Greetings from sub-tropical Australia

[bjerkana]

I've just discovered your website after hearing about it at a recent hard cheese workshop nearby. I've been making all our bread, yoghurt and most other stuff for years and growing most of our vegies. Earlier this year I added a range of soft cheeses to that and now I've added havarti, soft blue, cheddar and soon to add haloumi, bocconcini, washed rind, parmesan and anything else I can find time to do. It's all very addictive - both the eating and the making.
I have an old book-binding press to use as a cheese press and it works well, although there's no way to tell how much pressure you're applying.  And I used to think I had a big fridge until I took up cheese making but now it's always full of maturing camembert, feta, quarg, brining solution and all the other paraphenalia.
But at least we've solved the problem of maturing cheeses in our periodically very hot and humid climate. The cheese tutor I went to uses wine fridges, which keep the cheese at a pleasant 10 - 13 degrees C. We bought one on our way home from my first workshop and now I'd like to build a cheese cave to increase our capacity. This is a dairying community so although we don't have our own cow I can buy lovely organic unhomogenised milk here. I'm looking forward to sharing recipes and tips on the website.

[Bishop]

Nice to meet you Bjerkana!

Nice to see another Aussie, sounds like you have some great opportunities with all that fresh milk about



Is that my imagination? is your pic a tenor clef? 

[Cheese Head]

Hi bjerkana, welcome from sub tropical Houston (at least in summer ), nice intro!

Also on your book press (which I have no idea what it looks like) one trick is to stick a bathroom scale under your hoop or mold to measure the total force and subtract weight of cheese and mold to get the applied force.

There are some other members here who have used a wine fridge as a cheese cave, most buy a regular fridge and the thermostat normally doesn't let the temp go high enough buy and external thermostat. But the question is with all your agin, how big a cheese cave do you want?

[bjerkana]

Thanks for the tip about the scales. I'll try that. The cave idea is a dream - we're fairly alternative here and it's a lovely idea to build one. We might do it some day. You can build bushfire shelters which are basically like big underground concrete water tanks (we store our water in one of those) but with a door in and an air vent.

[countrygirl]

Hi Bjerkana,
Greetings from the south in rainy Victoria.
Do you have a recipe for a nice soft blue? I buy a danish blue from a company called Europa Foods, and would love to get my hands on a good recipe. Today I am going to experiment with inoculating milk with a bit of the blue, but will have to experiment with temperature and process.
Hope you're not flooded out up there!

[bjerkana]

I do, as it happens. This recipe was developed by Lyndall Dykes of the Cheese-Making workshop near Coffs Harbour. I just did Her workshop which included a blue castello type cheese which i've made and my first batch is maturing. it has good colour developing but won't be ready to eat for a couple of weeks yet.
Recipe
Heat 8 lt unhomogenised milk + 1 lt plain cream to 35 degrees C. Add 200 ml prepared mesophylic (type B) starter + tiny amount of mild blue mould culture (penicillium roqueforti - you can buy this from Cheeselinks in Melbourne) - just the amount that clings to a dry metal skewer when you dip it into the mould - you won't even see it. Mix in well, then add 2.5 ml rennet mixed into 25 ml cold water and mix in.
Incubate for about an hour, then check for set. When ready, cut into 2 cm cubes, rest for 5 mins, then gently stir each 5 - 10 mins over an hour or so, keeping the curd warm. Stir for 10 mins, then drain off 2 lt whey and replace with water at 33 degrees C, stirring for another 5 mins. Drain off all the whey, gently mix in 1 tbsp salt and hoop the curds. Turn hoops over 5 -6 times over about 6 hours.
Next day, remove from hoops, rub a little salt onto surfaces and leave for 24 hrs. repeat salting and leave another 24 hrs.
Use a metal skewer or knitting needle to punch holes into the cheese about 1 cm apart. Mature cheese in humid environment for 2 weeks, turning over each couple of days. wrap and store in fridge for about a month. remove excess mould from surface with a sharp knife if desired.
Hope you're keeping dry. No problems here - for a change.

[countrygirl]

Thanks Bjerkana,
Looks like a really good recipe. I have camemberts planned for tomorrow, then some quark the next day to have on jacket potatoes on christmas eve, but will try the blue recipe with next week's milk. It's still raining.

[bjerkana]

What a coincidence. I made camembert today and quarg for Christmas yesterday! I'm doing marscapone tomorrow. Have a good Christmas - hope it dries up!