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QuoteBut the milk-tub, when it is filled with milk, ought not to be
without fome gentle warmth. Nevertheless, it muft not be brought
fo near as to touch the flames, as fome people are of opinion, but be
placed not far from the fire, and prefently after it is curdled, the liquor
muft be transferred into wicker-bafkets, cheefe-vats, or moulds; for
h is of great importance, that the whey be ftrained and feparated from
the condenfed fubftance as foon as poflible: for which reafon, the
country-people do not indeed fuffer the moifture to drop flowly from
it of its own accord; but, when the cheefe becomes a little more folid,
they put weights upon it, that thereby the whey may be fqueezed out r
then, as it is taken out of the moulds or frails, it is laid up in a dark
and cold place, upon the very cleaneft boards, that it may/ not be
fpoiled; and it is fprinkled with bruifed fait, that it may fweat out
the acid liquor: and when it is hardened, it is prefled more vehe-
mently, that it may be confpiflated; and it is fpiinkled again with
toafted fait, and condenfed again with weights. After this has been
done for nine days, it is warned throughly with fweet water, and
placed in fuch a manner under a {hade, upon hurdles made for that
purpofe, that one eheefe may not touch another, and that i.t may be
moderately dried. Then, that it may keep the tenderer, they put it
clofe together in feveral ftories, in a clofe place, not expofed to the
winds. Thus it neither becomes fpongy and full of holes, nor fait,
nor dry t the firft of which faults ufes to happen, if it be prefled but a,
little i the fecond, if it be feafoned with too much fait; and the third,
if it be fcorched in the fun. This kind of eheefe may be exported alfo
beyond fea. For that which is defigned to be eaten in a few days,
while it is new, is made up with lefs care : for, being taken out of the
wicker bafkets, it is put into fait and brine, and foon afterwards dried
a little in the fun.
De Re Rustica (Columella)

(Yeah... It hurts me to read it too... This is what happens when OCR software attempts to "read" the scan of a manuscript printed on a seventeenth century printing press. Sorry. Replace most of the "f" with "s" and a few of the "e" with "c" and so on, and you'll get through it...) Or you can skip that part and read my procedure:

QuoteColumella Process
•After curd formation transfer curd into baskets to remove whey. (Similar to brie/camembert draining process.) Once sufficient whey has been extracted to make the curd more solid, press under weight.
•Remove from molds and rub with salt. Let rest overnight.
•Press under more weight.
•Rub with more salt.
•Press under more weight.
•After 9 days, rinse thoroughly with warm water.
•Age.

He's missing datapoints on what kind of culture to use... But he's said that he doesn't like the cheese to be too sharp, so I used Flora Danica... I heated about a gallon of milk to 86 degrees and added my culture, then after letting it ripen for 30 minutes or so I added the rennet. After 45 minutes, I cut the curd, waited 15 minutes for things to firm up and then scooped it into some camembert molds on a reed mat to drain...

I flipped the curds every 30 minutes or so for 2-3 hours before consolidating them to just one mold and adding a follower and a can of tomato sauce as  pressing weight...

Then, after leaving it set overnight, I salted it on all sides and left it out on a matt to air dry while I'm at work, before returning it to the press again...

Apparently I'm supposed to keep up this salting and pressing business for 9 days... Probably because there is no cheese cloth involved to help wick the moisture out of the curd... Hopefully I'll remember to keep you posted as this little experiment progresses...

Mightyjesse,
I think that the comment about not getting it too hot, but keeping it near the fire argues for a mesophilic culture, too. Good choice with the Flora Danica, in my opinion. Also the moderate weight you are using seems reasonable since he mentions wicker baskets. I'm curious to see what the acidification is like with that long pressing. I'm attaching another translation of Columella that parses English a bit better.
I'm glad you're trying this! I think I'm going to try some old recipes myself, like Digby's scalded cheese.

During the drying phase, outside the mold, the cheese literally went pear shaped... The sides bowed out, and sagged a bit, but since it shrank up some due to the salt, I was still able to get it back into the mold and into the press today. I went with about a half gallon of water as my weight. I'll salt and let it dry again this evening when I get home from work.

Yesterday after pressing, there were several teaspoons of whey in the tray. I salted and left it out to dry again over night, and again, after salting there was more whey in the drip pan. Cheese is noticeably shorter than yesterday, but still not dry on the surface.

If I recall, doesn't he use vinegar and honey at some point?  Will you be doing that too?

The vinegar and honey go into a different recipe by a medieval Italian doctor published some 1400 years later: Compendio de i secreti rationali di M. Leonardo Fiorvanti Bolognese, Medico & Cirugico.  (The Compendium of rational secrets of M. Leonardo Fiorvanti of Bologna, Medic and Surgeon)... Thus far, I've not managed to get that recipe to work for me... I can't even figure out if it's supposed to be a lactic cheese or a rennetted one, and neither can the curd...

My inner geek, however, is thrilled that you remember this...

I'm enjoying this.

Hmmm, as to the culture mix, given that this is a raw milk cheese, wouldn't it be appropriate to toss in some thermophilic as well, but the make proceeds at meso temperatures.  The thermo's may come into play during the aging phase? 

Also, having read the translation Dave included, he talks of shackling the she-goat, so it seems this is describing a goat's milk cheese.  Perhaps a touch of lipase would not be out of line either? 

Anyway, I'm really just thinking out loud here.  Really looking forward to hearing how this turns out for you.  A cheese for your efforts.

- Jeff

The translation I was working with said "cattle" and not "goats." In the original latin, the word used was "pecus," for which most translation software searches will return "cattle" and sometimes "in particular a sheep." "Pecorrino," cheese might be related to this somehow, you think? Lipase wouldn't be out of the question regardless of what kind of milk is used, if the standard italian rennet paste recipe was being used here. However if this were a veggi rennet (as he suggests might be tasty) I'm guessing that there would be very little lipase in the mix at all.... I'm still trying to get my hands on some fig tree sap to try...

The primary meaning of "pecus" is "cattle," but it can also be translated as "sheep." Confusing for a modern cheesemaker, eh?

I didn't find it as confusing as I found it frustrating. I cannot get sheep's milk here, so I work with what I can get. I need to do a bit more research on the primary type of cattle raised in the area Columella was describing at the time he described it. Different types of cattle went into and out of fashion in the passing of centuries, and so did the flavors of cheese. I'm mostly interested in technique and technology right now because I can make a wicker basket to replicate the Roman or Italian technology I'm trying to mimic. I can eliminate the use of cheese cloth to see what effect that has on the final product... I can not so much start breeding sheep within city limits so as to have the right kind of milk.

>_<

Ahhh, the fun of translations! 

I have this snippet of a memory that seems to be telling me that fig sap as a coagulant will produce a fine soft cheese, but not a hard pressed cheese.  It might be from one of Linuxboy's posts.  Will search for figs.

- Jeff

I'm under the impression that it will do better as a younger cheese, but as a longer aged cheese, the product might become bitter.... At least that's what I remember reading.

Hi mightyjesse,

Yes, my memory was a bit off (it was, after all, only a snippet of a memory! ).  I found the, or at least a, thread on making rennet from figs.  And it was Lynuxboy who suggested fresh, non-aged cheeses are fine.


https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5157.msg38557.html#msg38557

I don't know if Columella was farming in Spain, where he was born, or Italy. I've also a dim memory that the European ancients didn't differentiate between sheep and goats much, though my memory could be at fault here.

On Roman baskets, rather than clay moulds, cheese made in baskets without cheesecloth is still made in Italy today. I occasionally make it myself.

Columella and Pliny were both fairly well travelled and made some comment on cheeses made in England and across various parts of the continent. (I think the l. helveticus culture gets it's name from the people that were first making cheese with it... The Helveticans... Who were mentioned by Pliny.) I just need to do more reading into which cheeses which descriptions relate to. Sometimes I'm too eager to make cheese and not eager enough to brush up on my Latin...