I made 5 rounds of monterey jack on Friday using the recipe that is posted here. I added smoked salt, rosemary and garlic as my flavours. I am intending to marinate two in herbed oil, and age one in an oil bath. I want to wax one, age another using oil rubs, and one just to age with no washes or oils, or waxing, and see what the difference is going to be with the different cheese. I think I am going to need to document this for further use, but I just thought it would be interesting to see what differences these treatment bring out. Hoping to age all to the 2 months mark.
Here's hoping.
Will post pics as I go.
Smoked Salt? Where in the world did you get that, very interesting?
I got the salt from the supermarket in the spices section. I thought it would be interesting to try. Not sure that the flavour will come through very much, but you never know. Ok here are the cheeses that are going to be trialled. I have put two in the oil marinade today. Leting the others dry a bit more before continuing with their treatment.
Those are beautiful little cheeses, congrats on the delivery. ;D
Thankyou Carter I was very proud of them too.
Ok for the sake of documentation here are the cheeses at their next stage.
Oil marinating for two. One waxed, one brine washing, and one oil rubs.
Cartierusm,
Whole Foods carries smoked salt.
Tea,
Those look fantastic. I also love how you are willing to experiment with new additives and procedures (oil bathing).
I can't wait to hear your review once you crack these open.
Thanks for the post and the different ideas.
Dave
Thanks Dave, I certainly hope everything works out well. Will just keep updating this as I proceed to the next step, or something interesting/strange happens.
Update in this. One of the oil marinated cheeses has gone into an oil bath, where it will stay for another month.
The three that were forming rinds from either the brine or oil, have been compromised by a pink mould, which I have treated but didn't get rid of. So I have cut off the mould and put these into the fridge.
Tried the oil marinated round, and as usual there is a hard rind, and the flavour is full of herbs and garlic. The cheese texture is smooth and creamy, so apart from the mould, I am happy with the cheese and how they are aging.
Here are the pics. The mould is what it there after treatment, so this is pretty persistant, and as it gets older is turning orange.
Weird. Have you tried it or is there too much mold?
I'm going to do a "Carter"
Jeez, didn't you read my post!! ;D
Yes I have tried it, and near the top where the pink/orange mould is the flavour has defiantely changed, but the rest of the cheese is fine, with the usual flavours.
Actually I wondered whether I was creating a faux limberger? :o
I knew you tried it earlier, but I thought this was a different one you were aging. Nevermind my bad.
Tea,
Despite the mold problems, the texture of the cheese looks fantastic.
It seems that you consistantly turn out nice looking cheeses.
Good for you.
Dave
Carter I'm sorry, it is my bad, I really shouldn't have said that, but I couldn't resist. :-[
Dave I am happy with the texture, the middle part is beautifully smooth and creamy, which I am really happy with. The section that had the mould on it has a really sharp flavour that takes on the flavour of the smell of the mould, if that makes sense, so that is why I am going to cut off the rest of the mould and brine again, and hopefully that will get rid of it.
Ok here are the Jack's cleaned up and rebrined. Hopefully this time it will work.
Looks good. I just flipped my large cheddar and it has some blue mold spots, I cleaned them with brine water from my parm. I've got so much blue going on in the house it's probably everywhere. I sprayed all my surfaces down with Star San.
Which has made me hesitant to make a blue, as I only have the one cave, either everything else needs to be out, or I'm in trouble.
Tea, only having one cave is a tough one when it comes to blues.....
I would think that you could use something along the lines of a tupperware container for your blues, but the cheese does have to "breathe".
You might be able to keep the blues in an enclosed container and then set them out of the cave for a few minutes each day with the container open.
The good news is that even if your other cheeses do become contaminated, you can simply wipe the blue off with salt or vinegar.
I had my blue mold for nearly two years before I was brave enough to give it a try. One I made my first blue, I was hooked.
Give it a try. There are ways around every obstacle.
Dave
Well the mold spores are on order, and everything that is in the cave is either in oil, or waxed, so now might be as good a time as ever to give this a go.
Will let you know what I decide.
What cultures are you going to use and what is your objective of this batch? Rubbery Monterey Jack or a different consistency?
My objective with this batch was to age each cheese using a different method and see what, it any, difference there was to the final cheese texture and taste. I am trying to work out just what the aging process does, and why the different methods are used, and it they do, in the end, create such a difference in the final product.
Good experiment.
Cultures are just what ever the recipe called for. I am yet to play around with cultures as most of the different ones are found overseas.
I am hoping that I will be able to learn something from it, and am a bit disappointed that three were compomised by the mould.
Ok update on a couple of these. The air dried cheeses were quite hard and mature in flavour and grated well. These had a good rind on them
Opened the wax dried cheese and the cheese was much softer, whiter in colour, not yellow, and the texture was creamier and flakier and flavour was much milder than the air dried cheese. This had no rind to speak of.
I am yet to try the oil aged cheese, but will do that probably in a month.
So far how this cheese is aged, really does play a major roll in what flavours you end with.
Lovely cheese Tea! I am enjoying the read!
Not to raise this from the dead (though it is a very interesting experiment!), but I found it searching for information on using smoked salt. I have a great spice shop near me, and they carry a variety of smoked salts. On a whim, I used half smoked salt on a farmhouse cheddar, and was wondering what to expect. Did you have any noticeable effects from the smoked salt? I'm thinking of smoking these too, but don't know if it will be smoky overkill. I'll have to sample a little after the rind forms and see from there.
-MattK
It's very easy to smoke salt - just put it in the top of your smoker so nothing drips on t and stir every now and then. I go by color. Roasted garlic is wonderful in the smoker too as it papricka and chili spice.