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GENERAL BOARDS => Introductions => Topic started by: Mighty Mouse on October 24, 2012, 04:01:01 PM

Title: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: Mighty Mouse on October 24, 2012, 04:01:01 PM
Greetings from the land of happy cows and happy cheese (does anyone else in the US get to see those commercials?),
I have been into home cheese making off and on for about 4-5 years now. I have made several different types of cheese but tend to like the washed curd cheeses like Gouda both for their flavor and relative simplicity (recipewise). A couple of days ago I made my first brie and look forward to trying it when the time comes (also really looking forward to making more!). Right now, I am really interested in the P. candidum ripened cheeses and seeing what kind of weird concoctions I can come up with.
I have also been looking into (and will be attempting soon) making vegan "cheese" using soy and/or cashews (fermented). I have never made a vegan "cheese" but I get asked by friends about vegan or dairy free cheese alternatives often enough that I thought it would be fun to try (I got a book on vegan "cheese" recently).
I am thinking about starting a Gouda this weekend, especially since I just ordered a new gouda mold. That or I have been tossing around the idea of muenster (which I have yet to make but love muenster and have always wanted to make it).
Other hobbies include brewing (beer and mead, want to get into wine- I do live in CA afterall...), gardening, cigar rolling, bread baking and a few others.
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: hoeklijn on October 24, 2012, 05:40:32 PM
Greetings from The Netherlands, to be specific the neighborhood of the beautiful city of Gouda, hometown of the famous cheese you love.
On my avatar you see the old townhall of Gouda (finished 1459, yes Columbus was 8 years old then  ^-^)
Well, guess what my recommendation is for you next cheese? No, just kidding, I have at the moment more Reblochon than Gouda in the cave...
What kind of Gouda mould did you buy, a Kadova?
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: bbracken677 on October 24, 2012, 10:27:52 PM
Greetings from Texas! 

Yep...I have seen the happy cows commercial a few times ...think it's been at least a year or 2 since I saw one though.
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: Mighty Mouse on October 25, 2012, 03:40:04 AM
Greetings from The Netherlands, to be specific the neighborhood of the beautiful city of Gouda, hometown of the famous cheese you love.
On my avatar you see the old townhall of Gouda (finished 1459, yes Columbus was 8 years old then  ^-^)
Well, guess what my recommendation is for you next cheese? No, just kidding, I have at the moment more Reblochon than Gouda in the cave...
What kind of Gouda mould did you buy, a Kadova?

I love Europe! I spent some time in France and Switzerland. The bread and cheese alone sold me on moving there (unfortunately the family is not quite so sold...). I did not get a Kadova brand mold no (I wish, soon...). More or less the same shaping style but cheaper. I only got a 0.5 kg for now (about 100mm diameter I believe). I am wanting to do some experiments on some goudas, having a smaller mold will be nice. If this mold works out pretty well I plan to get a few more.
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: hoeklijn on October 25, 2012, 10:44:33 AM
Do you use a coating for the Gouda or do you wax them? I use a coating, which is common here for the artisan Gouda's as well as the Gouda's from the big dairies, and in my experience the smaller Gouda's loose more moisture than the bigger while maturing.
Yes, the Kadova's are quite expensive, but they form a very good rind. I've got 2 for 1 kg and 2 for 0.5 kg and was lucky to find them second hand...
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: Mighty Mouse on October 25, 2012, 06:16:16 PM
Do you use a coating for the Gouda or do you wax them? I use a coating, which is common here for the artisan Gouda's as well as the Gouda's from the big dairies, and in my experience the smaller Gouda's loose more moisture than the bigger while maturing.
Yes, the Kadova's are quite expensive, but they form a very good rind. I've got 2 for 1 kg and 2 for 0.5 kg and was lucky to find them second hand...

I have been waxing them. What kind of coating do you use? I have been reading more and more about using oil. I think I am going to try it this go around. The goudas I have made so far have been 2 pound goudas. They usually come out pretty dry but I have also been aging them longer (like a year or more). Part of why I wanted to get a smaller mold was so I could crank out a bunch of smaller cheeses and experiment with things like brining times, aging times, different cultures, etc.. but space is an issue for me. Any suggestions on the smaller goudas would be appreciated. I had a feeling moisture would be a challenge.

I hope to get a kadova mold sometime this year. Would not mind getting a Manchego mold as well. Honestly, I did not even know you could get them until recently! I love Manchego.
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: linuxboy on October 25, 2012, 07:28:56 PM
hmm...

tar -tvfz mightyMouse.tar.gz
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: Sailor Con Queso on October 25, 2012, 07:52:55 PM
hmm...

tar heel
tar baby
tar get
tar dy
tar mac
tar nish
tar paper
tar pon
tar radiddle
tar sal
tar tan
tar t
tar zan

Sorry. Unauthorized use of overstimulated neurons (and a 5 hour energy drink). Back to cheese stuff.
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: Mighty Mouse on October 25, 2012, 07:59:08 PM
Don't forget:
tar pit
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: Sailor Con Queso on October 25, 2012, 08:04:58 PM
and...

tar rantula
tar rif
tar ot
tar paulin
tar ragon
tar tufe
tar tar
tar taric

...has the pH dropped enough on the cheddar yet?
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: Mighty Mouse on October 26, 2012, 05:24:48 AM
...has the pH dropped enough on the cheddar yet?

Nah, but my mozzarella is no longer stretchable ;)

Oh well, there is always the other direction:

al tar
at tar
ava tar
cos tar
cot tar
days tar
earths tar
gui tar
ins tar
megas tar
mor tar
nec tar
plan tar
protos tar
quin tar
scimi tar
si tar
s tar
supers tar
ta tar
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: Mighty Mouse on October 26, 2012, 05:29:29 AM
hmm...

tar -tvfz mightyMouse.tar.gz

tar: z: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: hoeklijn on October 26, 2012, 06:48:18 AM
Any suggestions on the smaller Gouda's would be appreciated. I had a feeling moisture would be a challenge.
The coating I'm using is a kind of plastic coating. Because we had a lot of discussion about this subject, there is a lot you can find about it on the forum. At this side of the world it's in every webshop that is selling stuff for making cheese.
Aging baby-gouda's for over a year can be challenging. In a dutch book  (originating from the 1950s but rewritten several times) about the production of artisan cheese, there's a distinct difference between the recipe of baby-gouda (so called consumption cheese) and the bigger wheel's that are aged for about a year (so called storage cheese). At the moment I'm at work but if you're interested I can post the recipe that is adapted for baby-gouda later.

And although it was tempting, I'm not going to jump into the tar...
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: linuxboy on October 26, 2012, 02:34:45 PM
Oh, right, because of -z and -f order ...

tar -tvzf mightyMouse.tar.gz
Title: Re: Greetings from CA, USA
Post by: Mighty Mouse on October 27, 2012, 12:44:58 AM
Oh, right, because of -z and -f order ...

tar -tvzf mightyMouse.tar.gz

lol, I can not tell you how many times I have done that. Really bad when you are in a live code review on a big screen and you keep trying to tar (or untar) a file and mix up the f flag a couple times....