CheeseForum.org ยป Forum

GENERAL BOARDS => Introductions => Topic started by: Geodyne on August 29, 2013, 11:59:23 PM

Title: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on August 29, 2013, 11:59:23 PM
Hi all,

I've been lurking for a month or so as I start playing with the wonderful world of making cheese. This forum has been a wealth of information for me and I wanted to say thankyou and introduce myself. I'm an Australian who's moved to Tasmania, Australia for work, after many years of living in the UK (the usual story: went for what was to be a two year contract, liked my job, met a charming Brit, promised to hate the French and stayed). Australia has a lot to offer but falls down for us with two of our passions: good ale and English cheeses. We are very fond of Cheshire cheese and stilton. It's almost impossible to buy Cheshire in Australia, and decent stilton goes for $80+/kilo.

I've been brewing, sourdough baking and making my own tofu for years so cheesemaking is the logical next step. I have local friends who make cheese and have mainly been waiting until joined by DH to start as although I love cheese I can't eat very much of it myself. I've made baby steps so far, starting with feta and halloumi (which were all scoffed immediately) and I was hooked. I made a Caerphilly a few weeks ago, to test my hard-cheesemaking abilities. I've judged the Caerphilly a success for a first hard cheese as it's matured well, waxed in a 14C hall cupboard and even melts when heated. This week I've made myself a rough cheese press and will be attempting a 10-litre batch of Cheshire this weekend. My interest is with the long-maturing hard cheeses. Over the next few weeks I'd like to play with making stilton, cheddar and parmesan as well.

We're very fortunate in Tasmania as a local dairy and cheese maker on the north of the island (Pyengana) sell a whole-milk which is pasteurised but unhomogenised and is ideal for making cheese. My local cheesemaking friends and I are also discussing trying to co-operatively buy a bulk lot of raw milk in the spring, which I'm excited about.

Nice to meet you all.

Cheers,
Tara
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Tiarella on August 31, 2013, 02:54:50 PM
Welcome!  So nice to have you here.  Look forward to many stories and photos of your cheese makes!!!  Do you have Gianaclis Caldwell's book?  I highly recommend it.  Lots of good theory there.....and she has a good sense of humor as well.  I still chuckle when I think of her working name for a cheese she was developing that was wrapped in a fig leaf.  The working name was " Adam's Package"!   ;D

I've been on a tomme making kick, mostly natural rinds.  They all come out so unique that each one needs it's own name. 

Glad to have you here!
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on September 01, 2013, 08:53:01 PM
Thanks for your welcome Tiarella! I've been reading about what you've been doing with your Tommes, and they do look fabulous.

I don't have Caldwell's book as yet, although my local book store carries it so I had a flick through it the other day. I've been working mostly from Kathy Bliss's "Practical Cheesemaking", historical texts on Cheshire cheese and an Australian book so far. I may have to indulge and treat myself to Caldwell's book. If only for the story of Adam's Package!  ;)
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on September 03, 2013, 12:16:49 AM
I caved yesterday and treated myself to Caldwell's book. The lady behind the counter in the bookstore had watched me walk in 10 seconds before and said "it didn't take you long to choose that!"

She musn't have seen me cruising past it in odd lunch breaks for the past month...
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Tiarella on September 03, 2013, 11:25:29 AM
You'll like it.  The only issue for me is the recipes are hard for me to sort through.  She'll say in text that someone is sharing their recipe for a certain type of cheese and then it's hard to know which recipe that is because she's calling it by a generic name.  I've taken to writing in my book which is extremely rare for me.   Have lots of fun with it!!!
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on September 03, 2013, 08:50:31 PM
Yes, that's one of the things that made me pause before buying it, along with the way that approach makes the book seem as though it focuses more on the softer, milder cheeses which aren't my primary focus. But I'm very pleased I bought it and look forward to absorbing its information.

Having said that, I've not had much chance as yet. Work is a bit all-absorbing this week.
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Tiarella on September 03, 2013, 09:12:29 PM
There are plenty of hard cheese recipes and endless ways to vary them so I think you'll be satisfied with it.  I too am mostly making hard cheeses.  I have been creating a tomme "make sheet" that has directions as well as space to write in how that particular batch goes.  This makes cheese notes easy.  I haven't finished tweaking it yet and it's based on what I need to do for raw Nigerian Dwarf goat milk so it's not for everyone but I do recommend creating your own make notes for the recipes you like.  I put a grid on the back for affinage notes with lots of easy ways to fill in whatever it was I did on whatever date.   Happy cheesing!   ;D
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Boofer on September 04, 2013, 01:18:16 PM
Welcome to the forum, Tara. Good to have you here. :)

I'll be watching your Cheshire with a keen interest. It's a style I have contemplated for a while now.

-Boofer-
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: linuxboy on September 04, 2013, 02:10:39 PM
You should go for it :)
(http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID21533/images/The_Cheshire_Cat_by_chri77.jpg)
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on September 04, 2013, 08:49:16 PM
Hah! If you're all mad, I'll fit *right* in!

Boofer, thanks. I actually made two Cheshires last weekend, to compare two different recipes. One's in its final day in the press, the other is air-drying (but cracking at the moment for predictable reasons). I plan to make a post and share over the next day or so. I've had a busy week, and seem to keep finding myself with the cable to download the photos at work, and the book with my notes at home. Eventually I have to remember one or the other at the right time.
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Boofer on September 04, 2013, 11:02:13 PM
One's in its final day in the press,
How many weeks has it been? ;)

-Boofer-
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on September 05, 2013, 01:41:35 AM
Excellent point!  ;)

0.57, to be precise. This recipe called for three days of pressing after the initial 24-hour press.
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Boofer on September 05, 2013, 10:12:03 PM
Whose recipe is it? That seems like a very long time in the press. :o

Most times, my pressing only lasts for hours or overnight at most. I'm watching for the pH to drop to the 5.3-5.4 range.

-Boofer-
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on September 05, 2013, 10:26:37 PM
It struck me as a long time as well but I thought I'd give it a try and see what result it gave.

The recipe is that of Kathy Bliss, in "Practical Cheesemaking". Her recipe calls for an initial overnight press at 48 Nm2, then a 3-day press. One day one, no weight in the press. Day 2, press at 24 Nm2, and at 49 Nm2 on day 3.
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Boofer on September 06, 2013, 01:55:30 PM
The recipe is that of Kathy Bliss, in "Practical Cheesemaking". Her recipe calls for an initial overnight press at 48 Nm2, then a 3-day press. One day one, no weight in the press. Day 2, press at 24 Nm2, and at 49 Nm2 on day 3.
I'm not familiar with that book or author. I had to Google "Nm2".

For those interested folks, here's the link: "http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/units-converter/pressure/calculator/newton-per-square-meter-[N/m%5E2]-to-psi-[psi]/" The brackets inside the link cause problems displaying it. Grab everything inside the quote marks.

Here's another converter link to confirm the results: "http://www.endmemo.com/sconvert/n_m2psi.php" It gives a slightly different conversion: 0.006961824

I must be doing something wrong. I'm looking at 48 N/m2 and seeing 0.006961811 psi. Is that correct? If so, I don't understand what the author, Kathy Bliss, is trying to achieve.

Here are several examples of Cheshire recipes:
-Boofer-
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on September 06, 2013, 09:07:28 PM
It's something that I've been struggling to understand myself over the last fortnight as I've been working with this recipe. I'm afraid I still don't understand it, despite working in physics.

Bliss's book is very UK-focused. It's a slim paperback with a good treatise on the science behind cheesemaking and then a few English cheese recipes, mostly focused on the cheddared and milled forms of cheese. Her Cheshire recipe calls for annato so I suspect it's for a red cheshire.

Apologies for my lazy typing, I did indeed mean Newton/square metre. To confuse things, Bliss refers to 24.9N/m2 as 5 cwt and 49.6 N/m2 as 10 cwt.

Trying to find conversions for those, I turned up [http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10990.msg83813.html#msg83813][/this article] by JeffHamm, which suggests that while 1 cwt = 112 lb, 5 cwt = 7.13 psi and 10 cwt 14.23 psi. However Jeff's spreadsheet suggests that I would need 100kg of weight to achieve that...so somewhere there's an order of two magnitudes difference. 0.006 psi is about a 100g weight!

At the end of the day I opted to use the middle road and use 10kg and 20kg of weights as they seemed a normal range for pressing cheese.
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Boofer on September 07, 2013, 12:56:31 AM
If you search on "psi", you'll find a few threads discussing the relationship between mould width (sq in or sq cm) and psi or kg/cm*cm.

But it sounds like you arrived at a reasonable compromise. ;)

-Boofer-
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on September 07, 2013, 03:46:52 AM
Thanks Boofer. The relation between psi and mould width I understand, but relating that to the N/m2 instructions threw me.

Fortunately, I'm perfectly comfortable with the fudge factor.  ;)
Title: Re: Well, hello
Post by: Geodyne on September 07, 2013, 04:31:06 AM
Ah, mystery solved: and this'll teach me (as if) not to rush half-cocked into a recipe without referring back to chapters I read a while back but apparently didn't absorb in relation to the recipe. I've just been re-reading her book while waiting for the curds to set on a stilton to figure out why she's pressing for so many days.

The reason for the multi-day pressing is because Biss focuses on larded and bandaged milled-curd cheese. So the routine *actually* is:

Day of make (day 1): moulding and pressing overnight
Day 2: unmould, trim as required, bathe for 1 minute in 50-60C (122-140F) water (using the pressing cloth) to remove surface fats and encourage rind development. Return to cleaned mould in pressing cloth.
Day 3: Unmould and bandage with fat (traditionally lard) and cheesecloth to one layer, return to press
Day 4: Remove from press and bandage again. Label and place in store.

So as I did all of that without the bandaging - no wonder last week's Cheshires were starting to dry out and crack. I'd been thinking about making another Cheshire tomorrow to trouble-shoot and now I think I'm going to have to so I can try this approach.