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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => ADJUNCT - Washed Rind & Smear Ripened => Topic started by: Andrew Marshallsay on August 04, 2014, 10:39:24 AM
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Washed rind cheeses are some of my favourites so I really had to have a go. I opened the first (of two) yesterday. This was much earlier than I expected but the sides were splitting and oozing every time I turned them, no matter how carefully. This was just over 4 weeks from the start of the make but I was concerned that they might be headed over the hill.
I used Gianaclis Caldwell's recipe for an ale washed cheese, the only modification being the use of MM100 culture, that being what I had on hand. The washing regime consisted of turning daily and washing alternate sides with ale brine (~3%) on alternate days for 3 weeks, at a temperature of ~13C. I then reduced the temp. to ~7C to slow the ripening and halved the washing frequency. The cheese were kept in a sealed, or almost sealed, ripening container to maintain a high humidity.
The rind developed nicely, although with little odour. After a couple of weeks some whitish, thickened patches appeared (geo?), most notably around the sides. I am wondering if this could have been because the sides were washed more frequently?
On opening, I discovered that there was some proteolysis under the rind and particularly on the sides, but that most of the paste was still quite firm. The taste is excellent, both the firm paste and the softened, but I could not detect anything in the taste which I would attribute to the ale. While I am very pleased with the outcome, this cheese does bring some questions to mind:
- Is this timescale typical of this type of cheese or am I right in thinking that it has developed rather rapidly?
- Should I use a plain brine in future and just drink the ale or is it important in developing the rind, if not the flavour?
- I think I read somewhere that some washed rind cheeses are bound around the sides to support them. Has anyone tried this and what could I use?
Thanks, in advance, for any thoughts on these matters.
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To answer your questions we need more information on the make, so if you could give us the step by step instructions you used that would be helpful.
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To answer your questions we need more information on the make, so if you could give us the step by step instructions you used that would be helpful.
what he said 8)
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No worries (except for reading my notes). Here goes:
- 4L of full cream, pasteurised but non-homogenised milk: P=3.3%, F=3.8%, brought to 31C.
- Cultures (1/4 tsp mm100+ 1/40tsp brevibacterium linens) sprinkled on top, allowed to hydrate for a minute or two and then stirred in.
- Ripened for 1 hour
- 1.2 ml of Calcium Chloride in about 20ml of water stirred in 5 min before the end of ripening.
- 1ml of animal rennet (140 IMCU/ml) in 30ml of water stirred in for 1-2 minutes
- Coagulation about 45 min (I think. This is missing from my notes)
- Cut to 10 mm
- Temperature raised to 37C over 30 min with stirring
- Rested for 5 min
- The whey was drained off and the curds ladled into two unlined moulds
- The cheeses were allows to drain with flipping at 5 min and 30 min.
- At this stage the moulds were stacked and a small weight added.
- The moulds were swapped every 1/2 hour and the cheeses flipped in the moulds at 2 and 5 hours.
- At 4 hours the weight was increased slightly
- 6 hrs after moulding the cheeses were unmoulded and then brined for 20 min.
- The cheeses were moved to a closed ripening container at 13C.
- Over the next 3 weeks the cheeses were flipped and washed daily with an ale brine of 3% salt. Alternate faces were washed on alternate days but the sides ended up being washed every day. Some BL was added to the brine during the second week as I was not sure that there was any developing.
- After 3 weeks there was some softening around the sides. I halved the frequency of the washing and moved the ripening container to 7C.
- The cheese continued to soften and at just over 4 weeks I cut one cheese and wrapped the other in cellophane.
At the moment I am still eating the first cheese and enjoying it.
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Yesterday I opened the second of these at about 6 weeks old and probably getting close to optimum ripeness. My earlier concern that they were ripening too quickly has not been realised.
In the end I had a very nice washed rind cheese. The only downside is that it was almost too good and a horde of ravening rellies demolished most of it in short order.
Definitely one I will be making again.
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Yesterday I opened the second of these at about 6 weeks old and probably getting close to optimum ripeness. My earlier concern that they were ripening too quickly has not been realised.
In the end I had a very nice washed rind cheese. The only downside is that it was almost too good and a horde of ravening rellies demolished most of it in short order.
Definitely one I will be making again.
Nice ^-^ AC4U ;D
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Thanks, H-K-J.
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RP,
Gorgeous Cheese, but where did you get the Caldwell recipe for Ale Washed Cheese?
Thanks,
andreark
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Gorgeous Cheese, but where did you get the Caldwell recipe for Ale Washed Chees
I was curious too Andrea so I looked in her book and saw some references but not a specific recipe (at least that I saw ???). I'm guessing it's more the wash than the cheese, but I did find this interesting reference to Covered Bridge (http://wedgeintheround.com/2013/03/25/covered-bridge/). I've done a brew-curd chedder (Mary Karlin's recipe) which is similar except the ale is added after milling and it sounds like CB is made adding the ale to the curds???
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The recipe is indeed from GC's book. It is called "Pholia Farm's Washed Rind Cheese" (pp 206-207).
Yes, John, the ale is in the wash only.
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Thanks for answering. Can't look at my book until I'm back home. I was just asking because I don't think I've ever
seen a cheese made entirely from cream, , , that is without any milk.
Thanks again,
andrea
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Andrea, the way I read his recipe, it was "full-cream milk" rather than just cream -- IOW, what I would call "whole milk."
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Yeah, in Australia we call it full cream milk.
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Just to confirm the last two replies. What I refer to as full cream milk is bog-standard milk, as opposed to reduced fat milk or jersey milk.
Actually, I am wondering how this would go with the latter?
Anyway, the milk I used ran out at 3.3% protien and 3.8% fat.
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Thanks Andrew...
I will try it with my Jersey raw soon. I'll let you know how it goes.
andrea