Big Cheese

I have been busy making cheese today.  So what is new you probably think to yourselves, you always make cheese.

Well, I have been making big cheeses.  You see, now that I have a 14 litre pot and two cheese presses, I can make double the amount of cheese in the same time frame as it used to take me to make just one.  I am so glad that I "upsized" my equipment, because now I seem to always have cheese at hand, and some left over should friends want to buy some from or to give away as gifts. Nothing says 'I love you' like home made cheese!

Last weekend, I made two Caerphilly cheeses, and the week before that, I made the biggest Parmesan that I have ever made.

The only problem I have is that it has been so cold here of late, that the cheese will not dry and form a rind.  The Caerphilly above, which are the two wheels at the front, have been sitting at room temperature for 7 days, and have only formed a slight rind on the edges.  Because they have been moist, I have had to wash with brine to inhibit mould growth. 

Not so bad though for the Parmesan at the back.  Because it is a brine dipped cheese, the rind forms really easily, with minimal mould formation.  I will wax it this week, as I find this helps it from drying out.  As for the Caerphilly, I will wait for the rind, and then put them in the cheese cave for a few more weeks before vacuum packing them to stop them from aging further.

Today, because it was raining heavily and I couldn't do much outside, I decided to make another big Parmesan.  It took me about 4 hours from milk to press (as shown above), and tomorrow I will brine it for 24 hours.  In ten months it will taste absolutely delicious! 

This morning, Kim found some Feta in the fridge that I had made about 3 months ago, still in the brine and looking very healthy.  I tried a little and found it to be sharp, very edible, with a crumbly texture to the cut, but when spread on toast it was smooth and creamy and delicious.  I remember following my standard recipe for this one, and it just goes to show that if kept submerged in brine in a sealed container, Feta can last for a long time.  Now that we have discovered this, I think I will age all of my Feta for this long!

Caerphilly - Video Tutorial

Of late, I have been cheesing up a storm.  Every Friday night for the last month, I have made large (14 litre) batches of a single recipe.   It seems to definately the way to go, because with all the same equipment, I can make two rounds of cheese instead of one!

Tomorrow night, I intend on making Caerphilly.  Caerphilly is one of my favourite cheeses to make.  It is relatively quick to make, only takes 3 and a half hours from milk to mould, and you can eat it in only three short weeks.  I wrote about the method in the last post, so I thought I would follow that up with the video tutorial due to the fact that I said I would, and that Melinda asked this question;

Hi Gavin, could you clarify a couple of things for me please?

How do you "Let mixture sit for forty minutes at the target temperature" Is that a constant reheating to keep it at that temp? If this is the case, that would mean that the mix is constantly dropping a couple of degrees, then being warmed up agian. Or is there an easy way to do this? I'm assuming that you can't just walk away from the cheesemaking while it's resting?

"until you get a clean break" What is a clean break? Would you be able to show this in a photo or video please?

To specifically answer your first question, you will find that if you use my double boiler method the milk stays a constant temperature when at rest.  It takes a little practice, but as soon as the milk reaches the target temp, turn the heat off, and keep the cheese pot on the smaller saucepan.  The heat from the water in the lower pan keeps the milk at about 30-33C.  You can definately walk away, as I do when I make long ripening cheeses like Camembert (90 minute wait for the curd to set), however I check with the thermometer at about the half way mark just to make sure.  You should get a better idea from the video.  The second question will be answered in the video as well.  May I also recommend that you purchase one of the cheese books that I reviewed recently?  It has all of the introduction to cheesemaking info you will ever need.  The authors do a much better job of describing the ins and outs of the methodology than I could do justice to.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the video, but I must warn you that it was the first one I ever made.  The photography was a bit wobbly, and I invested in a tripod very soon after!

If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will endeavour to answer it.  The recipe for this cheese is located at this post titled, "Caerphilly" if you are interested in trying to make it.  It is relatively quick to make and only takes 3 and a half hours from milk to mould, and you can eat it in only three short weeks.  Also, and most importantly, it tastes divine.  Unless you live in the UK, it would be very rare to find this cheese in the shops.









Enjoy!  Blessed are the Cheese Makers, or so Monty Python says!

Caerphilly

Yearning for a cheese that would be on the table quickly? Caerphilly is the cheese that you are after. It has Welsh/English origins, and is a lightly pressed cheese that ripens in 3 weeks.

Here is a bit of history about Caerphilly from Wikipedia;

Caerphilly cheese is a hard, white cheese that originates in the area around the town of Caerphilly in Wales, although it is now also made in England, particularly in the South West and on the English border with Wales. It was not originally made in Caerphilly, but was sold at the market there, hence taking the town's name.

Caerphilly is a light-coloured (almost white), crumbly cheese made from cow's milk, and generally has a fat content of around 48%. It has a mild taste, with its most noticeable feature being a not unpleasant slightly sour tang.

It is rumoured that the cheese was developed over time to provide the coal miners of the area with a convenient way of replenishing the salt lost through hard work over ten hour shifts underground and so was a staple of the diet of the coal miners.

So here is my method for making it. I used the recipe out of Making Artisan Cheese by Tim Smith and modified it a little.

7.6 litres whole milk (2 gallons)
1 quarter teaspoon (about 2 ml) mesophillic culture
1 eighth teaspoon (about 1 ml) calcium chloride diluted in 60ml cool unchlorinated water
1 teaspoon (about 3 ml) liquid rennet diluted in 60ml cool unchlorinated water
2 tablespoons non-ionised salt

Heat milk to 32°C user double boiler (I use a smaller saucepan under the large pot).

Add the calcium chloride if you are using homogenised milk. Stir for a minute. Then add the starter culture and stir for another minute. Cover and let rest for thirty minutes at target temperature.

Maintaining the temp of 32°C (90°F), add the rennet to the milk, stir for two minutes, then cover. Let mixture sit for forty minutes at the target temperature, or until you get a clean break.

Cut the curds into 6mm (¼ inch) cubes, keeping the size as uniform as possible.

Slowly raise the temp to 33°C (92°F); this should take about ten minutes. Hold the curd at the target temp for forty minutes and be sure to stir frequently to keep the curds from matting. Let rest at target temp for five minutes.

Drain the curds into a cheese cloth lined colander, and let whey drain for a 5 minutes. Cut the curds into 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick slabs, and stack on top of one another. Turn the stack over, top to bottom, two times in ten minutes. This will assist in draining a lot of whey from the curd.

Using your clean hands, break the curds into thumbnail-sized pieces, and blend with salt.

Fill a cheese cloth-lined 1kg cheese mould with the salted curds.

Cover the curd with one corner of the cheese cloth, lay the follower on top, and press at 5kg (10 pounds) for ten minutes.

Remove the cheese from the press, take it out of the mould, and unwrap the cheese cloth. Turn the cheese, and rub a layer of salt on both top and bottom before rewrapping with cheese cloth. Press at 5kg (10 pounds) for ten minutes. Repeat the same procedure (salt), pressing at 7.5 kg (15 pounds) for twenty minutes. Repeat the same procedure, pressing at 7.5 kg (15 pounds) for sixteen hours. I finished this stage at 6 pm on Saturday evening, so I had to wait until 10 am Sunday morning for the next part.

Take the cheese out of the cheese mould, and let it air dry on a cheese mat and cheese board for about 3-4 days. Make sure you turn the cheese several times a day to ensure even drying and fat distribution.

When the cheese is dry to touch, it is ready to be ripened. Place in your cheese cave at 13ºC (55ºF) at 80-85% humidity for three weeks, turning several times a week. No need to wax this cheese. It will form a rind, and if any mould develops, simply rub the cheese with cloth dipped in some brine. The salt in this cheese retards mould growth anyway.

At this time of the year in Australia, you could find a cold cupboard to ripen your cheese in if you don't have a fridge that you can get warm enough.

This cheese has been profiled on Cheesemaking Help, which is the blog of Ricki Carrol's New England Cheesemaking Co.  I was very pleased when they asked my permission to repost my recipe!

I have been making this cheese every two months for the past two years, and it never fails to please family and friends.  Any easy, quick, and tasty cheese to make at home.  What more can one ask for?  What?  A video tutorial?  Well I will post one just for you all tomorrow!  All good things come to those who wait.