Mushrooms - Using In Cheese Making

[MarineGrunt]

I went out last night looking for some shrooms and luckily found about 2 lbs. I then wondered if anyone has ever made any cheese with morels in it. I don't even know if this is possible or if it would even taste that good. When you dehydrate morels and then rehydrate, the water holds a lot of the morel flavor. I noticed that with pepper jack you soak the peppers in water, add that to your milk and then add the chopped up peppers later. I wonder if you could follow the same procedure using morels?

Has anyone ever tried this? If so, does anyone have a recipe? If not, does anyone have any recommendations if I give this a try?

I love morels and I love cheese, so I may just have to give this a try!


Thanks!

[iratherfly]

Perhaps it can work in a brie type cheese. I would rehydrate them in the milk or whey and chop them small before mixing with the curd

[MarineGrunt]

Didn't even think about rehydrating in the milk. That would probably be the best route to take.

Do you know if there is a reason why it wouldn't work with, say, a Monterey Jack? I wonder if I would run into any problems because they are a fungus. Aren't some mushrooms used as a coagulate?

[Tomer1]

I would make a reduction essentially cooking in milk or water untill thick,
Put in a blender,strain and add the liquid to the (soon to become cheese) milk.
If you want some texture you can add some finely choped dry mushrooms (moisture of the cheese should rehydrate them) when to your moulding, mixing them with the curds.

[iratherfly]

MarineGrunt - I don't think they are very acidic or pathogenic to your milk cultures. They are a bit like sponge so my suggestion to reconstitute them in milk or whey (that already includes your cultures!!!) was to make them soak up the flavor as well as colonize them with compatible culture.  I have never actually done it but it makes sense to me to do it.

Mushrooms in cheese is not a new thing, there are several Bries with mushrooms out there and Pecorino with Truffles etc.  I don't see why it wouldn't work in Monteray Jack which is a drier cheese. I am just not sure the flavor profiles of the two are so compatible but I may be wrong. It just "feels" to me that it is crying for a cheese that's a bit more luxurious and creamy in texture like Brie or even something more Mediterranean like Haloumi.  Gouda has been known to take up spices like cumin and carraway seeds very well and I think that its "round" flavor may fit better than Jack which is more like a very young Cheddar. In other words, in the cheese that belongs in an hors d'oeuvres or desert plate rather than table/cooking cheese. That's just my own taste though.

[MarineGrunt]

Thanks for the replies. Both sound like great ways at approaching it!

I would think that cooking them down would probably incorporate more flavor with using less mushrooms.  I know that when you rehydrate mushrooms it also makes a pretty strong broth though. I just wonder how much of the "broth" or "gravy" to use. I'm sure this will take a quite a few tries to get right. If there even is a right.

I think I was just stuck on Monterey Jack because when I thought about morel cheese I instantly thought of Pepper Jack. I am going to try it with Gouda as recommended.

What do you guys think about me trying it in some Mozzarella first just to try and fine tune the amount of shrooms used? I would then be able to try both of the recommended ideas. Do you think that would give me an idea of how Morel Gouda will turn out?

If I try the dehydrated method should I boil them for a bit and then dehydrate in order to make sure I kill any bacteria in the shrooms or will the aging process take care of that? Does anyone know if dehydrating morels kills the bacteria? That is, if there even is any.

I really appreciate the input! Thanks for sticking with the thread!

[susanky]

Ooooohhh yes!  Do the mushroom mozzarella.  Then you can have fabulous mushroom pizza!  I'm interested to hear how your project turns out.  I'm inspiried to go look for some morels (although I've never found them)
Susan

[mainelycheese]

While I can't reply about your technique and cheese questions, MouCo out of Fort Collins, CO makes a Camembert style cheese with black summer truffles called Truffelo that is just wonderful. Very subtle truffle flavor and the truffle bits are throughout.

I spent 3 days cutting and giving out cheese for the Boston Food Show and this cheese was one of my favorites. Ok, so I had a long list of favorites, but sheesh.... :-)

So, that might be the venue I would want to try with your morels...

[Tomer1]

You cant really compere truffles to any other type of shrooms since they pack such a punch for even a small quantity so putting just a few bits can perfume a big portion of cheese.

[iratherfly]

Right, can't really compare truffles to others, also because they have such great texture.  You can achieve this texture in all kinds of truffle wannabees (Chinese winter truffles and canned truffled) but the aroma and flavor are not there. In many recipes though, the Italians replace them with far cheaper Porchini which are fragrant, flavorful and rich. They use dry mushrooms and only partially rehydrate them so that the texture still have some crunchy bite to it.

MarineGrunt - As for the quantity; use whatever amount you would have used if you had to substitute peppers with Morrels in a recipe.  Don't rehydrate them too much because the flavor will run out with the liquid. This is why I was suggesting also to use the milk after you inoculate the starter culture into it. This is also going to be better for resolving any pathogenic issue from the mushrooms (because you would populate them with overwhelming amount of cheese bacterium that can overpower whatever bacteria they carry) but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Soil and plant fungi are usually beneficial to cheese aging.

mainelycheese - As I said, these have been existing for the longest time in a variety of French and Italian cheeses. I still think it would work better in Brie type of cheese than in Jack. I recently has a rare black truffled-lined Delice des Cremiers triple cream from Bordeaux. It was fantabulicious!

[Tomer1]

Soil and plant fungi are usually beneficial to cheese aging

Yeah,
As long as your not living in west africa where your soil may contain spures of anthrax you should be fine 

[Brie]

Interesting thread, as I always like to work with different and unusual flavors for cheese. Best to add less than more in any cheese. I have found the best way to infuse flavor and not comprise the integrity of the cheese is wash the rind with the flavorings rather than add them to the curds. Specifically, I have been doing this with tommes. I have made one with fennel pollen and lavendar and one with porcini. All are dried and mixed in a small amount of olive oil. Washing begins after the rind has formed--usually 3-4 weeks. I then rub with the mixture once a week for the next month, and continue aging for 1-2 more months. The aromas and tastes infuse the cheese during the aging process; yet do not overpower the cheese. If you want to use fresh mushrooms (or even re-hydrated dry), I would add only to a highly acidic cheese that could possibly deter the pathogens that could build up in the  shrooms. As Yoav said--a brie-like cheese would be ideal. Personally, I would only use the dried--to be safe.

[iratherfly]

Personally I am actually not a huge fan of cheese with stuff added to them. I like cheese to speak for the terroir and milk quality as well as the cheesemaker's skill.  I can add peppers, mushrooms, herbs, nuts, spices etc. on my plate, bread or cracker. No reason to ferment them with the cheese and mask the natural flavors. 

[ArnaudForestier]

You cant really compere truffles to any other type of shrooms since they pack such a punch for even a small quantity so putting just a few bits can perfume a big portion of cheese.

Ahhhhhhhhhh, truffles, bacon; it's good to be alive.

[lwybrant]

Here in Oklahoma we got rained out of the morel season, man i wanted to find a sack full.