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Brick #1

Started by Prohoc, December 04, 2014, 08:04:45 PM

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Prohoc

Based off of the recipe at cheesemaking.com/brick.html.  Since I was out of MM100 I used Meso III instead - has Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis and Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris but no ssp. diacetylactis.  I also left out B. linens culture.  Almost all of the cheeses we made so far had some B. linens show up early, welcome or not.  I wanted to rely on that local linens for this.

2 gal. First Street milk
1/4 tsp Meso III
1/2 tsp rennet
1/2 tsp CC

1. Milk to 88 F
2. Add 1/4 tsp Meso III
3. Ripen for 10 minutes
4. Add 1/2 tsp CC, 1/2 tsp rennet
5. Rest for 30 minutes
6. Cut into 3/4 in. squares, then into 3/8 in. cubes
7. Rest for 5 minutes
8. Stir gently for 10 minutes
9. Raise to 100 F over 45 minutes, stirring slowly
10. Remove 2 qt whey
11. Add 65 F water until the temperature of the curds is 85 F
12. Let the curds settle and remove whey
13. Drain in mold for 15 minutes
14. Press at 2# for 3 hours, turning regularly
15. Leave in mold overnight with no weight
16. Brine for 5 hours

I washed and flipped every day for the first ten days.  As per Alp's guidelines, I kept the same brine for the whole time.  At first I washed with a cloth.  Some pink flecks of B. linens showed up all over within three days.  The cheese started to smell yeasty, and then grew more earthy after a few days.  At the end of a week the cheese hardly had any color or smear.  I could tell the cloth wasn't cutting it.  I then started smearing with a brush, and that did the trick.
These pictures are from day 13 or so.  I had stopped washing it the last few days before I wrapped it and put it in the fridge.  Oh, and the smell had gone from earthy to devilish.
Been in the fridge for two weeks.  I plan on opening it around Christmas.  Different recipes call for anywhere fro 3 weeks to 3 months of cold storage.  Any experiences with aging time?

Prohoc

I unwrapped the cheese on Christmas eve, at about seven weeks of age.  It had a good stink, though nothing as strong as Limburgers I had before.  Large patches of the cheese had some blackish mold over the smear.  The mold grew happily on the waxpaper, so I don't know how much actually grew on the cheese itself.

Pictures:



The cheese was going soft around the edges under the rind, while the core was chalky-crumbly.  The first taste was quite mushroomy, earthy, slightly bitter.  At first I was disappointed.  The brick tasted nothing like the Limburger I remember eating.  My father, who is German, thought both the smell and taste were spot on.
I have had the cheese several times since on dark bread and love it.  Not quite what I aimed for, and not a good cheese for eating plain, but a solid winner in the right combinations.

In the meantime I made a washed-rind cheese that developed an orangey-red rind quite quickly.  That cheese had the classic (in my mind) touch that B. linens adds.  My guess is that when I washed the Brick improperly early on I threw off the balance of the flora.  Not enough B. linens, too much of something else.  So I'll plan on making this cheese again sometime, smearing it with a brush from the get-go, and see what happens.  And for now I'll enjoy this one with some more dark bread, or maybe potatoes.

One question.  After ageing a cheese in foil in cold storage for a long time, should I air it out at all before eating?  Should this make a difference in terms of ammonia or the flavor of the cheese?