I have been eating more commercial cheese then I ever have in my life since I started making cheese. Today I had some mango and ginger white stilton that was DIVINE, and of course it got me thinking about "flavors" and other stuff I could add to my cheese. I noticed that it said on the packaging that the mango and ginger are preserve with sulfites.
I did search flavorings to kind of see what other threads were lying about and saw that the recommendation seems to be to add flavoring to the curds before they are pressed. Since my main powerhouse cheese is chevre ( I make about 2-3 batches a week) I wanted to try doing more then adding just herbs to the outside. I usually sprinkle the chevre with dill and freshly ground salt and pink peppercorn and it get rave reviews. I would like to play around with tea or mint flavored chevre.I was wondering what would happen if as I was heating up the milk I let some tea "brew" in the milk?
I also was wondering what would happen if I sprayed some chevre with the bacteria used for the outside of muenster? Can I age the chevre long enough for something interesting to form on the outside? Or with the fungi I bought for the outside of a camembert? Will it get gooey inside?
That stilton was pretty sweet -- what happens to cheese if you add sweetener (mainly sugar/ maple / honey) to it, how does that affect the aging /ripening process?
I want to be able to play with these cheese "flavors" a bit more-- any thoughts?
I have eaten aged goat cheeses, and I think someone posted to spray the outside with P. candidum and age it like camembert. I've been meaning to try this so thanks for the reminder!
Pam
If anyone has a thread or pic of this I would love to see it...
I brewed the milk in 3 types of tea today and made them into a whole milk type cream cheese. They will be ready tomorrow, I am very excited, I hope they turn out.
I chose a "smoked chinese tea" (it was in our cupboard? no idea where it came from... very smokey), a Lupicia brand Chocolate and Orange black tea, and a White Jasmine, very subtle tea.
I think I will sweeten some of them, and then put them in molds. They should be very pretty......
I would really like to know how the tea cheese comes out! It's something I would never have thought of, even though I really enjoy tea!
AMAZING! They are still draining but I am really impressed.
The smoky cheese maybe too smoky, I put some paprika and salt in it and it may need more of both.
The white jasmine cheese came out the BEST. It tastes sweet with no sugar and smells heavenly.I saved soem plain and some I put a little blue agave syrup.
The chocolate and orange tea-- the jury is still out, it tastes just like the tea but I am not sure I was head over heels in love with the tea, I might try some orange zest and grated chocolate....
I jsut took separated milk added tea, waited 3-4 hours, added an 4000 series meso, ripened for two or so hours (because I didn't reheat the milk to 88 degrees),diluted 1/2 tablet rennet in 1 c water, put 1/3 c of the rennet solution in each 1/2 gal jar shook and waited until the next morning.