Esrom - The third time's the charm...

[fied]

It looks good, Boofer. Congrats!

[Boofer]

Ah, breakfast! 

Unwrapping the portion of this cheese from the plastic wrap that was vacuum-sealed....

No sign of any foreign invasion. Good news. The linens seems to do a good job of protecting the cheese.

The wrap is wet. The rind is sticky. The paste itself is firm with a slight softening at the rind, which is to be expected and was always the case. My wife comments that it has a strong aroma, but not stinky. Hmmm.

It melts well and complements very nicely the thinly sliced ham and my homemade bread. A sectioned orange along with a banana and black coffee and I am a happy camper.

-Boofer-

[anutcanfly]

 

[JeffHamm]

That looks very good Boofer!  Now, if you cure your own baccon ...

- Jeff

[dthelmers]

Bacon's pretty easy compared to making a good cheese!

[Boofer]

Sorry, I had this pic from February 18th and just had to include it here.

Did I mention I would do this cheese again? 

-Boofer-

[JeffHamm]

Very nice!  When are you planning on making this one again?

- Jeff

[DeejayDebi]

Thanks, Debi.

You know, this doesn't have that low, lingering bitterness that I sensed in the earlier makes. Very nice.

-Boofer-

After re-reading this post I wanted to comment on this. I bought some Esrom from Whole Foods about 3or 4 years ago to try before I made it and it had the bitter after taste on tha back of my tougue that hung on forever. I have bought a few cheese from them that were not altogether pleasent so I bought another piece elsewhere and it was totally different and pleasent. I did find that using raw milk made for an even more pleasent cheese but I could just be spoiled. I have gotten used to that extra creaminess I don't find in a lot of commercial cheeses.

One trick I use on the rectangular mold is to cut the plyban to fit the mold so it doesn't have folds. Really easy just make a few. I use push pins to hold the plyban down on some cardboard and draw the lines and cut to fit. My mold is 10x5 wide by 5 inched high if I remember right so I cut about an inch longer and hold the plyban down with clip while I place the curds in the mold. The long piece lays on top of the cheese, the folder on top of it and the 1  inch excess is a tab to remove the follower.

[Boofer]

Thanks, Debi. That makes a lot more sense than trying to deal with the folds.

-Boofer-

[DeejayDebi]

Your welcome hon makes it look almost like a kadova mold when pressed and easier to fix between flips.

[Boofer]

I didn't change my Plyban technique for the Esrom (#4) brick I made on Friday. Seems like folds are not really so much of a problem and handling & rewrapping doesn't seem to bother me. Still, I do like your cut-to-fit idea. I may try that for my next brick make...just to see if that makes the whole thing smoother.

-Boofer-

[DeejayDebi]

After a few fllps you can remove it anyway but it gives you a good way to handle the cheese too if it get stuck in the holes.