First Farmhouse Cheddar- Few Questions

[Crystal]

Hi again,
I have just cut into my first Farmhouse Cheddar... its 4 weeks old tomorrow and was kept in various less than ideal temperatures from the fridge, bench, shelf in the laundry during its aging.

It was a cheapo P&H milk, using the recipe from my cheese kit. Apparently i was not very careful with the make, i didnt take notes either so i cant help with that now.

But, all that said... It tastes AMAZING! i honestly expected something very dangerous hapening under the wax, or expected some grand failure! And its not... It tastes like our shop bought 'Tasty' cheese. It has the texture too, holds teeth marks, which is my way of gauging... Its a little moist but still ok for me. It has a few gaps in it but its not too bad! Its very white though, and im not really sure what it should look like so if anyone has a pic of a similar id happily take a look! Oh, i cant really 'slice' it, but not sure if your meant to be able to or not... And IT MELTS! what a great thing to happen...

Now, on to the questions:
1. What should a 4 week old Farmhouse Cheddar look like? Should i be able to slice it?

2. My best guess on the holes/gaps is too cold when i pressed and not enough pressure. Any one agree/disagree?

3. What affect would the aging temp have on all this, as i dont yet have a cave, the cheese was in the fridge some days, on the bench overnight as its quite cold here at the moment, nights are down to 16c inside my house. Or if i wasnt running the dryer id put it on a shelf in the laundry during the day which im not sure of the temp, but lets say it was under 20 as the outside temp wasnt over that and its colder in my house than outside, damn double brick!

Any help or ideas appreciated here, but all told im rather impressed with myself. I had no idea what to expect!

Oh, side note: I made another farmhouse with chives two weeks ago, as its being eaten on christmas i really wanted to check that it was 'edible' so that if its not i could let her know that it would be good to buy some. And wow... its soooo good! Obviously its not as good as the first as its only two weeks old, but still... The chives have flavoured it really well, and was a bit crumbly, a perfect 'cracker' type cheese!

thanks

Crystal

[boothrf]

Well done Crystal! 

Love the first photo with the little fella peering at the cheese!!!

Sorry, can't really help with the cheesemaking, I havn't tried cheddars yet.

Bob

[GlennK]

That's an awesome looking cheddar Crystal!  My first farmhouse will be two months old on christmas and I plan on eating it then.

I'm curious how temperature affects it as well.  Mine has been in a plastic box in the basement at about 62(F) but it has been as low as 48 in there as well.

[Crystal]

Great, i just noticed the little man in that pic! The kitchen bench has a 'window' into the 'formal' dining room, which we have converted into a giant inescapable play pen, which is just great for me in the kitchen, and kids in the room, except when theres cheese around, they get far more excited about cheese than cake even! He ate his fair share of slivers though! excpet, i use natural wax, which looks alarmingly like chees, but according to my 4 y/o does NOT taste like cheese!

Bob, you should give this a go! With bought milk even, i cant complain! The kids eat it and my nanny, who doesnt like cheese says she wont eat it, which means it does taste like cheese! And i made it in my wind down press, which doesnt really work well. but i still got cheese!

Glenn: It will be interesting to see how yours turns out. If it wasnt summer here i could get away with out a cave for longer, but our house gets alarmingly hot even at night in summer so i wouldnt try leaving it out then. But as its been cold i figured id give it a go! I do have another fridge in the ever resourceful garage, might get FIL to see if he can tinker with the thermostat so i can store in there during summer. The garage is much cooler anyway, being under the house its pretty cavelike. Has moss growing pretty well in there anyway!

Make sure you post pix of yours glenn, so we can compare.

If anyone else has made a farmhouse cheddar we'd all appreciate a look too ;-)

[JeffHamm]

Great results Crystal!  And, at only 4 weeks, I'm impressed.  It looks really good to me, and I would think white is right for a 4 week old cheese. 

- Jeff

[Crystal]

Wow, if you say its good Jeff then i musta done it right! I am still in shock that it worked though...

Glad the colour is meant to be white, but would it turn yellow if left longer Jeff?

So, in my opinion, the temp changes didnt have that much impact. It still turned out pretty good. Im sure they would all taste different if i had a few to compare but i dont, so i think it worked ok!

[JeffHamm]

Hi Crystal,

It might go a bit off white, but if you're thinking the strong "orange" colour of North American cheddar, that's coloured with Annato (a natural dye).  But, I suspect the Australian cheese is like New Zealand, in which case I think that will develop a bit as it ages and dries more.  Waxing might slow that up, but my "almost a year" gouda has that colour.

- Jeff

[Crystal]

Right, so should i do an unwaxed ie 'naked' one? I was hoping for more of a 'tasty' yellow than american cheddar orange. Btw, what kind of cheese is tasty cheese? And those little babybelle cheeses? Would a traditional cheddar go the yellow colour? Its just weird that this tastes like yellow cheese but its white! My brain is confused! Oh, it grates too... kinda! Lol, i grated it intl our mashed sweetpotato with dinner! It behaved well and melted right through!

[JeffHamm]

Hi Crystal,

According to Fonterra's website, their Tasty Cheddar is aged 12 months.  I would think if you aged it in wax for a year it would go yellowish.  You could try bandaging and larding one.  That's more traditional and the cheese is drier and crumblier (or so I understand, I've never actually tried this).  If you're getting good flavours after 4 weeks though, you might just end up getting used to snow white cheese!

- Jeff

[Crystal]

thats a good point Jeff, why bother waiting longer when its good at 4 weeks! Does anyone wait that long for a farmhouse cheddar? I kinda wish i had a smaller mould so i could make smaller cheeses. Im ignorant on the subject of bandaging too... Ah, decisions, decisions... if i had a vac sealer id seal up a bit of this one for a bit longer, but i dont... so i guess i'll just have to eat it! So, my next one i might open at 6 or 8 weeks, should get a vac sealer by then, and i'll seal up some of it for as long as i can, see what i end up with!?

[GlennK]

why bother waiting longer when its good at 4 weeks! Does anyone wait that long for a farmhouse cheddar?

My recipe says it's best 2-6 months.  I ended up with 2 cheeses with my last make - one larger and one smaller.  I couldn't fit all of my curd into my mold so I had to improvise another.  I'm going to eat my smaller one first - at two months.  I'll see how that one is but I'm planning on eating the larger one in April - 6 months.

[Crystal]

I guess it depends on your tastes really. Im more than happy with the flavour of the 4 week FC, but im interested in developing more colour and maybe slightly dryer cheese. So, ill stir more next time, press harder and wait longer till i eat it! though, that said, im a glutton for cheese and *might* not make it 6 months!

[JeffHamm]

Hi Crystal,

Make two close together in time.  Age one of them out to 6 months, the other, eat as per normal and continue to make other cheeses as per normal.  That one extra one, aging away, can then be resisted.  That's what I do at least and it's worked so far.

- Jeff

[Crystal]

Dont know i have your patience! But yeah, i'll try, i have to get to work in January making cheese, fixing the vege patch, build a chook pen... it never ends! I can try to stay busy and away from the cheese though! Hmm, anyone know a great 'sandwich' kinda cheese? Aside from the farmhouse?

[OzzieCheese]

I noticed you were worried about your cheese not being 'yellow'.  If you don't have the anatto colouring, try saffron.  I use 1/4 cup boiling water and 10-15 strands of saffron (more if you want a really intense colour) and let it cool.  Strain the liquid and keep the strands.  Add the liquid at the start before you add the Starter culture and add the strands to the curds ( give them a little mix in the collander) when you pour off the whey.   The curds will have a nice just pale cream colour and when you cut the cheese the orange strands throughout the cheese looks real cool.  Saffron is a little expensive I grant you but it doesn't seem to impart any flavour to the cheese and most supermarkets have it.

-- Mal