Hi All,
I thought I would give a long-aged bandaged cheddar a try, and decided to follow Mary Karlin's beer-brewed cheddar using one of my favorite beers: Deschutes Black Butte Porter. After moving to Wisconsin from Oregon, I desperately missed Deschutes ales and would occasionally have friends from Oregon send me care packages (i.e., a case of Deschutes ales), but we're able to buy them here directly now, so all is good.
Anyway, it's a basic simple cheddar, with an extra step where you steep the already cheddared curds in the beer for about an hour just before packing into the hoop and pressing.
After pressing overnight, and drying thoroughly at room temp for almost a week (brushing off the mold with a vinegar cloth as necessary), it looked like this:
(https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=19559.0;attach=50200)
I then followed Mal's bandaging method,
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13778.msg104297.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13778.msg104297.html)
but I used ghee instead of lard (I use a lot of ghee in curries anyway, so it was already handy) and I used only cheesecloth because I didn't have butter muslin at the time. Three layers total.
I warmed ~1/2 cup of ghee just enough for it to liquify. Then first I rubbed the cheese all over with ghee to fill in any cracks and crevices, then I dipped each piece of cheesecloth in the liquid ghee and layered it just as Mal described. I did this all on a sanitized cutting board next to the sink, and I knew that my hands were going to be covered in ghee for a few minutes, so I didn't bother washing them in between layers - I just cracked on with it and cleaned up afterwards. I think that attitude is the way to go. The whole bandaging process only took about 5 minutes, honestly. Then I put it directly in the cave in an uncovered box and it dried to the touch within a day or two. And now it's aging away in a partly covered box, which is maintaining it around 50˚F and ~70% RH. Here's the final bandaged cheese. It smells wonderful and sweet, due to the ghee. It still hasn't picked up any colorful surface mold, but it's only been a few weeks so far.
(https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=19559.0;attach=50201)
I plan to leave it alone for at least 3 months. If I can stand to wait that long. I really must start making cheese much more regularly. And bigger cheeses too. My current spring press only accommodates a small mold that yields ~1/2 Kg cheeses. I bought the large Tomme mold from New England Cheesemaking Supply, and am planning to build something along the lines of their wall-mount press, but that's not ready yet.
Cheers,
Matt
I have been wondering about alternatives to lard. Gavin Webber cautions against coconut oil as it seems its a magnet for all sorts of undesirable moulds. I hadn't considered ghee as i always assumed it was liquid. Is your ghee solid at room temperature?
I stored ghee once in my cheese cave for thermal mass. It was solid. The gallon containers of ghee I buy will be solid until ~60F, then go viscous at room temp, and finally liquid at garage/summer sun temp. That's an estimate as they have thermal inertia and I'm basing the assumption on room temp :)
I think ghee slightly warmed until liquid will remain fluid enough to bandage at room temp, then solidify at cheese caves temp, making it easy to use. I have no issue with Lard so I will probably not try it soon.
I've only done this once, but it seems to be working great so far after 3 weeks of bandaged cheddar. This is a small cheese: 2" radius, 3-4" height.
In my home, room temp this Summer was between 68-75˚F. At that temp, my 1 qt bottle of ghee had a yellow opaque phase at the bottom (~3/4) and an almost clear oily phase at the top (~1/4). I just stirred them together and used the resulting yellow buttery goop to dip my cheesecloth and bandage the cheese. First, I rubbed it all over to fill in any cracks. Then I wrapped it in dipped cheesecloth. Three layers, like Mal explains elsewhere on this forum. I let it dry at room temp for a day, then I stuck it in the wine fridge (~50˚F, very low RH ~40%) and it dried to the touch within about 24 hours. I don't recommend such low humidity, that's just what I have right now in my wine fridge.
Let's see if I can get a photo to work:
It's starting to acquire some white and blue mold on the bandages now, after about three weeks, but apparently that's normal and desirable. I'll wait for another few months before I cut into it.
But the ghee bandaging seems to be working great. Smells sweet, not moldy. The ghee bandaging all took about 1/2 hour total, or less.