Hi,
Ok, after some discussion on Butterkase and hunting around for recipies, I put one together (i.e. stole ideas from other people! :) ) and made it today. It's just out of the press and now soaking in water for 20 minutes, and then will go into a brine until I get up (probably be in the brine for about 8 hours).
Here's the make notes and the cheese:
Butterkase (mine): March 19th, 2011
9L homebrand standard milk
1L homebrand cream
¼ tsp CaCl
0.7 ml Rennet
Start time: 12:45
1) Warm to 35 C ( hit 35.5 at 1:17)
2) Add 2 ice cubes Meso (FD) and 1 ice cube thermo
3) Ripen 20 minutes (target time 1:37 actual time 1:37)
4) Raise temperature to 40 C (reached at 1:38 actual temp: 40.2) (added CaCl here)
5) Add 0.7 ml rennet (1:42)
6) Floc time = 11m 30s 3.5 * floc = 40m 15s min until cut
7) Cut at 2:18:15 (oops! 4 min short, so this was only 3.1x) into 3 cm cubes wait 5 then cut into 1 cm cubes (curd very soft)
8 ) Curds settle 5 minutes, then removed approx 2 litres of whey
9) Curds were breaking up when stirring (next time use more starter; 6:3 cubes)
10) add 60C water until you reach 42C
11) stir 45 minutes
12) move to mold
13) press lightly (5 kg) 6 hours (flipped after 1 hour)
14) 20 minutes water
15) Brine (saturated 9-10 hours)
- Jeff
Oh yah, this cheese weighed in at 1.832 kg! I suspect it has retained a lot of fluid as this cheese released the most moisture during the press of any of the cheeses I've made. It is still the heaviest cheese out of the press that I've made though.
- Jeff
Hi,
This cheese is quietly draining away over a bowl, on a sushi mat placed over a layer of plastic chopsticks. It's still too soft to omit the sushi mat. This morning there was a puddle of water/whey in the bowl, which I've moved. Also, because it was quite tall, it's now sagging and becoming more barrel shaped as time passes; hmm as is the cheesemaker, so goes the cheese! Anyway, it is still very wet to the touch morning and evening when I flip it, so this will take longer than most to air dry I suspect.
Part of the issue of retaining fluid was due, I think, to the exceptionally soft curd set that I had. After cutting the curds really were quite mushy, which I've not had before. It's been softish before, but not like this. I think I used too little starter. The Mesophilic starter wouldn't do much at the temperatures of the make, and it has been suggested these are primarily for when it ages. That means, for the most part, the make was based mostly upon the 1 ice cube of thermo. I wasn't thinking when I put things together and where I normally use 3 or 4 ice cubes, this seemed ok., but of course 2 of them were the meso (flora danica). Next time I'll go for 4:21 or 6:3 It hink.
- Jeff
That's a lovely looking cheese. How long will you age it? I'd love to hear your tasting notes. :)
Thanks ScarletRunner! I've improved on my cheesecloth control. My previous cheeses had a lot of issues with the folds creasing the cheese. This one came up much smoother overall.
This is supposed to be eatable in about 4 weeks, though like most, it improves up to 3 months. However, since I put this recipe together from a collection of others I can't say for sure what would be optimum. But, in the interests of knowing if I need to tweak it or not, I'm going to cut it at 4 weeks. I'll probably save 1/2 to try again at the 2 month mark.
Will post the results when I have them.
- Jeff
P.S. Just noticed the photo has the year at 2010! Must be ready now! :)
The cheese looks nice and smooth. What are the divots on the top of the cheese from?
I've noticed that my cheesecloth after pressing a few hard cheeses ends up "stretching" somehow to accommodate being pulled up around the sides of the cheese. Wouldn't have thought it would do that... I also started just putting the follower on top of the cheese, without putting a layer of cheesecloth below the follower. Haven't had any problems with that yet, and seems to help eliminate creases and divots on the top of the cheese.
Looking forward to the tasting of the Butterkase. With a name like "butter-cheese", how could you go wrong?!! Two of my favorite foods... >:D
Hi ScarletRunner,
The divots are from bits of curd. When I flipped it after 1 hour, there were a few small bits of curd that squished up by the follower. I picked them off and put them on the cheese hoping they would get pressed into the curd and be gone. They didn't, and they ended up just denting the curd, as you can see. With this one, I pulled the cheese cloth up, and folded one layer over the top, placed the follower, then put the rest of the cloth on top of the follower. This has eliminated most of my crease distasters, or at least in this case it worked.
I'll have to post a picture of the cheese as it now looks, as it's much more barrel shaped. I'm just hoping it doesn't sag so much as to split!
- Jeff
Here's it is after sagging and forming more of a barrel shape. There appears to be a small spot of mold on the top, but it's not mold but a raised bit that's caught the light.
- Jeff
If you are worried about too much sagging, I watched a program on Gouda making in the Netherlands this one producer tied a cloth around the circumference of the cheese to help it keep its shape. Kind of a cheese Girdle if you will.
Looks good Jeff
Thanks for the tip pliezar. I think it's now stabalised, but if it continues I'll probably girdle it up.
- Jeff
Hi,
Ok, I thought I would post another photo of this cheese because it's starting to develop an orangish rind on it. This is interesting to me because I've not seen this colour develop before. This uses both a meso and thermo starter, and also it has required a much longer drying period before moving to the cave (although it did spend a few days there already).
- Jeff
This morning it was starting to sprout a fuzzy white mold. I'm assuming this is from the starter cultures as I've not added anything like P.Cad. to it. I've wiped it down with brine though, as I don't think it should be growing fuzzies so it could be wild spores.
- Jeff
Hi,
Well, this one has now dried to the touch after about 10 days or so and I've moved it into the cave. It's down to 1432g, so it's lost 400g exactly since it was made. This cheese has had a very different feel to it than any of the other hard cheeses I've made. The curds were very soft when I made it, and so to recover them I just poured everything through a cheesecloth lined colendar. This, I think, trapped a lot of whey with the curds, which drained but with the low pressing weights, probably meant it was still quite wet. This is why it has taken a long time to dry out (my guess, not stated as known fact), and perhaps why it had a "sticky" or "tacky" feel to the sides. Anyway, it has a great aroma and I'm really looking forward to finding out how it tastes. That, unfortunately, is still a few weeks away, and possibly longer.
- Jeff
I'm drooling with anticipation, esp. since I have no cheeses of my own to drool over right now. I like the chopsticks idea. Gonna have to try that out. Where'd you buy them?
Hi Scarlet Runner,
I just picked up the chopsticks at Tai Ping's, a local Asian Grocery. They're the plastic "fake ivory" ones, which are easy to clean and don't soak up molds like the bamboo ones do.
- Jeff
Chopsticks seemed like a good idea to me when I made my first cheese but it created the ridges you see in the larger cheese (a gouda). I have since had much more luck with the plastic 'needlepoint' mats. For even better drainage can set that mat on the ceiling tile grid as suggested by Sailor somewhere else on this forum.
Susan
Hi Susanky,
Yah, I can see that with a bigger cheese the chopsticks would create ridges. Even with the fairly close spacing I use they still create "lines", although they generally seems to fade as the rind forms up. I've not found any plastic needle point grids yet, so this is my current solution.
- Jeff
Hi,
This is now approaching the 1 month mark. I still have some cheeses on the go so I think I'll let this age longer. Also, the reports are that it will improve significantly over the next 3 or 4 weeks. But, this cheese is taking on some interesting characteristics. The rind has taken on a very orangish colour, and on top of that is a white dusty covering, although the face it's sitting on is quite clear of this white mold. It has a few black spots too. It's now weighing 1384g, so it's only lost 16g since the last time I weighed it. I think that indicates the humidity in the cave is about right. Anyway, the white mold is also forming on a Dunlop I've made. Curious.
I'm looking forward to when I can taste this one!
- Jeff
Looks awesome. I opened the remaining piece of my first batch yesterday for a try. Not bad, not good enough but its cheese. As for the batch that I decided to do wth very light pressing and half flipping = fail. I think the curds cooled too quickly and did not knit together well enough. It turned into a slimeball. Version 3 will be coming in a couple weeks.
Hi Cheesesnipe,
A shame the flip one failed. This one was very sticky and took a long time to air dry. It required about 10 days, although I had to shift it into the cave for a few days during that time as the local humidity shot up and there was no way it was going to dry in the warm damp that was Auckland. Anyway, it's now come right and I really like the golden hue it's developed with the white dusting over top. I'm hoping it will make for a good mild cheese that my daughter will try! Currently, if I ask her if she wants some cheese she looks at me and just says "I want yummy cheese, not Daddy's cheese" and points to the block of store bought cheddar. LOL.
- Jeff
LOL, kids. I was a picky eater when I was little. Now I only wished I didn't like so many things! ;)
So, Jeff... How's this cheese progressing? Cut it yet? Taste? Or did you post elsewhere and I missed it?
Hi darius,
It's 2 months this weekend. I was planning on cutting it last month, but I had a caerphilly that I was eating. After that, I've cut into the dunlop and still have just under half that wheel left. So, this will hang around for another week. It's doing so well, or at least it looks like it's doing well, that I'm happy to let it age a bit more. This is supposed to be a quick aging cheese, so I would think it will improve up to 3 months, then level off. I don't think it will make it that long though. I will definately post tasting notes once it's been opened though.
The colour of it has darkened a bit, so it's a definate orange. I've got a gouda air drying, and it's taken 7 days to even approach drying out as well (it's cool and humid lately) and now it's developing this orange cast. At first I thought it could be wild b.linens, but it's not got any funky smell to it. Looks good though. :)
- Jeff
Thanks. I'll be watching for the cutting!
Jeff, I suspect you are experiencing B. Linens and GC. B. Linens, while adding funky smell to washed rind cheeses, is strikingly milder on firmer cheeses. In addition, GC and B.Linens do tend to hang out together. If you smell the cheese is it mushroomy?
Hi smilingcalico,
thanks for the suggestions. I was wondering if those might be what has shown up, but since it doesn't have a funk to it, I wasn't sure. I wouldn' t say it smells mushroomy, at least not as earthy mushroomy as the Dunlop was smelling. I'll take some notes when I cut it, and let it warm up though, and post my impessions then. Thanks again for the ideas.
- Jeff
Hi,
Well, we've cut into this one. It's now almost 9 weeks old. Just waiting for it to warm up a bit, so no tasting notes just yet. But, it cut nicely, doesn't appear to be overly dry, but my tactile impression wasn't super moist either. The smell is very promising, but it's still a bit on the cool side. Anyway, here's a look at the final result, and once I have a taste, I'll let you know how it turned out.
- Jeff
Ok, we've had some now. It's very creamy in texture, not overly moist but not dry, just very thick creamy, like baked cheesecake, or ... butter! :) It has a mild flavour, but a bit of a sharpness. The rind does have a bit of a mushroom taste during the finish. I think this has worked out very well and I'll be trying it again. It will make great grilled cheese sandwhiches, and it's good just as a snack cheese.
I must say, I've been having a run of good luck recently. Hope it doesn't end any time soon.
- Jeff
Ack! Do not jinx yourself!!
Cheese looks wonderful, Jeff... Having read your tasting notes, I may make one soonish.
Nice to hear the good results. Does your daughter like this one?
Hi darius,
I'm hoping to use reverse psychology on the jinxing! :)
MrsKK,
I've not given any to my daughter yet, but I can assure you that she won't like it. I think I'll be lucky to get her to try it. It has a mild, but definate, flavour that she will decide is for big kids only. :)
Curiously, it doesn't melt anything like the Dunlop did. The Dunlop would go all gooey and melt in about 20 seconds in the microwave. This one doesn't go runny and gooey, but retains its shape, though it will stretch.
- Jeff
My wife figured out what the extra taste is. Sharp isn't the right word, what we're tasting is a very subtle hint of blue. Some blue mold was growing in a few spots, and it added just a whiff to the flavour profile. If I select some from the middle, with no blue, it's a relatively mild, baked cheesecakey creamy, cheese. Might extend the ripening period next time, to see if that produces a more melting cheese.
- Jeff
P.S. Have shared this around with some friends at work. This has been voted my best cheese yet by a number of my official "tasters"! Definately a hit.
Also, have had a quick search on the forum about melting. From what I've found, too little or too much acid development can have a negative impact on this. So, I think extending the ripening period to 40 minutes might be my attempt at building up a bit of acidity without it going too high. This one almost melts, so I think it's close.
Well, we just ate the last piece of this one. It remained a very creamy cheese, but it did have a sharpness to it after all. This developed more, I think, and the blue flavour was gone once the section where the blue intruders was used up.
Also, today my 3.75 year old daughter finally agreed to taste it, and she said "Yummm!" She decided she really liked this cheese, and has just eaten a piece about the size of a thumb. Up until now she's just refused to try "Daddy's Cheese". Yah for the little victories! :)
I will definately be making this one again.
- Jeff
Small Victories, indeed... Congrats!!