Ever since reading about the traditional method of making Lancashire on this website - curds saved over several days to be used in the final cheese - I've been keen to give it a go. Just how to go about it, I had no idea - no-one on this site seemed quite sure about the process. Commercial manufacturers might know, but if they do they're not letting on - just about the only information I could find was that there is an established way of doing this (thank you, Dr Gornall), and that it works best if the curds mature at lower temperatures, around 3 to 5 celsius. I presume the inclusion of buttermilk in Lancashire recipes on this site is meant to provide a similar effect to the addition of two/three day old curds.
So I was pretty much making it up as I went along. Fair enough, I'm used to that!
So here's what I did. For my Festival of Lancashire Cheese I made three cheeses on three subsequent days.
First day, first cheese: 4 litres of milk, a spot of culture and some rennet quickly gave me curds. I let these rest at 31 degrees celsius for half an hour, poured off some whey to the level of the curds and stirred for another half an hour. I reserved some curds from this - a large spoonful or two - and deposited them in the whey I'd previously poured off. Into the fridge with them!
I continued on with my cheesemaking - drain the remaining whey from the curds, and hung them up to dry for a half hour. Chucked them in a mould and pressed them at 10 lbs for two more hours - there were still almost too many curds to fit into the mould! At the end of the two hours I broke up the cheese again, salted the curds, and poured them back into the mould, and pressed again.
So much for day one!
Second day, second cheese: instead of culture, I substitute the curds from the fridge. I followed the same method as for the first cheese, though for this second round, I didn't reserve any curds before hanging them up to drain. I waited until after I'd drained and poured all the curds into the mould before slicing the top off, roughly breaking that up, and reserving these curds in the whey I'd previously drained off. Then followed usual method to get a complete cheese. (I stacked this one on top of the first cheese for more economical pressing).
Side note 1: I now think the reserved curds might have been healthier and fresher if simply reserved before I'd hung them up to dry. I want the variations in taste that reserving curds gives, but I want to avoid the curds losing their ability to stick and thus ending up with a cheese where the curds don't knit.
Side note 2: Because of the way I added the 'starter curds', it seems fair to assume that some of the day one curds will have become mixed up with some of the day two curds which I eventually reserved - this should add more variation to the texture.
Third day, third cheese: this was just a 2 L cheese (hey, I've only got so much room in my fridge!) Day two's curds were the starter. Again, this was stacked on top of the other cheeses.
Through the whole Festival of Lancashire the weather was quite warm, which was quite advantageous as it gave my curds a good chance to knit when I had to press them. I was originally wanting to combine my Festival of Lancashire with a Festival of Mysost, as of course it would involve a lot of whey. Unfortunately I neither had the time nor the space to do this!
Things I'd do different next time? I'd probably reserve less curds each day; I'm sure just a tablespoon of curds will provide more than enough culture for the whole bunch.
I'd also probably leave some curds from the first day in reserved whey in the fridge until the third day to get a greater variation of curd variety/taste.
In future I'll also probably reserve the curds before draining (for reasons mentioned above).
I'd be tempted to use some/all the previous day's whey in new batches as I've read the rennet will remain in whey as an active enzyme (though it will become weaker over successive recurdlings).
The Lancs are all looking quite healthy. I've taken day one out of the mould now and I'm air drying it. Tomorrow I'll take day two out; the day after, day three. I have plans to smoke these around Christmas. I'll give away as much as I can bear to family members and keep the rest. :)
So folks - thoughts? Any suggested variations on my process?
You might like to read this, the relevant section on making is from page 4 onwards might give you some ideas.
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/quality/door/documentDisplay.html?chkDocument=288_1_en (http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/quality/door/documentDisplay.html?chkDocument=288_1_en)
That's fantastic, thanks Savu!
So I've given two of these Lancs away now (to family) and kept the last one for ourselves. I've already used most of it up on pizza and in the oven! It really does have a variable consistency; some soft sliceable bits and some harder bits. A pleasant young hard cheese taste - it hasn't developed a noticeable sharpness as it's only about 3 weeks old. The weather's been warm which has caused the cheeses to sweat and, I think, develop a bit of a tough rind on the outside.
I'd definitely do this again, making some modifications in light of this first round of Lancashire making and the link from Savu.
It's not a bad cheese for pizza at all - the softer parts melt nicely while the tougher parts get crusty and crunchy :)