My 2nd Caerphilly

[darius]

Sorry, one of the photos is out of order.

[JeffHamm]

That looks great!  Your knit is much better than mine by the looks of it.  As mine is air drying, I see there's a couple spots where the outer seal is not quite solid (mold caves).  Anyway, if you eat this one young, I found that it was best in thin slices (a few millimeters thick).  Enjoy and well done.

- Jeff

[pliezar (Ian)]

After seeing both your cheeses, I know what my son and I are doing this weekend.

Good looking cheese darius!

[darius]

Thanks, Jeff and pliezar. I'll be pleased if it just tastes okay in a few weeks. That's only my 3rd cheese if you don't count a fromage blanc.

I'm sure the knit was accidental; I cut the curds too soon after floc because I'm a dumb noobie and forgot to add in the time factor after floc.

[JeffHamm]

Hi Darius,

I've only been making cheese for a few months now.  This one is only my 5th pressed cheese.  I've also made camembert a few times, and mozerella twice, and a large curd cottage cheese.  Like you, my first caerphilly knitted beautifully, this one is pretty good, but not perfectly sealed.  Have to get some warm water and a knife to smooth over the one or two potential mold caves. 

When you say "forgot to add the time facter after floc", do you mean you cut it at the floculation point?  Or do you mean you got a floculation point of 10, and then used 3x (30 minutes) and cut 30 minutes after adding the rennet (which would be correct; you don't add the 30 minutes after floculation, but after adding the rennet; I use a stop watch feature on my digital watch for this point, rather than calculation time on the clock).

Anyway, it looks like you got a good curd, and it knit well.  If you cut early (at floc), then from what I understand, this will mean the final cheese will be quite dry.  That might be a good thing with this cheese.  If you get a very hard, dry chreese, this might be very good grated over pasta, etc. 

pliezar, hope you post your make as well.   

- Jeff

[darius]

Jeff, I did get a floculation point @10 minutes and then cut. It wasn't until later I remembered the Time X Factor and by then it was too late. Using a floc. point is new to me; I'd been doing a clean break. I like this method much better! If the final cheese is dry, that's okay. I learn better by my errors sometimes!

[JeffHamm]

Hi Darius,

This is my first use of the floc method too.  I also prefer it over the clean break, as "clean break" is a bit subjective : and I always keep thinking "I'm sure it could be a bit cleaner"!   I took a guess at a 3x for this.  If this one is not quite dry and crumbly, I might go with 2.5x next time. 

I've heard the Welsh version would be dusted with flour at some point (it was thought to help reduce contamination of the cheese when they went down into the mine; I guess they could brush off the dirty flour and it would seem cleaner?)  I've not done that, but I would think it would be something that was done after the rind was fully formed (and after you've stopped intenting to brine wash it).  I'll probably not do that with this one, though.

- Jeff

P.S. I keep meaning to ask.  What is the diameter of your cheese?  I want to compare psi between our makes; what weight did you use?

[darius]

LOL, My one and only mold is 4.5" in diameter.

Since I only have a rudimentary press using direct weights, I just did the weight amounts the recipe suggested. I realize that's not PSI weights, and I still haven't figured out if all recipes are in PSI for weights even though they don't say so. Makes it hard for a beginner.

[JeffHamm]

Most recipies just give weights, but don't tell you the size of mold they are working on so PSI is just a guess.  If you used a 4.5 inch mold, with 7.5kg of weight, then that would give you around 1 PSI.  I think, even with my increase to 15kg for the over night press, my PSI would be about 0.8 or so (my mold is 18cm, or about 7 inches, and also just has me stacking weights on top).  However, the first one I made was in a bigger mold, and it knitted fine, so who knows?  ha!

- Jeff

[darius]

Hey, Jeff... I just saw in your 'make notes' that you brined this cheese. (I didn't see that in the recipe itself.) Why brine, and did you brine both makes?

[pliezar (Ian)]

Not to answer for John, oops sorry Jeff

I have found several different recipes for Caerphilly, some call for salt to be added into the curd and others say brine.  On the Youtube video for Greening of Gavin he rubbed salt on the outside of the cheese during pressing.

It is interesting to see the different ways this cheese is produced.

[darius]

Thanks, pliezar. I did rub mine with salt, top and bottom, every time I flipped it, and when I set it out to dry.

[JeffHamm]

Hi Darius,

I had found a few recipies for this, and was combining them.  The majority of it is from the Greening of Gavin website.  I noticed some others brined rather than salted the curds.  The first time, I wasn't thinking, and did both!  The 2nd time, I omitted the brine.

- Jeff

[darius]

Ahh... Thanks Jeff. I feel better about it now. It sure has lost weight. About 10% in the 1st 24 hours (66g) and about another 20g so far today. It's still getting a little moist on the underside, which dries slowly after being flipped. Probably by tomorrow it will go in my cave.

[JeffHamm]

Hi Darius,

Yah, mine went from 1.5kg to 1 kg over 3 weeks.  It will expell a lot of moisture, and does take quite a bit of time to air dry (I expect 3-5 days, but I've done a larger make).  I flipped mine twice a day (morning and evening).  Mine is still air drying and still quite damp on the bottom when I flip it.  I put mine on a series of chopsticks, as this allows good air circulation (better than the sushi mats I think). 

- Jeff

P.S. No worries pliezar!  I have a brother John, so perhaps you just confused us!