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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => RENNET COAGULATED - Hard Cooked (Swiss) => Topic started by: DeejayDebi on November 08, 2009, 06:33:06 AM

Title: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: DeejayDebi on November 08, 2009, 06:33:06 AM
I decided to try a procedure from that vintage 1918 Cheese Making book to see what it came out like.

I was canning chicken soup for the winter (thighs on sale for $1.89/lb) at the same time and overshot the temps in the early acidification stage by about 8 degrees. For some reason I meant to turn it down a bit because I was within a few degrees of my target but I must have turned it up. The curds still looked and tasted good. We shall see.

Anyway here are the pictures after an hours pressing.

BTW I did press under whey for about 15 minutes. IN the swiss it did make the netting a bit sticky in the kadova molds as curds got on both sides of the netting.


Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: Tea on November 08, 2009, 06:59:49 AM
Multi tasking is great, but it does have it's pitfalls.  ;)

Anyway they look good at the moment.  Hope they turn out better than my recent attempts.
Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: DeejayDebi on November 08, 2009, 07:05:21 AM
Yeah much easier to do soup and kraut like I did yesterday. They aren't as fussy!  :D
Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: Boofer on November 08, 2009, 08:01:56 AM
Sweet-looking Swiss!

Debi - If you don't mind me asking, how much cheese do you go through on, say... a monthly basis?

Do you have a restaurant, sausage & cheese store, or...?  Not nosy, just curious. Seems like I recall you mentioning in a thread here how small your cheese cave was.

I know my cave would fill up pretty quick with those Kadova mould cheeses.

-Boofer-

Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: DeejayDebi on November 08, 2009, 08:04:08 PM
Boofer -

I don't have a business. I work for the Navy. I have two small caves going right now. The mini cave (1.7 cuft) sits on my microwav and is only for the first month where I have to fuss with it daily. It has four shelves and will hold 8 cheeses if I keep them to 3 pound wheels. That's why I spit my batches most of the time.

After a month I vac pac and move them to the basement cave (3.2 cuft) which is about twice the size but only has three shelves and some drawers. That one has the door stuffed too.

I give away alot of cheese and sausages to friends and family so I only have the ones that need extended aging left. I just love doing it. I mostly use cheese for sandwiches or grating. I will also package most of my cheeses up for Christmas presents so the caves will be real low soon.
Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: Boofer on November 08, 2009, 11:11:53 PM
Thanks for the pics. Good looking collection.

Hoping your Swiss has big eyes...  8)

-Boofer-
Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: Likesspace on November 08, 2009, 11:52:33 PM
Debi,
The swiss looks really great.
Did the wheels have a nice elastic feel to them when you took them out of the mold?
I've never over cooked a swiss but I've always felt that if they felt ....ummm....rubbery after pressing then I was pretty much on the right track.
I received a fresh package of p. shermanii the other day so a swiss in in the near future for me. Just thinking about it gives me a sense of dread since this cheese has won EVERY battle so far.
Even though I have no reason to feel this way, I do believe that if I continue to do battle with this cheese I will eventually win the war. :)
Good luck on this one and please keep us all updated. I'm trying to understand everything that I can about this cheese so that I can finally turn one out that I'm proud of.

Dave
Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: DeejayDebi on November 09, 2009, 12:18:32 AM
Likespace-

It felt normal, looked normal even tasted normal. The curds even broke nicely when I tested them so maybe it didn't hurt to much. I did add cool whey back the curds to lower the curd temperature after the cooking phase. That's supposed to soften the curds. We'll see.
Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: DeejayDebi on November 10, 2009, 01:51:37 AM
Update:

I brined the cheese for about 21 hours and dried them with a cloth. Now they are back in the molds and wrapped in plastic wrap to keep the drafts off and cozily hibernating in the microwave to keep them warm. It's been about 55 degrees in my kitchen in the Early morning.

I did find them to be a bit firmer than normal after the brine but still quite flexible.

Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: eVenom on February 18, 2010, 08:53:01 PM
OK Debi...! it's been more than 100 days what happened to these cheese?

are you going to crack it open any time soon?



Venom
Title: Re: Did a Swiss style Cheese tonight
Post by: DeejayDebi on February 19, 2010, 03:53:36 AM
WOW! has it been 90 days already? Yes your right 11-09-2009. I have been so busy getting my winter sausages made I forgot about my cheese! I don't think I have given it away yet. I will have to go look. I get a lot of guests this time of year and I never send anyone away empty handed!  ;)