First Jarlesberg

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Mike, thanks for the kind comment. I'll probably leave it for a couple more months.

Andy, thanks for the information. I haven't had much to do with Shermanii but I'll bear that in mind for the next one.

[AnnDee]

Andrew, I put mine 2 weeks in a room that was around 22-28 C. It swelled up but I think next time I will put in a cooler place 22-24C then hopefully bigger holes can be produced.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

You raise an interesting point there Ann. I don't know how temperature affects eye size or, indeed, what the optimum temperature is.
Caldwell's book gives two recipes for cheese with eyes which call for 15-18C for small eyes and 20-25 for large eyes.
Interestingly, I have just opened an Edam with unexpected eyes. It must have been cross-contaminated by the Gruyere I made some time before. That had been kept at around 13-14C and had no warm phase.

[Al Lewis]

I'm in with the rest.  I found that until I place my emmentaler in an 80°F room it wouldn't swell.  When I did however, it blew up like a ballon.  Jarlsberg is one of my favorites.  Will have to try some soon.  AC4U for your perseverance and an amazing first attempt!

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Thanks for the cheese, Al.
I'll think about taking it out of the fridge again as it is starting to get quite warm here now.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Well, I took it out of the fridge for a couple of weeks, with room temperatures here getting into the twenties. I noticed after a while that the wax seemed to be loose on the cheese. Yesterday, when I picked it up, the wax split. I peeled it off and found a layer of wet, crumbly cheese, both top and bottom.
I have now cut off the dodgy stuff and vacuum bagged the rest. What remains is quite nice but nothing like a Jarlsberg. The taste and texture are somewhere between an Edam and a Cheddar.
I think that the problem was that I didn't manage to remove all the mould from the top and bottom before I waxed it, because of the deep wrinkles. The curved side, which was not wrinkled, was not significantly affected.
There is still little or no sign of eyes. This is ironic because an Edam which I made shortly before this Jarlsberg, developed eyes without any addition of Propionic culture.
The downside is that I lost a good third of the cheese. On the other hand, I did get some nice cheese out of it and I did learn some more stuff about cheese making.

[Boofer]

Ah, I see a fine candidate for the collection.

-Boofer-

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Ah, I see a fine candidate for the collection.

You're just saying that to make me feel better!

[Danbo]

A cheese for that!!!

[Andrew Marshallsay]

I've just opened the first of this. So, what do we have?
Jarlsberg, definitely not!
It is a very nice, tasty cheese though. A little bitey. More like a cheddar than anything else but with a rather more elastic texture than the Cheddars I have made.
All in all I think that I will consider it, not a failure but rather a trip to an unexpected destination. (Sorry, Boofer)

[Duntov]

Rules are that you must name your new creation.   

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Rules are that you must name your new creation.   

Damn. Why do people keep in sneaking up on me with new rules?
What about Roger?

[Boofer]

All in all I think that I will consider it, not a failure but rather a trip to an unexpected destination. (Sorry, Boofer)

Missed it by that much!

Seems like I've had a few like that too. For not just tossing it on the compost pile and actually finding your cheese's inner beauty...have a cheese.

"Roger"? Sure, what's in a name?

-Boofer-