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My first cheddered style cheese

Started by jmason, May 25, 2015, 02:38:44 PM

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jmason

After seeking suggestions from forum members for a good everyday cheese that melts well I decided on and made a cheese based on recipes for lancashire and caerphilly.  because of the light press weight I'll consider it a caerphilly.

5/23
3 gal milk
3 Tbsp (heaping) ea. of buttermilk starter culture, and meso
1 Tbsp thermo/yogurt starter, originally 5 culture from Fage yogurt
1 tsp cal chlor
3/4 tsp calf rennet
2 1/2 Tbsp salt

heated milk to 90 F.  At 80 F added cal chlor and cultures.
ripened 1 hour
added rennet in 1/4 cup filtered aged water, floc in 15 min min, x3.5+52 minutes
clean break in 52 minutes, cut curd to 1/2 inch
rest/heal curds 15 minutes then stir for 10 minutes while raising temp to 95 F over 20 minutes.
rest curds 10 minutes and stir for 10 while raising temp to 98F
Drain and hand press/wring out whey
Cut and stack, rest 30 minutes in water bathed kettle at 100 F
recut and stack and flip, rest 30 minutes
repeated cut/flip/stack 2 more times
milled curds and salted
Put in form and pressed 30 min under 8 lbs
flipped and pressed without cloth 30 min. 8 lbs
flipped and pressed under elastic press aprox 15 lbs 1 hour
flipped and pressed 1 hour aprox 20 lbs
flipped and pressed 6 hours aprox 25 lbs
flip and final shaping press 25 lbs 2 hours
moved to room temp cheese box to dry
and that is where is is, I will leave it there aprox 36 hours, I think and then move to the 55 F cave to continue drying uncovered until I get a good surface rind starting. I already asked about bandagign this cheese in another thread and the consensus is no for a cheese that I plan on aging a max of 2 months.  Overall the make was fairly easy and smooth running.  I was afraid that I had drained the curds too much before the start of cheddering but it knitted very well during cheddering and in the press.  I did have about 1/2 lb of curds that wouldn't fit the mold and these were bagged and will become a topping on a frittata or 2.  made ricotta from the whey and with about a quart of milk added to the whey I got 15 oz of ricotta, 2/3 of which has become a ricotta cheesecake.

I turned the cheese today when I brought it out to take a photo.  Which is an adventure in itself when I am trying to use a tablet with only a front facing camera to take the pic.  I weighed it at this time after 24 hours in the drying box and it weighs in at 2 lb 14.4 oz, 4 5/8" in diam. and 4 1/4" tall.

Sorry about the lousy photo.  I'll have to dig out my digital camera and see if I can do better.



jmason

After 36 hours in the room temperature drying box I did a light salt rub hopefully to help develop a good rind.  it has dried a bit but I decided to leave it in the room temp box for another day.  It will get booted to the cave later today as I will need the box for the camembert I'm making today.  A pic of the cheese with a better resolution.  Sorry no pics of the make and no artsy cheese photos.

John

John@PC

Looks Fantastic John.  A cheese for your first stacked-and-milled.

Kern

Very nice looking, John.  AC4U.   ;D

jmason

Thank you John and Kern, and thanks for the advice that led me to this style and helped guide me through the make.
So a little update.
It's been drying naked and afraid in the cave for a few days now and is almost ready to be mini caved.  Don't have any containers that are ideal for this but as I was pontificating on this diilema my eyes fell on a dvd spindle cover, hmm, quick measurement, yup she'll fit in there just dandy.  So if I don't find anything suitable when I go to the store later that will be her home for the next Several weeks.  A bit more drying is in order before this though.

John

shaneb

Looks great John. Have a cheese from me also.

Shane

jmason

A check yesterday on this cheese revealed nothing out of the ordinary.  I believe it is ripening nicely, rind is well developed and there may be a touch of linens going on on the rind.  I was salt rubbing another cheese and so decided to do this one as well, Yoev says that after the rind is formed you can do this without risk of oversalting the cheese and I believe him.  Where is that rascal anyway?  I will post a pic of this cheese when I get a chance. 

John

jmason

The pics as promised.  After Katherin told about coconut oiling her caerphilly I decided it was time for oiling this puppy, and since the coconut oil is a solid at cave temps I went with that.  Seems to have sealed it pretty nicely.  Didn't weigh it today but I am sure it's lost a fair amount of water weight.  I think we are at week 3 now so well see how long I can hold out.

John

OzzieCheese

Ooooh ! that looks a bit of orroight!

Have a cheese.

-- Mal
Usually if one person asks a question then 10 are waiting for the answer - Please ask !

jmason

So Last night as I was tending cheeses I decided it was time to check on when i made the caerphilly, and low and behold it was about 6 weeks ago, time to cut into that sucka.  Today I did, needed a cheese to round out a ham sandwich and this seemed a likely candidate.  Drier than I expected, more crumbly, flavor had a bit of sharp but different than an aged cheddar, more maybe citrusy, but decent, not great but decent.  Salt was spot on.  All in all I would say a success.  I will see how it melts in a fritata tomorrow.

Boofer

Yum!

Looks delicious, John. Here's your cheese. :D

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

Tiarella

I'm so glad you did a Caerphilly!  It's such a great and quick cheese. Just yesterday I slathered a thick coating of Spanish Paprika and coconut oil on a Caerphilly I made a few days ago. The trick with getting that on was having the cheese and paste at the best temperatures. The paste was joint compound texture at first and not staying on so I chilled the cheese in fridge and added more soil to the paste and then it worked.

Your taste description gave a sense that this is a lovely cheese. Congratulations!! 

About the coconut oil rind treatment......sometimes I find that I need to add a bit to some thin patches after a bit if it's in a low humidity cave.

AC4U.  ;D

Tiarella

Forgot to say that I mentioned the Paprika because I hope you'll try it sometime. Makes a very handsome cheese, adds nice flavor and makes Caerphilly endlessly creative if you explore rind treatments.

awakephd

Quote from: Tiarella on July 13, 2015, 03:17:14 PMThe paste was joint compound texture at first and not staying on so I chilled the cheese in fridge and added more soil to the paste and then it worked.

Kathryn, I hope you added more oil to the paste, rather than more soil -- though maybe, if you were working with joint compound ... ?

:)
-- Andy

jmason

Andy, she's making a kinda back to the earth kinda cheese.