New from York, England

[Phil]

Hi Everyone,
I'm delighted to have found this site and hope to make some good contacts on here and you never know, perhaps some friends!
I'm thinking about starting a cheese business although plans are in their infancy at the moment.
I'm trying to develop a couple of cheeses just on a small scale in the kitchen at present. I'm making a French Neufchatel and a Sage Derby and having some problems!  :o
Anyone out there started from scratch?
Phil

[jmason]

Welcome Phil,
I am fairly new here myself and the folks on here are nice and very helpful.  You definately came to the right place.  I have no experience with derby, but I have made a few batches of neufchatel and although it is a simple process I will say it is not that easy a cheese to make.

Here's a link that you may find useful

https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2502.msg19558.html#msg19558

on that page is a film about nuefchatel production.

I never achieved the granular crumbly texture you see in the film, both of mine so far have come out like a chevre before the ripening.  I didn't really get and action from the P. candidum at my refrgerator temperature and in both cases moved them to my cheese cave, 1 for a week, and the other just stayed there and a half of it is waiting for me to finish eating it (it won't have to wait long, it has gotten pretty good).  I have a hunch that the acid  level was high enough to really impeed the pc development, it has finally in the ones that spent weeks in my cave @ 55F.

enjoy your time here.

John

[Phil]

Hi John,
Thanks for the note and great to be in touch. I've had similar problems with the French Neufchatel when refrigerating. I got the recipe from a book but I think it's wrong to refrigerate as the PC seems inhibited by the low temperature and takes ages to form. I notice on the video that you sent that the makers use a higher temperature 8-12C profile so I'll give that a go and report back!
Cheers
Phil