We decided to open some old stuff to rehearse my twin daughters' birthday next month.
All the home-made stuff, just missing the wine, milk, and anchovies in olive oil.
Squid Ink Monterey Jack: 6G Guernsey/Jersey/Holstein raw milk mix, recipe customized from Caldwell washing the curd with 22g squid ink (I wanted to do a "lava cheese" but was not sure about the ink being part of the milk before renetting.. might try it later). Aged 78 days at avg. 52F 83H. Just brushed a bit of mold before opening. It was very good, slightly more complex than a normal monterey jack but not by much. Moister too.
Aged Stinky: 6G Guernsey/Jersey/Holstein raw milk mix. Typical stinky recipe but cut the curd smaller, dried it a bit more etc. as I wanted to age this. Washed rind, aged 260 days at avg. 52F 84H. It was good, slightly stinky (much less than the normal creamy kind), still supple and flexible but hard and thinly sliceable. Even stinky haters munched it happily
Kasseri: just a bit that didn't fit the form last time I did kasseri and I tried to put the surplus in a small form. Did not bother oiling it or anything since I was going to eat it at the 60 day mark. Actually forgot about it and aged 113 days at 52F and 83H avg. Very dry, very flavorful, salty.
Alpkäse: 6G raw jersey milk, recipe in my profile, washed rind, aged 461 days at avg. 52F, 85H. It was very good, a few mechanical holes, paper thin edible rind, deep flavor
Tête de Moine: same cheese I opened 1 year ago. Last of that 3kg wheel, I kept it vacuum sealed and resealed after using it. Taste did not degrade at all
Non-cheese stuff:
5kg Mangalitsa Culatello: got it pretty cheap but the butchering was a bit messy so I trimmed, massaged the blood out, rubbed aggressively and coated in excess salt for 1 day to be safe, eq cured 76 days in 2.5% salt, 0.25% cure#2, 0.5% pepper and garlic. Cased in pig bladder, sew shut, netted, trusted, fermented 48h at 78F and hung 567 days at avg. 50F, 73H. Really good, it's a pity I haven't found cheap Mangalitsa lately
Ciabatta: tried to preferment with a poolish. I will do it again, very light and airy texture, full of holes
