Hello from Glasgow, Scotland

[fied]

I've been home cheese making for years, first in England, now in Scotland. The haul includes lactic, soft, semi-soft, hard pressed cheeses, and some moulded blues and white-bloom.

My methods have all been a bit gung-ho and can vary with each batch made: homemade presses and other equipment, use of creme fraiche and yoghurt for starters, making early and late ageing cheeses, calculating curd formation by eye and feel and gauging the weather temp/season temp by feel, etc., blueing and blooming cheeses by using a small quantity of mashed up, specially-chosen commercial product, but as I was taught cheese making by my mother and grandmother, using their recipes (my grandmother was the daughter of a Cambrideshire farmer), I suppose I must have taken in some kind of unscientific methodology, though I sometimes end up with unplanned for variations due to environmental bacteria, which can prove interesting. So it's good to find this forum with its more carefully calculated formulations, cultures and recipes, some of which I will be trying.

The earliest and simplest cheese I remember seeing made was from full cream unpasteurised Jersey milk, deliberately left on the kitchen table during hot, thundery weather until it soured - usually only a couple of hours. As soon as the curds solidified, they were then strained through cheesecloth until medium dry, with a little cream and salt added after being tipped into a bowl, sometimes with chives or garlic added. It never got to be kept beyond the day of making! Nobody even knew about listeria then.

I'm also looking for a recipe for Vacherin du Mont D'or, though I know it's only made during winter from milk with cows fed on hay, along with a Camembert/Brie-type processing, I suppose. I have a friend in Geneva who is trying to find out more, but would be grateful if other people here have information or recipes.

[Gürkan Yeniçeri]

Welcome to the forum Fied. i hope you will find the recipe for Vacherin du Mont D'or.

[fied]

Many thanks for your welcome, Gurkan. I'm getting information in trickles about VMD, but will eventually have enough to formulate an experimental recipe, I hope.

[Boofer]

Welcome aboard, fied.

Looking forward to hearing about your previous experiences...successes and failures. If you have pics of your makes, that is always a special treat for us cheese voyeurs. 

-Boofer-

[fied]

Many thanks, Boofer. Yes, I've had some cheese failures in the past - usually self-induced, such as when I've changed suppliers for cultures and rennet, haven't paid full attention to weighting, when I've been experimenting, when I've not put up the right ageing conditions, on getting to know a new source of milk and cream, etc. Most have been recoverable to a greater or lesser degree; a few not and were just plain nasty. I'm a believer in learning by mistakes, though, and can usually work out what I did wrong.

I've also found that different areas of the country have different qualities of ingredients/ambient temperature and Rel. Hum., so I've needed to change techniques and recipes accordingly. Scotland is relatively cold and Glasgow, for instance, has high humidity most of the year and is great for blue and white moulds; the hard cheeses can suffer a bit and have to be watched for pre-rind formation mould development. Lincolnshire was a dry county, so hards and semi-hards did better. My relatives' Cambridgeshire farm had a proper dairy and cheese room, so they could make all kinds, though, in reality, they stuck to a half-dozen or so family recipes, some of which were sold in the weekly market at Ely. London was fine for lactics, naturally cultured cheeses, a quick-ripening Caerphilly-type and not much else, ingredients were a problem there, too, especially after the growth in supermarket-sold milks and creams.

Successes? Any cheese that is edible, tasty and people like and want more of is a kind of success, I suppose.

On pics: I never thought to take any before coming across this forum, but will in future.

[Cheese Head]

Howdy fied, welcome, great that you had some family history in making cheese, none in mine that I know of!

[fied]

Many thanks, John, and thanks to the people who started the site for a very good resource. I suppose if I have one tip to pass on from the family to a home cheesemaker of hard cheeses, it's to keep the curds warm as far through the pressing process as possible. On the occasions I've forgotten that, the results have been somewhat interesting!