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Today is a return to the natural rind short aging, but wonderfully tasty Caerphilly. Attached is the recipe method and I'll be taking photos to post as well.
Just cleaning up and getting all ready. Pity we can't do live streaming! But who would want to listen to a fat 60 something drone on for 5 hours.
Back soon.
Ummm seems the doc didn't attach. I'll add it here later.

I have named this one White Dog for the hound at my feet. The Geotrichum Cand. is not really needed and was added as just an experiment. G.C. help keep the rind free from other unwanteds - hey you never know I might even get some B.Linens showing up, though my record on that from is not good.

it was nice to get back to a nice easy cheese with a known recipe.  Attached is the actual make sheet and there are a few changes as I needed to alter the timings to accommodate for a Dentist appointment in the afternoon.
First however there was an error - more like a conversion issue, and that was with the culture.  I had to review my culture work sheet and check the required amount for 10 liters of milk. I'll explain that later but suffice to say my provider of cultures has already portioned packs for 100 Litres of milk. The original sheet accounted for cultures with fillers (usually maltodextrin to keep the cultures viable during transport). The cultures I get are direct from the supplier and are uncut. therefore the culture measurements were not correct on the original sheet.  Corrected to 1/16th teaspoon of both the MO36R and Ma 4001 or (1/8th of either) for 10 Litres of milk.
The different amount of rennet to 2.5 mls of rennet and not worrying about the slight temperature increase helped to get me to the Dentist on time. Also the salting should be 2% but applied in 2 applications of 1% each and allowed to mellow.
This is why I keep lots of notes and so that if this is a good one then I'll make the changes permenant.


   

Of Course starting with a clean and uncluttered kitchen - pity it doesn't stay that way. By the tine I finish there is crap from one end of the house to the other.

This is the subjective thing - the Clean Break. No, I don't put my fingers in the curd. I use the Flocculation point and multiplier to determine when I test for the Clean Break. I do both because milk being milk is never the same and seasonal variations can make or break your cheese. In this case the Flocculation factor was 3 and the gel time was 16 minutes which gives me 48 minutes at which to check.

1. Make a cut in the curd surface.
2. Insert the curd knife behind the cut and;
3. Slowly lift and watch how it separates the edges need to be sharp. note the edge in mine are rounded and therefore I left it for 5 more minutes and tested again to achieve a better curd set. 

You only get one chance to cut the curd so you want to do it at the optimal time. If the liquid that seeps into the cut is cloudy and edges are rounded then, wait.  The edges should be crisp and the liquid clear. Waiting 5 minutes gave the curd set that I like. If you cut it too soon you lose fats to the whey and the curds will not be firm enough to handle. This is true for all cheeses. The curd needs sufficient structure to capture the moisture and fats to make cheese. The other side of the Flocculation story is that don't leave it to long as the curd structure changes constantly and leaving it too long actually creates a curd where the structure is too open and you lose a lot more whey and will actually result in a dry cheese. The Flocculation factor is a good guide to the optimal curd cutting time. But I hear you say Camembert and other soft cheese have a Floc factor of 5 or 6 and they are still moist. Well, yes but they are not cooked at increased temperatures nor stirred for a prolonged period. Even Caerphilly has a pH goal and stir time expected to reach it.

If you can source a copy of the Technology of Cheese making there is a great section on curd formation. It has lots of scientific information but the English that it use to describe the findings is easily readable. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell.

You can see the first and second cuts in the curd. The second image shows the curd just after the cut and it is still more cloudy than I would have liked and could have waited another 5 minutes. I just had to be really careful at the beginning of the stirring and cooking phase.

Everything else ran to the adjusted timescale nicely and the serendipitous increase in temp to 32 DegC at the beginning helped reach the pH markers nicely.

The Texturing part of the process is really simple.
Drain the curds at the appropriate time (and pH) in a Colander over the warm whey - I don't actually mind if it sit partially in the whey for 15 minutes. I know is difficult in Winter but try to keep the curds warm throughout the texturing and salting phases as it will definitely help the pressing phase.
Turn out the warm curd mass back in to the cheese vat and cut it into two and place one piece on top of the other. I have my cheese vat back into the larger vat with the warm water. You can see from the image it is already starting to mat. It will spread in the vat but that's ok.
Leave it for 10 minutes and repeat.
Just keep cutting and stacking, every ten minutes for one hour or until a pH of 5.75. Mine took 5 stackings. I measured 5.78 before left for my Dentist visit - thankfully just up the road - and measured 5.68 when I got back.
This is not a Cheddar and the mass will not be as 'Cooked Chicken Breast' so don't expect it. Don't over texture either as you don't want the pH to drop too low.

Mill the curds - and I do it by cutting the mass into strips and breaking it up into pieces as large as my thumb. HINT 1 empty out and whey before you add the salt. Otherwise you will be salting the whey you are going to tip out anyway.

The salting is two applications of 1% of the curd mass - (yes you have to 'whey' it) - HINT 2 this is AFTER the texturing as if you do it before, you are weighing the eventually expelled whey and, will result in an over salted cheese.

The next is the Pressing routine. This is the make or break point I think where a lot of people make the same mistake. Too much over pressing, especially in the beginning. Ok, so, this is not a Cheddar so therefore we don't need to hang a prime mover off the end pressing arm. The curds are warm and cultures are still dropping the pH albeit more slowly but it's important that it does otherwise the pH will not be in the safety range by the end of the pressing (about 5.3) also too fast again will push whey out too fast and end up with a crumbly cheese. Caerphilly is slightly crumbly but sliceable with a tangy first taste, this will be done by the remaining cultures and moisture. It's a balancing act and so is the next part.
Place the curds in a hard cheese form - this one is a 160mm in Diam. To help prevent the cheese cloth from sticking to the cheese soak it in whey as wring out.

Get some salt ready in a dish, a tablespoon will do.

My press is a dual lever press and it doesn't need a heavy weight initially - I have two settings 10 Times and 12 Times and double pulley system that can get some crazy pressing force. But, we will only need the 10X to start with.
500 mls of water = 500 grams X 10 = 5 Kg and yes I zeroed the scales before adding and weighing the water.

Press at 5Kg for ten minutes.

Remove cheese from the press and Unmold the cheese - CAREFULLY it will be warm and squidgy.
Unwrap the cheese and hand rub the cheese with small amount of salt - important bit - flip the cheese over, rewrap in the cheese cloth and place it back in the press and
Press at 5kg for ten minutes.
You have to move reasonably quickly as you need keep the cheese warm.
--This is not a cut and paste error
Remove cheese from the press and Unmold the cheese - CAREFULLY it will still be warm and a little less squidgy.
Unwrap the cheese and hand rub the cheese with small amount of salt - important bit - flip the cheese over, rewrap in the cheese cloth and place it back in the press and
Press at 7kg (700mls Water) for 25 minutes
and finally
Remove cheese from the press and Unmold the cheese - CAREFULLY it will still be warm and a little less squidgy.
Unwrap the cheese omitting the salt - important bit - flip the cheese over, rewrap in the cheese cloth and place it back in the press and
Press at 15kg for 16-24Hours

Oh and Omit the Brining at the end as the hand salting will be sufficient. 

That is my Caerphilly up until now. It is still in the press and I'll take some shots as I pull it out of the press this afternoon. 

Sorry last note. To keep the cheese warm in the press I used some of my wife's empty Cakemaking Fondant bucket inside my 12 litre pot and filled the outside with warm water and pressed the cheese inside the fondant bucket. If you know any cakemakers, ask if you can have, buy or trade for their old fondant containers as they are excellent for Brine buckets, pressing buckets and in the smaller sizes excellent cheese forms as they are slightly wider at the top than the bottom and they are food safe to boot. To perforate for a cheese mold, use a hot nail all over - don't drill as it leaves dags in the holes and you don't want to eat plastic.

The kitchen was needed and  thought that the cheese had been pressing for 22 Hours is enough. Here is the final results. The rind has a few gaps - very small - weighing in at 1.47Kg there is a bit of retained moisture. pH of 5.1 is a little low but not bad.
It is going directly into the 12DegC fridge as the kitchen has a variance during the day of about 10 DegC at the moment as it catches the afternoon westerly sun.

I'll be turning the cheese twice every day for a week and then daily for the remaining time and will be cutting it at 6 weeks.  And, of course, photos of the progress and the revealing.

This is great!  And for the record, I'd be down with watching some old fat guy make cheese for 5 hours. :-0.

Just a 4 week update. The cheese has been in the 10 DegC and 85-90 % RH for 4 weeks. There are a few really small crackers on the rind but overall is a good looking cheese. Funny thing though, the GC never got going enough to cover the cheese but I am seeing some in the little cracks.
Two weeks to go for the unveiling.

I made two batches this past weekend and am anxious to try it. Ive never tasted a Caerphilly. What is it like?  Also, I had read it is ready after only 3 weeks.  Do you recommend the longer aging? If so, why?  Thanks!  And a fine looking cheese you have there!

A few years ago I went to the UK and bought as many Caerphilly cheeses as I could find.  I think I hit most of the famous ones.

There are 2 kinds of Caerphilly.  The first is a fairly generic, super market, mild cheddar.  It's usually rindless and sold in vacuum packs.  I believe under PDO rules, it's allowed to be sold as "Caerphilly".  The second kind is known as something like "traditional Welsh Caerphilly" (or something similar -- I always forget the exact wording).  This is similar to a mild cheddar, but it has a natural rind (usually mycodore).  I'll try to describe this as the other is quite uninteresting.

Generally speaking, the cheese is fairly hard and crumbly.  It's more crumbly than an aged cheddar.  Because of the natural rind, the center of the cheese is quite a bit different than the cheese near the rind.  The center tends to be a bit more acidic, while the outside is more smooth.  Even though historically Caerphilly was sold *very* young (sometimes as little as 3 weeks), modern artisanal Caerphilly is sold more in the 2-3 month phase.  Some producers have a slight softening of the paste near the rind, but my experience was that almost all of them were relatively firm all the way to the rind.  I think this is due to this longer aging process that dries out the cheese a bit.  I've seen one producer mention that they tend to wait until the truckle has a "foot" before they sell it (the sides of the cheese bow inwards a little bit and the top and bottom hang out).  This gives you an idea of the moisture level of the cheese.

For me, I found it really an enjoyable cheese.  If you have it in a cheese and pickle sandwich, it just tastes like a nice pleasant cheddar (and I compared it like that to a few medium aged artisinal cheddars).  Eating it out of hand, I think you get a sense of the nice acidic bite, and I really like how there is a gradient of flavours and textures from the rind to the center.  It's something I just can't replicate with my very small cheeses.

It's been a few years now and I'm just waiting for Covid to clear up so I can go to the UK again to refresh my memory.  Apologies if any of this is incorrect as my brain may be addled ;-)

This is great info.  As I said I made two cheeses this weekend following Gavin's video.  The first cheese I tried using the milk from a nearby dairy.  They say their milk is very gently pasteurized ~145 for 20 minutes or something like that.  I've tried this milk a few times and the curds have always been fragile but I thought I would try again. Alas, I had the same issue.  My curds were way small so I fear the cheese will be a bit dry.  It did knit together but the air drying phase I shortened a bit because the exterior was so dry already.  (AFter pressing the cheese was 2lbs)

The second cheese I used a 1 gallon flash Pasteurized 1 gallon raw milk combo.  I have had great success with this combination.  This time, the curds looked very much like what Gavin had.  After pressing the cheese was 2lb 7oz!  I'm not surprised.

I bought a pH meter but it is cheap and I do not trust the reading as they do not make any sense.  I also tried pH strips and the color never really changes unless it's very acid or very basic.  Not sure I want to invest in a good ph Meter.  I have been trying to pay more attention to the taste of the curds and the whey.  I feel as if the whey did start to get a bit of a tang but it was very salty so the taste may have been disguised.

I plan on trying them at 3 weeks.  After I cut them, can I wax the remainder?  I think yes, but then the cheese will have wax over rindless cheese face and the rest wax over the developed rind.  I guess I should let that face air dry a bit..  no?