Dulcelife's Fast Double Gloucester with Adjunct ThermoAfter reading with much interest Pav's WA guild article on the use of ST as an adjunct in fresh curd cheddar and Dthelmer's use of the concept in his elaboration of mixed milk Farmstead cheddar, I decided to venture into an experiment of my own.
The one Cheddar style cheese I really love better than Cabot vermont aged cheddar is Ilchester's Imported Double Gloucester. This brand I have enjoyed so much, is to me, cheddar on high gear. Fast on the tongue, complex, creamier than expected, tangy, buttery and lingering to the point of leaving a desire for more and then, more.
What I would like to achieve is a nice complex yet fairly early and fast yet flavorful Double Gloucester-like cheese.
What I've done here is take the only readily available recipe I have from 200 Easy... and adapted it with some of the features of Dthelma 1:3 raw vs. P/H milk make. I too would like to see the P/H half of my milk benefit from an extended pre-ripening period. I do not have a single strain ST culture at hand so I am resorting to Thermo B as the adjunct for the ST although LB will come along for the ride and maybe contribute something interesting. The DG recipe in 200 Easy... calls for a generic Meso, so I don't know if a single strain LC would have benefited in this style cheese anyway. So, MM100/101 and Thermo B it is.
Insofar as pre-ripening time, I am opting for 1 hour at 88F – 90F versus the 3 hour @ 76F in DThelmer's make and with a considerably low dose of MM100 initially, and another low dose of MM100 with the thermo B later on. I am using a 1:1 ratio of raw to P/H milk; 2 gal. of each (raw=morning milk, P/H = simulated evening milk). I speculate that the higher ripening temperature on "more" raw milk will achieve the same effect more or less, as DThelmer's 3 hour at 76F; with the NSLABs doing their thing on the P/H component with a little help from the low dose MM100. Hey, its an experiment okay?. Worst-case scenario: I'll have something crazy different yet edible and, I pray, tasty. This is also the first time I use P/H milk, so it will be interesting to note any difference in the outcome.
I will be using two Exsticks; PH110, so I expect to have a handle on PH targets for a typical cheddar make and be able to gauge my progress with fairly accurate PH targets. When one clogs, I'll use the other while I clean the former. This is the first time I will attempt a rudimentary PH acidification curve for future use.
Regardless of the outcome, my thanks in advance to Pav and Dthelmer for the inspiration to play.
2 gal. raw Jersey Milk and 2 gal. Aldi's Happy Farm P/H milk.
1/8th tsp. MM100
1/16th tsp. Thermo B
100 Drops Annatto in ½ cup distilled water
½ tsp. Calcium Chloride
¾ tsp. Single Strength veal rennet
3 tbs. Cheese flake salt.
July 07, 2012
12:04pm: Inoculate pH 6.71 – 86F milk with 1/16th tsp. MM100.
12:09pm: Stir down, ripen 1 hour. Temperature up to 88F
12:36pm: PH 6.61 Temperature to 90F
01:15pm: Inoculate 90F milk with 1/16th tsp. MM100 and 1/16th tsp. Thermo B
01:29pm: Stir down, ripen 30 minutes.
01:53pm: PH 6.58
02:01pm: Add and stir down Annatto, wait 15 minutes.
02:19pm: Add and stir down Calcium Chloride, wait 5 minutes.
02:20pm: PH 6.54
02:24pm: Add ¾ tsp. rennet, start timer, float cup.
02:30pm: Flocculation in 6 minutes x 3.5 = 21 minutes = 02:45pm curd cut.
02:46pm: Check for clean break; No-Go wait a 5 minutes.
02:52pm: Clean break; start curd cut to ¼ inch cubes.
02:56pm: Finished curd cut, let rest 10 minutes.
03:06pm: Stir gently for 10 minutes.
03:16pm: Increase temperature (cook), curd to 99F over 45 minutes.
03:31pm: PH 6.51
03:59pm: PH 6.37
04:05pm: Hold at temperature until PH 6.3; approximately 20 minutes
04:25pm: PH 6.28, Drain curds into warm colander and mat.
04:35pm: Return to warmed vat and hand press to expel whey. Hold for 15 minutes.
04:50pm: Drain expelled whey, flip curd cake. Hold for 15 minutes.
05:06pm: Cut curd mass in four and pile. Hold for 15 minutes.
05:34pm: Flip curd pile. Holed for 15 minutes. This flip was late: 28 vs. 15 minutes.
05:50pm: Milled curds to 1 x ½ inch, added 3 tbs. flake salt and tossed.
06:05pm: First pressing at about 50 lbs. or approximately 2 psi or 30 minutes.
06:40pm: Redress, return to pressing at about 75 lbs. or 3 psi for 60 minutes.
07:50pm: Redress, return to press at 100 lbs. or 4.34 psi until PH 5.2
08:45pm: PH 5.24
10:13pm: PH 5.14, unmolded and set out to dry, flipping twice daily.
Yield: 2 lb. 1/5 oz. and 2 lb. 2.2 oz. = 2 lb. 3.7 oz.
July 08, 2012
10:00pm: Placed into cave at 52F and 60%rH, flipping twice daily.
July 09, 2012
5:00pm: Vacuum sealed.
July 10 thru 13, 2012: No whey has collected in bags.
Seems like all went well. I wanted really bright wheels like the Ilchester brand I am used to and boy, did I get bright wheels.
The whole ideas was for fast cheese so I will open and sample at 30 days. Wish me luck folks.
Here are some pictures. Unfortunately I neglected to get a picture of my perfectly milled curd.
Nice write-up...pretty pictures! Saturated color! 8)
Really, 30 days? But what about the flavor? I'm no expert, but it would seem the enzymes and contributing flavors from dying bacteria would add to the flavor compounds further down the road. In a hurry? ???
-Boofer-
Quote from: Boofer on July 13, 2012, 06:32:05 PM
Nice write-up...pretty pictures! Saturated color! 8)
Really, 30 days? But what about the flavor? I'm no expert, but it would seem the enzymes and contributing flavors from dying bacteria would add to the flavor compounds further down the road. In a hurry? ???
-Boofer-
Boof, my experiment is based on Pav's article http://www.wacheese.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80:fresh-cheddar-curd-extended-shelf-life&catid=43:moderate-cook-temp&Itemid=66 (http://www.wacheese.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80:fresh-cheddar-curd-extended-shelf-life&catid=43:moderate-cook-temp&Itemid=66)
Basically a technique to make tastier fresh curds (as well as longer shelf life), that DThelmer used as the basis for his make of fast maturing farmstead cheddar: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,7523.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,7523.0.html)
Dthelmer's flavorful cheese which he opened at three weeks gave me the idea for the "Fast Double Gloucester"
Not so much a rush, more like widening the "palatable" time closer to the make date: one to three months; but definitely usable at one!
What's the rush? :)
No real rush as I've got plenty of tasty cheese at eating age as well as coming of age, more than the two of us can eat.
I've got Cheddar at 104 days, Edam at 97, the creamy Leiden getting better at 90 days, Cantal, Gouda's and so on.
This is about experimentation and learning; Looking to work with a fast tasty cheese other than Caerphilly and Lancashire which I enjoy but am not crazy about in the texture department. One I can practice what I am learning in Paul Kindstedt's book, The Dairy Processing Handbook and other sources and taste the tweaks in a shorter time period. Kind of like learning photography in this digital age versus developing film.
Part II of this experiment will occur tomorrow whence, I will make the Double Gloucester in 200 Easy Recipes...
This will be per recipe using MM100 and the same 1:1 ratio of raw and P/H. No pre-ripening. No Thermo, everything else the same. I will follow the PH curve as well.
I can then follow both makes through the aging process, young through old and see what gives.
Ah, the bleeding edge.... ;)
More power to you, sir. You are leading where others may follow. We may soon have fresh Cheddar much as we have cottage cheese...ready the day it comes from the press! ::)
Without experimentation we would lose out on lots of opportunity and happenstance. Good luck.
-Boofer-
We already have that, its called fresh curd cheddar and happens to be the subject being improved with adjunct thermo in Pav's WA Guild article.
Great thread!
I actually had the pleasure of visiting Gloucester UK just a few weeks ago (incredibly green and moist, with cow and sheep roaming freely in giant pastures. I was really impressed with the general area, though the actual town of Gloucester is eh... ok, well; a shithole. Pardon my French but the locals would be the first to back me up on it).
Of course I didn't waste any time and started tasting the local Double and Single Gloucester varieties. It was good to get an understanding of the difference between them. This isn't like French single/double creme. Single Gloucester is quite rare and is made from skimmer milk or morning milking, has no colorant and is the same size wheel but less tall. Sold younger too. This was explained to me as the inferior version that was sold in local markets to the common men but now it is prized and rare. I loved that the premium artisan examples were naturally caved and not vacuumed or waxed. there seems to be some growth of geo or other dusting on them as well as lots of surface rind cracks which was their signature appearance.
Doubles are sold at 5-6 months age. Singles -at 3-4 months. However, single can be found at 2 months as well. In my opinion the sub-2-months versions are really "not there yet", rather acidic and brittle, unpleasant. This was May so you can see the hand scribbled made-on-date stickers on these puppies. This was my favorite. Notice the cut wedges on top; very rustic. These are a real showcase of local grass-fed milk quality. I thought it may inspire you
IRF - there seem to be an awful lot of surface cracks, especially in the Single Glouc. I suspect these are really good traditional cheeses, but my first impression is that they were aged at too low humidity.
FYI. I MUCH prefer the natural carotene color of the Single. I hate to see fluorescent cheese. ;)
Sailor, these are considered some of the best ones out there (they won a ton of awards and made in very small batches. Sort of "golden standard" for many other producers).
If you look closely, you will notice that the cracks are not deep, it's like this funny decoration layer of thin rind flakes on top of a thin but firm and elastic rind. (kind of like bark on tree). The bottom rind isn't cracked at all. They seems to do this on purpose by shock-drying it only at the very end of aging. The paste is properly moist, elastic, milky and un-acidic. It breaks off in the curd knottings so it's not brittle in any way as you would expect a cracked cheese to be.
Yes, I did notice that the cracks were superficial and the paste itself looks nice and moist. It's just the cracked rind that looks odd. I have never heard of anyone "shock drying" intentionally to make decorative surface cracks. Interesting technique. Did you see other creameries doing this, or was it unique to this producer? So, the bottom of the cheese wheel is "normal" without the surface cracking? I wonder if these are flash heated to produce rapid drying and surface cracks without effecting the body (or the bottom) of the cheese? Like a creme' brule. ;)
I like the bark analogy.
Yes, it was a funny presentation and I didn't hear about this before either -until someone told me about it there. I didn't see this elsewhere so go figure if I heard the truth or not, but this is a good way to visually brand a cheese, don't you think?
iratherfly: Kudos to you for your observations and bringing these great images. Sure wish I was headed to old world charm. How did they taste? Please do tell.
A careful look at the left slice above the single: looks like the cracks maybe more than superficial. Is that a crack on the lower right of the cheese. Looks like there might be some penetration of blue/green mold.
In the mean time:
As planned I completed the second Double "not so fast" Gloucester cheese make in accordance with the recipe in 200 Easy...
This will serve as comparison for this make.
The "normal" DG cheese make can be found here: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,9952.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,9952.0.html)
Looking at those rustic cheese images makes me want to ripen one of each make with a natural rind but I am out of room in the cave. I might opt for cream waxing a wheel of each since it is not totally impervious to the atmosphere and it might be a nice rind treatment for a cheese I'd like to breath a bit. I currently have tests going with Goudas and Manchegos in both cream wax and vacuum for comparison sometime down the road.
Thanks for the input.
Anytime Dulcelife!
They tasted like really good cheddars. A bit more on the tangy, young and milky side. Perhaps more moist due to shorter aging. It's really a type of Cheddar if you think about it.
The crack you see on the bottom is very typical in English and cloth-bound cheddars. You can also see such cracks on American artisan cloth-bound/cave-aged cheddars and French Cantals. This usually happens in areas where the curd is cold during pressing. It's quite normal. and can be eaten.
If you want to ripen them naturally you don't need to use Geo. It will grow on its own in 2-3 weeks. What's cream wax? Is it made of cream?
What do you fly? I haven't been flying for a few years but used to fly C172, C182, C206 and MX-7
Interesting. I have never had the pleasure of natural rind cheddar. Cream wax is what is traditionally used in Holland for locally consumed Gouda. From what I've heard/read from a member in the town of Gouda is that red waxed cheese is not to be found there. It must be hard waxed for export and or be a USA thing. The cream wax I am using is from Hoegger Supply and they verified a few weeks back that theirs is from Holland. Sailor has indicated that he has had cheeses dry out which indicates it is not airtight as hard wax and vacuum sealing are. When dry the cream wax looks hard, glassy and impervious to moisture which it is not!
In my cream wax thread: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,9873.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,9873.0.html) the topic is discussed. I also found that imported Gouda is in fact first coated in cream wax prior to hard wax. For me the jury is still out and I need to wait until two or three months have elapsed before I open the Goudas (no. 4) that I have both cream waxed and vacuum sealed for comparison. I am hoping for a hard natural-rind like rind below the cream wax layer with nicer paste development than vacuum.
Insofar as flying, I own a small home built Flightworks Capella XS tail dragger that I help built and wound up buying. It is powered by an 80 hp Aerovee VW based engine that sips 4 gph so its easy on the pocket.. I fly under the Light Sport rules and just put-put around the Florida peninsula or just bore holes in the sky when I get antsy about being a ground based mammal.
Sorry for the off topic fellow cheesemiesters.
Oh isn't she cute! Your Capella too ;)
I can tell you... it wasn't a 4gph world flying around in these GA aircraft. Insurance, rental, fees galore, certifications, recurrent training, unattractive club, partnership and leaseback proposals + all the other nonsense have put me back in day one of flight school, when the instructor asked "who here can tell me what makes a plane fly?". The winning student is the one that answered "money!" I wanted to transition to sports/lights, but living at the center of a class A and B airspace (I'm in Manhattan), I would have to drive 50 miles out before I get to an airport where this is legal. I used to fly in SoCal so the weather was predictable and sunny for year-round flying but in the NYC basin it is brutal and volitile; changes in an instant. And so -I am groundlocked for the time being. :-\ I do miss it terribly.
Looked at the wax on their catalog. Doesn't say what it's actually made of (Paraffin?) but they do mention that you need to apply it and let it dry and then use regular cheese wax on top of it. It's a layer between the rind and cheese wax I suppose. I stopped using all of these things in favor of vacuum sealing, though I must say that even that, I hardly do. I really love natural rustic rinds. I only use the wax in drunken cheeses.
Getting tons of raw milk tommorrow from Dutch Belted cows. I am thinking of making a lightly pressed Tomme, then milling it, salting the curd and re-press it, then age it naturally for 3-6 months. A Tomme-meets-Cantal approach. Use a bit of helveticus and shermanii and low salt to get Swiss/alpine kind of nutty-sweet flavor profiling. I think it will work out beautifully.
Irather, IIRC the re-milled tomme is an actual tomme style in SW France in the midi-pyrenees. Made pretty much as you describe. Rennet high, drain high, acidify to 6.0, mill, salt, re-press. My guess is that the basque and pyrenees tomme makers met the cantalers of the south-mid and make this variant.
Actually, now that you mentioned it. I think someone told me in the past that Ossau Iraty is made with milled, pre-pressed curd (but no stacked slabs like cheddar). I wish I had sheep's milk at a reasonable price!
A friend of mine (a cheesemonger) have challenged me to make something like Sardinian Pantallemo. Do you think this is the secret? Raw goat cheese I have.
mm, from what I recall about Pantaleo, it has very clean milk lines, bit of citrus and grass. Some reminders of garrotxa. I think it's pasteurized milk, though, so any NSLAB would be from ambient flora, and any other nuanced characteristics from the milk. In my last trip to Italy, I chatted with a farmer from Sardegna who brought over native breeds to Umbria, and those goats were something else... wild, almost. I bet their milk is high protein, high fat. Would be hard to find anything similar in our classic US breeds (Nubian, Alpine, Lamancha, Saanen).
IIRC, ossau iraty varies with the region, with the majority not milled, but some is. That whole basque area, it's an amazing study in diversity. There are some fairly universal practices, but each little pocket is different.
I think trying to copy cheeses exactly is a bit tough. We have such great milk and flora here, might be better to learn from the practices of the cheesemakers and create unique, local creations.
iratherfly, actually class B,C and D are legal. All that is needed is a proficiency endorsement from a CFI. NYC however is a tough place to fly. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, graduate of Aviation High in L.I.C., but never could get enough coin to get my wings, so bucket listed and here we are.
You and Pav talking all this milled curd Cantal-like tomme styles prompted me to check the prevoisly unimpressive cantal I hid and WOW. What a difference time makes. If I didn't know better I'd think it was a different as yet untasted cheese. Sharp, earthy, tangy and crumbly.
Okay, okay, I got it now, age the things.
THAT's why you don't (can't) rush good cheese.
Navegador with Cheese: Well if this fast DG is considerably tasty at 30, at least I know it will be spectacular at 90 and beyond.
By the way, what are your thoughts on Flora Danica? I think it was Francois that mentioned hating it as it develops a disagreeable taste with aging. Do you have any experience or opinion on this. The reason I ask is because I cut into the Leiden of 93 days and it has developed an after taste I can't quite place and the first thing that came to mind was that I had used Flora Danica on this make. My only other suspicion is that it may be some sort of bitter oils leaching from the Caraway seed.
Quotethis fast DG is considerably tasty at 30, at least I know it will be spectacular at 90 and beyond.
All cheeses have an optimal maturity curve, looks like a bell curve. If you push the enzymes, it will ripen quickly, spend a little time at peak, and them begin to decline, to the point where a 6-month adjuncted cheeses will not be that great, but a 3-4 month will be. Important to taste and take notes, because these cheeses may be a little tricky.
Yes, aging does the trick. I had a blue that I aged for 3 months and nearly tossed to the trash a couple of months ago. Decided to give it a try with breakfast today. Whoa. Everything that was missing is now there. I am glad I took the bet.
I didn't know you can do Class B with sports license. I thought you can't do heavily populated areas or mix traffic with airliners' approaches. Still, you know this area... I am caught between 3 giant and busy Class A airspaces (JFK, EWR, LGA) + FAA special rule corridor over the Hudson. Class B airspace here is so high when you are at the center of the cake, that if you take off from any of the nearby airport you would need to climb up like a rocket to get to class B over the city... I know someone who did commercial air taxi ops with a Cessna Caravan floatplane from the seaplane port in the East River. He would fly over the city wanting to go below airliner traffic as much as possible so he would tell ATC he was a helicopter. They would make nasty comments about "what type of helicopter takes off at a 270° turn over the water and crosses the city at 145kts, sir?" He would make up tail numbers. Today the system is a bit more sophisticated though...
Yeppers, I can't imagine any worst place for the private or occasional aviator than NYC or DC. I have TPA nearby but stay under the cake if I'm headed to the west shore. Anyplace else I generally stick to uncontrolled airports but occasionally talk to the tower in D or C to transition with or without flight following.
Quote from: linuxboy on July 17, 2012, 04:31:37 PM
Quotethis fast DG is considerably tasty at 30, at least I know it will be spectacular at 90 and beyond.
All cheeses have an optimal maturity curve, looks like a bell curve. If you push the enzymes, it will ripen quickly, spend a little time at peak, and them begin to decline, to the point where a 6-month adjuncted cheeses will not be that great, but a 3-4 month will be. Important to taste and take notes, because these cheeses may be a little tricky.
Pav, your write up on pushing fresh curd cheddar with adjuncts is what prompted this make to begin with. And, what you describe: "the bell curve" is what I was trying to push closer the the manufacture date:
Like I said previously:
"Not so much a rush, more like widening the "palatable" time closer to the make date: one to three months; but definitely usable at one!"Of course that doesn't mean this make will live up to expectations or prove anything. I could have done a few things wrong in executing the idea and not know it.
I will follow your advise and taste and note, especially now that I have a trier I can use to sample smaller bits before committing to surgery.
Absolutely makes sense. My main point in the post is that these cheeses are often a bit tricksy. They'll be fantastic one week and you put them back and check in a month and it's like... what happened to my tasty cheese? This sometimes happens with normal culture cheeses, but in my experience, less so.
I love these adjuncted gems for the exact application you describe... I want a fast, tasty cheese, maybe for cooking or general nibbling, and don't want to wait the full term. They won't last to 6 months, anyway, so why not.
Hope I'm being a little more clear. Just wanted to share my personal experience. YMMV.
Out-standing! Thank you for clarifying and giving me and my franken gloucester hope.
This is absolutely awesome. I know it goes against everything I've learned from the majority of experts with the exception of Linux (Pav), and DThelmers from whom I got the idea to experiment, but this particular experiment is a resounding success.
This cheese is a mere 13 days of age and my cutting into it came after much thought and consideration given all I've learned about the chemistry and microbiological processes involved in cheese making. If nothing else, this proves -to me at least, that there are innumerable ways to achieve a good tasty product.
Maybe I got lucky. Maybe there is something to really be learned about the potential of adjunct techniques. What ever the case may be, I am very pleased beyond my wildest expectations.
My detailed make notes are posted so, I invite any doubters to give it a shot and lets compare results.
What I got is a very nice cheddar with all the characteristics of an 60-90 day or so aged cheddar. The attack was right on. Tang was there, buttery texture was evident with no crumbliness. Rind was almost non-existent as expected for a vac-pack make and totally scrumptious.
I have a cream waxed wheel that will age to 60 days before tasting, but it will be a challenge to NOT consume the whole wheel and age 1/2 the vac-pack wheel a bit more to see how it develops. Thankfully I was able to resist eating the other 1/2 wheel so I can nibble on it for the next couple of weeks. Maybe.
QuoteMaybe I got lucky.
I believe this is known in the industry as mad skills. Kudos. Cheese to you :)
Well done! I've got a 9 month Cheshire that is really starting to come into its own. To get really good cheddar flavours at 13 days is impressive. Indeed, a cheese to you.
- Jeff
Very impressive.
Wow, 13 days! Why so long? ::)
Really puts this in the historical register. Good job.
I like that you posted your make notes and process detail for others to emulate.
-Boofer-
Quote from: linuxboy on July 21, 2012, 03:43:48 AM
QuoteMaybe I got lucky.
I believe this is known in the industry as mad skills. Kudos. Cheese to you :)
Thank you for the kudos (and cheese), Pav. I think a degree of luck is involved when all the elements that need to come together are considered. I will be convinced that skill is involved when I get a consistent outcome in the coming months. It simply made sense that if the extended pre-ripening with Lactococcus diacetylactis containing culture and later addition of Thermo as an adjunct worked for fresh curd, then a fast tasty cheddar was possible.
I will also cut into the vac-packed wheel of the "not so fast" DG make using the recipe in 200 Easy... that I made the following week and confirm that at 14 days it is bland and immature as one would suspect, and, thus prove -too me, that the protocol for this make is indeed valid. I have no idea what a cheddar make is suppose to tasted like at such a short maturation so this will give me an idea.
JeffHamm, Thank you!!!
Boofer, Give it a whirl will you, I need to make sure its not a fluke.
Here's a better image. My Nikon D70 battery was dead, hence the crappy iPhone picture.
Quote from: Dulcelife on July 22, 2012, 09:22:23 PM
Boofer, Give it a whirl will you, I need to make sure its not a fluke.
Here's a better image. My Nikon D70 battery was dead, hence the crappy iPhone picture.
And the crowd grows restless...murmur, murmur....
Unfortunately, a second pass at any DG this year isn't looking too good. I have two Cheddars socked away for the next year already and what for me is a full cheese making calendar for the rest of the year. :(
I will vicariously look over your shoulder though. ;)
-Boofer-
The make and protocol are valid. I opened the two week "not so fast" Double Gloucester made following the recipe in 200 Easy..., and the taste is definitely cheddar but, very very short lived with no complexity as of yet; Simple and little more than what one would expect from a fresh cheese. The taste dissipates within a couple of minutes.
Adjuncts work!