Just opened a Mahón cheese I cold smoked last year. It aged 316 days in the cave with an oiled rind. The flavor was extremely intense, way over what I usually get on 1 year cheeses.
I found the online recipes for Mahón cheese very different from the one listed in the
Protected Designation of Origin documentation. I made this cheese combining both sources and my own experience, with preference for the designation of origin paperwork when possible.
BackgroundMahón is a cow's milk cheese from the island of Menorca in the Mediterranean Sea.
It's called after the port of Mahón, from where it was traded across Europe. It is an adaptation of previous ewe's milk recipes after Friesian cows were introduced during the brief British occupation of the Balearic islands in the 18th century.
Funnily enough, one of the
theories on the origin of mayonnaise places it with the Duke of Richelieu having garlic-less alioli sauce at dinner during the siege of Mahón in 1756, bringing it back to the french court and calling it mahonnaise.
It's sharp, slightly salty, piquant and buttery, with a nutty taste.
It can be consumed young or fully aged. Initially it's dense, crumbly, moist and buttery with a slight hazelnut flavor. As it ages over a year it becomes dry and firm, piquant, with wood and leather notes.
Process- pH targets: start 6.75, rennet (pH drop >=0.1), whey pitch 6.4, brine 5.2, flocx3 40-45min
- Milk: 6G Jersey (raw). I got 13% yield
- Starter Culture: 0.6g MA4000, dissolve in 60ml non-chlorinated water, wait 5 min for it to rehydrate, mix and stir
- Ripen: Heat the milk to ~90F. Check for pH drop and move on. It should take 30-90 mins.
- Adds: I did not use lipase. If you want to, dissolve 0.5g lipase in 50ml non-chlorinated water, let stand 20 mins, add to milk and stir. If your milk is not raw, add CaCl2. The solid food-grade one is way cheaper than the liquid one sold for cheese-making, just need to weight 1/3 or what the recipe calls for to water. So if you’re doing 6G of store bought milk, dissolve 2g solid CaCl2 in 60ml non-chlorinated water, stir in and let it rest for a minute before adding to milk. Lipase and CaCl2 should be added 10+ min after culture, 10+ mins before rennet
- Rennet: Dissolve 4.5ml single strength in 50ml non-chlorinated water, whisk milk top-down vigorously for a minute to get that Jersey fat back in, then add dissolved rennet to milk slowly stirring constantly for a minute
- Coagulation: Check flocculation after 10 mins, x3 flocculation, target is 40-45 mins
- Cutting Curd: Cut center, then 1" in parallel. Long side before short one. Let it rest 5 mins, then use harp or whisk to slowly cut the curds down to ~1/3" in another ~5 mins
- Cook curd: Heat to ~100F over 30-45 min, not over 1 degree per minute. Keep stirring slowly and continuously
- Maintain: Stir slowly in an 8 pattern until you hit pH 6.2-6.4, or 70-120 mins (or stir a bit every few minutes and accept a bit of matting)
- Settle: Pitch (press under the whey) 5 mins to form solid single mass so it’s easy to drain whey and get the curds in the form
- Press Under warm whey: 2 hours going from x1 to x3 cheese weight, flipping 3 or 4 times
- Press outside of whey: 2 hours, until pH goes around 5.2. I used seed heating mats and got it out at pH 5.13. Start with ~3xcheese weight, go to x8
- Salt: Brine 1.5h/pound (depending on form) at 18% salt by water weight (add 5g CaCl2 and 5ml white vinegar per gallon of water -or enough vinegar to lower pH to 5.2)
- Air Dry: Leave in ripening box at room temp 6-12h flipping at least once
- Age: 50-55F 80-85H 1 month in cave, then rub with olive oil and pimentón every week for 1 month, every other week for 2 months. Age 1+ years
- Cold Smoke: it is not traditional but I did 48h at ~46F after 1 month in the cave, just before applying the first coat of olive oil+pimentón
