with one mould inside the next. There was a little transferrence of flavour from some cheeses to others through the whey, but I ensured that the most flavourful cheeses were at the bottom of the pile, with those with less strong flavours at the top. It took a great deal of careful attention to ensure that the leaning tower of cheese stayed something approaching vertical.

I had slightly more cheeses than I had crottin moulds so two of the cheeses were put into slightly larger moulds and then pressed with a jury-rigged press consisting of the handlebars of a mountain bike (never any shortage of bike parts in our house) strapped to a kitchen cupboard door and some gym weights. Seriously dodgy but there were no disasters. I didn't quite get the press I'd have liked out of this setup, but the cheeses mostly knit.

The cheeses are aging on a board at the moment. The flavours are much the same as I outlined above, only we did a sage cheese with sage leaves fried crisp in a little olive oil instead of the lemon geranium. Most of the cheeses are natural-rind and being brushed to rub down moulds, except for the kaffir lime leaf, which is being periodically washed in a home-made kaffir lime leaf/vodka liqueur, and the vodka martini, which is a plain caerphilly washed with a brine/vodka/vermouth cocktail.


Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Spoons on January 13, 2014, 05:38:19 AM
Those look so good! A cheese for you for taking on such an endeavor.
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: John@PC on January 31, 2014, 12:31:25 AM
Having struggled with trying to design the "perfect" press (kind of looking for the Holy Grail? ^-^)  I'm always amazed with the designs and ingenuity I see on this forum.  Boofer, you may have posted elsewhere but I'm thoroughly intrigued about what cables, pulleys and weights are to the left of your first picture.  It looks like a great design (homemade?) with excellent mechanical advantage and reasonably simple to make with 2x4's, etc.  Geo, your's are as interesting and while lacking in the mechanical advantage a really simple and elegant design.   Being a pretty recent forum member  has there been a thread about "Here's my press" kind of like Tiarella did for caves and mini-caves (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10288.0.html)?  Geo, I love the idea with the mini-Caerphillys (my favorite cheese to make with herbs).  Did you use a full-size food warming without insert pan for your make?
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on January 31, 2014, 02:11:52 AM
There are so many press solutions. Mine was born from frugality, impatience and available materials. I do hope to make a compound Dutch press like Boofer's sometime soon, but the one I have got me started.

I can't take credit for the idea of lots of little favoured cheeses. That came from other forum members, in particular Mike Richards. I did use a full-size warming pan. My setup is a benchtop bain marie with a full, 8-inch-deep pan. I usually use a 24-litre, or 6-gallon, batch with it, but I have squeezed as much as 26 litres in it before - that's almost 7 US gallons.

For the sake of a little eye candy, here's a bad photo of most of the little flavoured caerphillies lumped into a container as I took them out to brush. I added no moulds to my make, but they're been colonised by the native white moulds from my cave, and I'm battling a little wild blue as well.
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: JeffHamm on January 31, 2014, 02:38:14 AM
Very nice collection - a cheese to you.  I'll be interested to see how a 1/2 lbs cheese turns out.  Be careful they don't dry out too much.  At least caerphilly doesn't require long aging, so shouldn't be too big of an issue.

- Jeff
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on January 31, 2014, 04:42:45 AM
Yes, drying is a worry. These have been aging in the cave for a month, so they're all going into vac bags tomorrow (bags delivered to my doorstep while I was at work today!)

Thanks for the cheese. :)
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: GlabrousD on April 07, 2014, 10:05:15 AM
Surely they must have been tasted by now Geo... I can't stand waiting any longer :)

Cheers, GD.
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on April 07, 2014, 10:39:09 PM
Hah, you're right, they have been opened.  We opened these a month ago, on my return from my business trip, and with international family visiting and a lot of birthdays to celebrate. I haven't had time to post them since. Unfortunately, the camera with the photos of their trial is now in the UK! They were three months old when we opened them, one month natural rind and two months in vacuum seal. The base flavour was a bit like an aged cheddar. Some of the  cheeses had had too much salt added, but aside from tasting salty, their texture didn't seem to be too affected. We didn't have any duff flavours and would do them all again.

We cut each cheese into quarters, ate one quarter, and sealed the other three into bags for later (two bags went to the friend who helped).

Chipotle: broken, dried chipotle boiled in water to sterilise and mixed through the cheese. A lovely smoky flavour, not too hot. A definite must-do.

Black pepper: Ground black pepper mixed through the cheese. A nice compliment to the flavour of the cheese. Would do again, but might experiment with a layer of black pepper.

Truffle salt coated with sweet spices (a homage to sottonocere al tartufo): a nice aroma but not too much flavour from the sweet spices, and a faint hint of truffle salt. I think the cheese flavour overwhelmed it, and I would like to try this with a romano.

Fajita: tomato powder, chilli powder, ground cumin, dried lemon and lime peel, mixed through the cheese: a real winner. One of our favourites.

Olive: I was nervous about this one when I made it because I was worried about the potential for mould spoilage because of the oils in the olive, but no such eventuality occured. We used good greek salt-cured olives and the flavour stood up to the maturity of the cheese well.

Curry: Freshly ground cumin, coriander, can't remember what else: didn't overpower the cheese and complimented it well.

Very salty sage: this was one of the oversalted cheeses, and the least well pressed. I fried the sage leaves in olive oil until crispy before adding them to the cheese and it adds a pleasing flavour. I'd like to try this again.

Kaffir lime: Pureed fresh kaffir lime leaf, with a little vodka. I washed this a few times with a home-made kaffir lime liqeur. The lime flavour was very delicate but very aromatic.

Lavender: this was the cheese the others were least sure about as they weren't sure about lavender flavour in food. I added dried, whole, home-grown lavender petals and the flavour was aromatic and lavendery without being overpowering.

Vodka Martini: this was a plain caerphilly, which I soaked in a vodka martini brine and then washed in a vodka martini wash. This was the most mildly flavoured of the caerphillies, even in terms of the aged flavour of the cheese. No taste of the alcohol, but I think I'd like to try this again on its own to be sure. Also, we'd consumed a bottle of champagne by the time we got to this one, so our tastebuds may have been slightly overwhelmed!
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: JeffHamm on April 07, 2014, 11:25:00 PM
A cheese to you for a very neat selection.  Some very creative ideas in there.  Nicely done.

- Jeff
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Spoons on April 07, 2014, 11:38:12 PM
Thanks for the update, Geo. A cheese for you for this awesome project!
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: GlabrousD on April 08, 2014, 10:40:30 AM
Thanks very much Geo. A Cheese to you for a brilliant write up and some fantastic ideas that have the cogs whirring in my (knackered old) mind.

The Fajita and the Curry will certainly be in my immediate future :)

I'll write them up as I try them.

Cheers, GD.
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on April 09, 2014, 03:01:13 AM
Thankyou for the cheeses, all! This has been a fun project to try.

GD, knowing you're thinking of a curry cheese made me go back through my project. I suspect I made that one with whole cumin seed, and just a touch of ground coriander and garam masala.  All freshly ground.
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: GlabrousD on April 09, 2014, 04:14:13 AM
Thanks very much Geo.

The Turmeric in the Garam Masala should lend a crazy orange/yellow colour to the cheese and should compliment the other spices. There should also be a small amount of Cardamom in there as well which is a fantastic taste.

I've made Cardamom ice-cream (with whisky to make it soft-scoop, naturally) and I love the flavour. Here in Dubai we have a very large Indian diaspora so we can get proper Chai - they also do Cardamom flavoured milk as well as the usual strawberry, chcolate & banana. Sadly they also sell Rose flavour which is jaw-breakingly sweet :)

Cheers, GD.
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on April 09, 2014, 05:01:12 AM
Cardamom is one of my favourite spices. :)

I grind my own garam masala fresh each time I use it, so it would have contained cardamom, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon and cloves. No turmeric, although I have thought that I might add some the next time I try a curry-spiced cheese.

I do love what the Indians do with their food. Indian/Sri Lankan flavours are close to my heart because of family connections.  I've been spending a bit of time in and around Singapore for work lately, and always plan to gain weight when I'm there. Dhal and roti in a thousand permutations.  ;)
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: Geodyne on April 09, 2014, 09:04:57 AM
Cheese!

I've been sent a photo of the day we broke these open.

Clockwise from top left: chipotle, kaffir lime, lavender, fajita (cut, in the back), truffle salt, olive, black pepper and sage.
Title: Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
Post by: GlabrousD on April 10, 2014, 09:14:03 AM
I do love what the Indians do with their food.

Likewise - Curry is the English National Dish :)

I also grind my own spices as they taste so much better fresh. My FLW is a black pepper fiend and we have varieties (about 10 different types) from all around the World. May have to try a Pepper Cheese as well to keep her happy.

Cheers, GD.