Little Green Cheese

Cheese making at home with Gavin Webber the Cheeseman

Making Stilton Cheese

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Back in 2009 I attended my second cheese making course.  This one was for mould ripened cheeses and I hoped that I could be making Stilton cheese.  I was very excited, and didn’t sleep very much last night.

The course was held at our local community house, and started at 10am.  A most civilised start time for a Sunday, I thought.

There were 8 people on the course, and I knew one gent called Kasper who I met during my first course.  He also has made many different types of cheese as I have since the first course in February, and we both have the cheese making bug.I was able to make Stilton, which is an English Blue vein cheese.  You can read how they make it commercially at the Official Stilton Cheese Makers Assoc page.  Here is a little history of the cheese.  It has an uncanny link to my town of Melton.

Stilton was first made in the early 18th century in the midlands of England – specifically in and around the Melton Mowbray area. Stilton takes its name from the village of Stilton (though no Stilton was ever made there) located about 80 miles north of London on the Great North Road. It is here that the coaches travelling from London to Scotland and other northern cities made their first stop for fresh horses and overnight stays. Convenient to Melton Mowbray and the surrounding area, the village became the central marketplace for the cheese with thousands being sold every week. Thus the blue cheese one would buy in Stilton became known as Stilton cheese.

Well there you go.  Stilton was never made in the town of Stilton!

Anyway, history lesson over.  It was a fairly simple recipe, and started off the same as making most hard cheeses, bringing up the temp to 32°C, add the Calcium Chloride, add the Mesophilic culture, and then the Penicillium Roquefort (the smelly stuff) to the milk.  After 30 minutes I added the rennet and let set for about 45 minutes.

After cutting the curd with a whisk into about 4-6mm squares, it was rested again and then the whey was drained off to the level of the curds.

That is when it all went to custard and down hill from there.  After another 30 minutes of resting, I drained it through a cheesecloth and it was still very moist.  I had to leave it in the cheesecloth and press it with a pot filled with water to get more whey out of it.  I then took it out of the cheesecloth, broke it up into smaller pieces and sprinkled 2 teaspoons of salt over the top and mixed it through.

I thought it was still quite moist, but because we couldn’t really follow the recipe properly because of the time limitation we attempted to press it in the hoop.  It did not like it very much and oozed out of the sides of the follower.  Still too much whey in the curd.  I had to return it back to the bain marie and heat the curd until more whey was released.  Normally you would just leave the curds to drain a few hours in the hoop and add more when it shrank by itself.

The heating process released a lot of whey and the curd became very rubbery.  Hopefully I didn’t kill the cultures.  The cheese itself looks a bit abnormal, lopsided and rough.  It didn’t press very cleanly.  We all cleaned up our gear and were finished by about 2pm.  Here is the finished product at home, which looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I bought a special container that has a rack in it to mature the cheese in, because we were told not to leave mould-ripened cheese in a fridge with normal cheese unless we wanted strange moulds all over our nice cheese!

The Phillips head screwdriver is to make holes in the cheese so that oxygen can given to the p.roquefort and give those wonderful blue-green mould lines that you find in this type of cheese.  It has been sterilised, and is relatively brand new.

I rubbed salt liberally over the cheese, and I turned the rack upside down, put a bit of water in the bottom of the container (to raise the humidity to 85%), and pierced the cheese with about 30-40 holes top to bottom and bunged it into the cheese fridge.

The first Stilton I made turned out very mouldy all over and I wrapped it in foil with the ends exposed to encourage mould growth in the holes.  It smelled fantastic, and we ate it within days of maturity.

It looks a bit squished, but that is how it came out of the cheese mould.

As for the second Stilton I made, it turned out to be a bit too dry and cracked in half.  I have had to wrap it in foil early to get it to keep together.  In this photo it is just showing signs of blue mould growth at the top.

You can see the crack better in this picture.  I nearly cried, until I remembered watching how they wrapped Roquefort cheese in thick tin foil in France.  Before I wrapped the cheese it was laying in half on the bottom of the ripening container.

To tempt your taste buds further, here are a few shots of the 3rd Stilton that I made.  It had been maturing for the last 4 months.  Once again, homemade blue cheese is simply divine.

It had a nice, strong rind, with lots of marbling inside.  I went crazy with the piercing it this time as I wanted lots of veins in the wheel.  I put in about 40 holes. It clearly worked well.

Click to enlarge any of the photos to get right in there.


Kim and I sampled this small piece with a few crackers and local cherries.  The flavour combination was amazing.  We love this cheese!

In summary, making Stilton cheese or any blue cheese for that matter is not that difficult to make.  You just have to set up the right conditions for it to grow the mould successfully.

30 Minute Mozzarella

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30 Minute Mozzarella is so easy to make. So why did I wait so long to taste you, my delicious creation?

quick-mozzarella-2
One cheese that I have been procrastinating about is Mozzarella.  Don’t ask me why; I just was!  The Mozzarella recipe listed in Ricky Carrol’s Home Cheesemaking book had quite a few precautions as did her instructions on her website, but I figured that now that I had a few kinds of cheese under my belt (an understatement I suppose?), I should be able to rescue any potential disaster.

Quick Mozzarella

Ingredients

  • 4 litres of full cream milk, preferably unhomogenized.
  • 1½ teaspoons of citric acid mixed with a ½ cup of non-chlorinated water,
  • 1 teaspoon of non-iodised salt,
  • ½ teaspoon of liquid rennet or ½ a rennet tablet mixed with a quarter of a cup of non-chlorinated water,
  • 1/8th of a teaspoon of lipase mixed with a quarter of a cup of water (let this sit for 20 minutes before hand).
  • ¼ teaspoon of Calcium Chloride in ¼ cup unchlorinated water if using homogenised milk.

Equipment

  • 6-8 Litre Stock Pot
  • Stainless Steel stirring spoon
  • Dairy Thermometer
  • Measuring Spoons
  • Measuring Cups
  • 4 litre Pyrex Bowl
  • Large Bowl filled with cold water and ice
  • Loose weave Cheese cloth
  • Colander
  • Kitchen rubber gloves

Method

  1.  Clean and sanitise your equipment and utensils and leave to air dry.
  2.  Heat the milk to 13°C then add the citric acid solution to which you add the calcium chloride. Add the lipase and stir well and continue to heat.  The milk will curdle a little on the surface due to the increased acidity.
  3.  Heat to 33°C (90F), then add the rennet solution and stir gently for 1 minute. Keep heating the milk to 38-40°C and the curd may begin to come away from the edges of the pot or look like the consistency of scrambled eggs.  This happens in about 5-8 minutes.
  4.  Pour off some whey, and gently pour the curds into a cheese cloth lined colander. The whey becomes clear and yellow.  Drain as much whey from the curds in the Pyrex bowl and then put it in the Microwave Oven (1000w) for 1 minute on High.  Put on your gloves as the curd begins to get hot during handling.
  5.  Drain the whey again, then into the Microwave for another 30 seconds on High, drain and form into a single mass, and back into the Microwave for a final 30 seconds.
  6.  Add the salt and start gently kneading quickly like bread dough until it is smooth and shiny and it can be stretched like melted cheese. Form the cheese into smaller balls and then put them in the big bowl of iced water for 5-10 minutes.  This helps the cheese to form the same consistency throughout as it cools rapidly.
  7.  Take it out of the ice water and try a slice on a cracker with fresh tomato and freshly cracked pepper and salt. It is delicious!

When the salt is added and started kneading quickly like bread dough until it was smooth and shiny and it could be stretched like Taffy .  This is as simple as forming the cheese into five balls and then put them in a big bowl of cold water for 30 minutes.  This helped the cheese to have the same consistency throughout and cools it rapidly.

We then took it out of the water and have already eaten one ball sliced onto crackers, topped with tomato and freshly cracked pepper and salt.  Delicious!  Apparently, it can be stored covered in the fridge for a few days, but don’t think it will last that long.  I usually make it on Friday night, and we use it on homemade pizza on a Saturday night!

There is nothing quite like fresh Mozzarella!  Why did I wait so long to make it, I will never know.

Wensleydale Cheese

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Of all the cheese that I have made so far, I believe that Wensleydale is my sentimental favourite.  Why you ask?  Well if you like Wallace and Gromit as much as our family does, then you would have figured it out already

You see, both Wallace and Gromit have a fancy for Wensleydale, as do I.

Here is a bit about the cheese itself. Wensleydale cheese is a firm and slightly flaky cheese but not dry and crumbly, in fact quite the reverse, it’s moist and quite succulent with a melt in the mouth forte to it. Slightly sweet but not that it is immediately noticeable and with no after-taste, Wensleydale is perfect to accompany all fresh fruits including apples, pears, grapes, grapefruit and strawberries to name but a few.

Also nice with a glass of light wine, or a cold beer with a Wensleydale ploughman’s lunch, Wensleydale is also great on rye or crackers.  It was made popular again by the Wallace and Gromit movies, and sales took off in the UK.

Anyway, enough about those two.  Have a look at this one that I prepared earlier

Here is the cheese recipe I use for Wensleydale. Just make sure you have at least 9 hours up your sleeve and don’t start making it at 7pm and end up finishing at 3am like I did a few weeks ago!

Wensleydale Cheese

Makes about 850 gm (2 pounds)

  • 8 litres (2 gallons) whole milk
  • 1/8 teaspoon Direct set Mesophilic culture
  • 2.5 ml Rennet mixed with 25 ml non-chlorinated water
  • 3 ml Calcium Chloride if using homogenised milk
  • 3 teaspoons non-ionised salt

Sterilise all equipment. I put a litre of water into the pot, put all utensils in it, cover and boil for 15 minutes. Anything that may melt, I wipe down with vinegar and a boiled cloth. If I handle the milk/curds or finished cheese, I spray vinegar on my hands from a spray bottle and rub together until dry. That way the milk will not get infected by any wild yeasts or molds that maybe on my hands.

Using a double boiler, heat the milk to 30°C (86°F). If using homogenised milk, add calcium chloride to 2 tablespoons water and mix to the milk gently. Add Mesophilic starter, mix well for a minute, cover and allow milk to ripen for 45 minutes.

Add rennet whilst stirring and stir bottom to top for 2 minutes. Cover and allow to stand for 45 minutes until the curd sets, maintaining the temperature. Test with your finger for a clean break in the curds, then cut the curd into 13 mm cubes and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Stir the curds and whey for 10 minutes, then let rest for 15 minutes. Stir the curd again as you raise the temperature to 32°C (90°F). Maintain this temperature, and stir the curd as often as necessary to stop the curd knitting together. Do this for 2 hours.

Drain the whey off and ladle the curd into a colander lined with cheesecloth. Tie in a bundle and for 2 hours, open every 15 minutes to break the curd into small pieces.

After the two hours break up the curd for one final time and apply the salt. Mix the curds and salt well.

Place half the curd into a cheesecloth lined 1 kg cheese basket and apply a layer of sterilised sage leaves (sterilise on clean oven tray at 120C (250F) for 10 minutes), pressing down well.

Fill with remainder of curd and press at 5kg (10 pounds) for 15 minutes. Carefully remove cheese from cloth, turn over and press at 25kg (50 pounds) for 12 hours.

Remove from press and cheesecloth. Place on a board and allow to dry for 2 days. Apply wax and store at 13-15°C (55-59F) at 80-85% humidity. Can be eaten in 3 weeks or aged for up to 3 months.

This is a wonderful cheese, and I have never been able to find Wensleydale in the local grocery store. There is no equal as far as I am concerned and beats the store bought tasty cheddar any day.

Cheesy dreams everyone!

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