I am starting this one, because I hope the big guys that have been in this for a while give us their thoughts. I made a (the recipe called it) 'White Stilton'.
I added Rhum to the milk (the recipe called also for meso starter, no ther mould).
My problem was that after pressing the cheese looked horrible (all bumps and holes). So I waxed it, because all those cavities seemed to me like a universe of opportunities for contamination.... I know that you guys may say that this is not a Stilton then, because the aging method is incorrect (but this is another subject).
What do you think about alcohol in the milk as additional flavoring? Thoughts? Successes????
THANKS!!!
If its a non ripened age cheese it should be fine other wise the alcohol level will likly to kill any bacteria.
depends what type of alcohol, wine is acidic and will change the PH of your milk\cheese in an unprodictable way. I suggest brining a cheese in alcohol after the making process to infuse its aroma\flavour into the cheese.
I think that you will find that all the cheeses that have a form of alcoholic beverage added(wine/ale/burbon)are added to the curd before pressing or used as an adjunct in the rind washing.
Understood. I think I will leave it age for a while and see what comes out of it. As I added the alcohol before the starter. I will try a second one following your suggestions. Thanks for your feedback!!
I'm in the process of trying a beer and a whiskey cheese. For the beer one I (on second attempt) am bringing the beer to just under boiling to kill off the yeast (and possibly reduce the alcohol). Then soak the cheddared curds in the beer (keeping at same temp curds should be at when pressing) and then press to create the marbling effect and to infuse the flavor throughout. For the whiskey cheese I was going to fully press and then soak the entire wheel several times, allowing drying in between. I'm thinking multiple short soaks will have less impact than one long soak. I don't want to introduce too much moisture or alcohol into the cheese because I agree with the statement above that it will probably kill off the bacteria it comes into contact with. Once it has fully dried on the outside then wax to seal in the whiskey "vapors" for long term aging. What do you think?
Also note in the thread "Fourme d'Ambert", she is injecting her cheese after it gets going.
Hei CheeseSnipe,
I like the idea of the whiskey...sounds really good.
Didn´t think about the injecting possibility either... uhmmmmmmm
I was going to let the cheese age a bit more to see what happened, but I may open it and see how the Rhum affected the bacteria. And try for second time following your process.... yep, I think that I will do that.
Anyways, you say is your second try.... tell us what happened!!! ^-^
I went to my cheese and opened in half. Smell was good. Was crumbly, though (but still needs to 2 more months minimum of aging). So I decided to wax it back (now I have twwo smaller cheeses). Didn´t seem that bacteria acyivity was totally dead... I have some pictures.
I just don´t seem to find how to attach them... icon doesn´t seem to work...
Thanks
I have another stout cheese in the press. I'll post photos when i pull it out.
Mersunwea,
Here are pics of my stout colby. I think next time I'll do a cheddar so that the curds are larger and more defined. The first pic is sitting in the beer after I brought it to boiling and then let cool to the curd temp (104F). The second is after soaking in beer, then brining, then pressing.
Looks great! Can you provide your recipe, along with the Stout that you used? I'm also interested in hearing about the taste after it ages, as well as the Stout you used.
Brie, I used the Colby recipe from "200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes". Do you have a copy of that? If not I can see about summarizing.
As for the stout, it was my own creation. I have my recipe posted here: http://hopville.com/recipe/428388/wood-aged-beer-recipes/experimental-bourbon-stout---extract-version (http://hopville.com/recipe/428388/wood-aged-beer-recipes/experimental-bourbon-stout---extract-version)
I soaked the curds in the beer until they had the desired color and then pressed and brined. Whereas the whiskey cheese I'm making (from the same Colby batch), I pressed, brined first, then dried, and I'm washing daily with a tiny amount of whiskey. It's started to brown on the edges and smells good.
I am going to try your recipe..
Is this the first time you make this one??
Yes, until I've had a chance to start tasting stuff (I'm a newby) it's all just experiments.
Will be interesting to hear how the bitterness of the beer translates in the final cheese.
It should not be bitter, it's a really sweet beer (almost too much so).
Next time I make it I'm going to kick up the hops to balance it out better.
Hei CheeseSnipe,
How did your cheese turn out?
Let us know! Pics? :)
Snipe--great idea to just wash the cheese as opposed to adding it to curd--you will find the the taste of the beer permeates the cheese as opposed to over-powering it. Waiting to hear the outcome!
I think I'm still another month or so out before its tasting ready. But will for sure post pics and review once its done. I think I'm more excited about the whiskey version than the beer one.
How was your stout cheese, Snipe?
Still haven't cracked it open. It was waxed on 2/23, so end of this month will be 4 months. From what I've ready most cheddar's need about 6 months to be decent. I know the plain one I opened a couple weeks ago was not stellar, needed more salt. So I figured I would sit on these for a bit longer.
Sounds good, I'll be looking forward to reading about it.
I cracked open the whiskey cheese. It had aged for 9 months. It was a bit dry and crumbly but everyone loved the flavors the whiskey added. The stout cheese didn't really turn out, a bit bland.
I make a scotch cheddar that comes out really well after about 9 months of aging. I find that if I don't want a crumbly final cheese and a stronger scotch flavor, I should vacuum pack it for aging once it's dry to the touch on the surface.
I add my scotch to the make during the cheddaring phase. This means that several shots of scotch get washed away by expressed whey, but it gets thoroughly mixed with the curds. As long as you leave the curd chunks fairly large, I don't find that the alcohol kills enough of the lacto critters to kill the flavor of the cheese. If you use a nice smokey scotch like Laphroaig, or Caol Ila, it comes out pretty balanced and REALLY lovely.
Quote from: mightyjesse on January 25, 2012, 02:47:19 PM
If you use a nice smokey scotch like Laphroaig, or Caol Ila, it comes out pretty balanced and REALLY lovely.
I'll have to try this. I like both of those, and I'm glad the cheese is balanced. They have been known to affect my own balance adversely. I like the idea of adding it at the cheddaring stage. Did you notice any difference in the curd fusing?
The curd knits together pretty well, and isn't noticeably that much different to work with than a standard cheddar. At least, not that I've noticed - however, I do observe the rule that I must drink as much scotch as the cheese does (so one shot per stack flip) so my recall may be a bit... hazy...
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x214/Mighty-Jesse/IMG_20111213_172628.jpg)
Last Saturday I tried the port cheddar from 200 Easy. The recipe given adds a step to her cheddar recipe; soaking the milled curds in 2 cups of room temp port for 30 minutes before adding salt and pressing. Earlier in the week I had made the cheddar recipe with 4.5 gallons of milk and thought it looked quite promising. It's on the right in the attached picture. However the port soaked curds did not fuse during pressing. When the cheese was removed from the press and unmolded on Sunday evening, curds fell off in all directions. This was quite a disappointment. Since it was late and I was tired, the curds went into a glass jar in the frig. Yesterday I made the 200 Easy's stirred curd cheddar, and added the port curds to the make just before draining the whey. I milled them coarsely in the food processor before adding so that they were about the same size as the warm curds. I also added them gradually while keeping the temp constant. All the curds fused beautifully during the press as you can see below. The smell is a lovely fruity wine aroma. Definitely an experiment, but it does now look encouraging. If I was to try the port cheddar again, I would keep the port soaked curds warmer, and remill them coarsely after the soaking.
I've never had a problem with curd fusion after a port soak, but I press under pretty heavy weight, and I do my curd soak in the double boiler at 75-80 degrees to maintain curd temperature. I think you have the right idea, but I don't think you'll really need to re-mill.
MightyJesse: I love the imprint on the cheese! Good idea keeping the cheese and the cheesemaker even on the Scotch.
Cloversmilker: That looks absolutely beautiful! What pressing weight did you use originally?
I HAD to start stamping my cheeses so that I could tell them apart in the cave before they were vacpacked... In some cases they will never be vacpacked, so... I just picked up some of the scrapbooking stamps and arrange them on a plate under my cheese when I do the final press. I love the effect, and people wonder how I did it. Easy-peasy and $14 investment to make me look that much cooler wins the day!
The stamping is brilliant. Usually I label when I wax, but now that I'm aging out a few unwaxed there's potential for confusion.
The plain cheddar was pressed at about 7.8 psi. The port cheddar was originally pressed at about 7 psi. The final remilled port cheese was pressed at 8.3 psi. The diameter of the plain cheddar is 7.5 in, and it weighs in at 4 lbs 12 oz. The port cheese is 8 in diameter, and it now weighs 8 lb 14 oz. It is going to be hard to wait for this one to age out! All the discussion on other threads of remilling cheddars after pressing gave me the rescue idea. Here the whopper is in press. Notice the last counterweight bungeed to the back of the press for stability. ;D