CheeseForum.org » Forum

There was a recent discussion about the different types of gouda.

From Pav:

"There are three major types of gouda. One, mild for 80-120 day aging. Two, the 6-9 month aging. And three, the very aged that often has crystals, 14+ months. They require different approaches in moisture and culture."

I have been working on the the shortest aged ones, and am now considering trying a few in the second and third category. I was hoping you (Pav) might be willing to discuss how to change recipes for those two categories (and how to get those amazing crystals if possible for the home cheese-maker).

I tend to go in bursts for different cheese types (I've made 4 goudas in a row now), and am thinking that rather then repeating the same cheese several times, I should try to make the same cheese with different aging plans in a given burst. That way I can eventually have the all the variations of a given cheese available at the same time. Cheese party!

Thanks for any input!

This is too long of a writeup to do right now for me, it's a very technical bit of cheesecraft, goes right to the heart of the considerations one makes as a technician or when doing R&D for new product dev. If I do a short answer, will be more confusing than not. Maybe will have time in 2 weeks. Anyone else have time to chime in?