Little Green Cheese

Cheese making at home with Gavin Webber the Cheeseman

Komijnekass Verdict

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Komijnekass (Cumin Cheese) was a cheese recipe that I kind of made up as I went along.  The base recipe was a farmhouse cheddar, whereby I added cumin and caraway seeds to during milling.  I made two identical wheels from this batch.

This was way back in late October last year, and I have had this cheese in the cheese fridge/cave maturing for about 3 ½ months.  I did intend on tasting it for Christmas, but time got away from me.  I only remembered that it was probably time to try this cheese when I turned all the cheeses in the cave today!  Better late than never.

So the komijnekass verdict.

De-waxing:  There was no additional whey when I opened the wax, and the outside was very moist.

Texture:  When I cut into it, I could tell that it was a little crumbly, but did not fall apart.  The seeds were evenly distributed throughout, which was a good sign.

Taste:  It had a sharp cheddar tang with nice soft cumin overtones that hit the palette after a few seconds.  You could really taste the cumin after a while which took over from the sharpness.

It was a very nice cheese, that also got a big thumbs up from my wife and son.  I vac-packed the rest after we demolished 1/8th with some crackers and wine!  I find that by vac-packing the cheese and storing it in the normal fridge at 4°C, stops the cheese from aging and it keeps for a long time with no problems at all.

For those who want to replicate this recipe, you can find it at the original post titled “Komijnekass“.  During maturation, I turned it every day for the first two weeks, then once a week after that.  I kept it at around 13°C in wax.

Bon Appetit!

Making Komijnekaas

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Komijnekaas or translated Cumin Cheese, is very popular in the Netherlands where this type of cheese was first made.

Normally it is made with semi-skimmed milk with 5% buttermilk added to it, as well as the obvious cumin seeds.  So without being too fancy, I decided to make my own variety of komijnekaas using my basic farmhouse cheddar recipe as the base.

Usually the Dutch use Gouda as the base for this cheese, but from experience, my Gouda does not taste very nice, so I went with a cheese that I knew was very easy to make and tasty.

I made the cheese as normal in my 14 litre pot with 13.7 litres of milk.  As I was heating up the milk to 33°C, I added 5 ml of calcium chloride mixed with half a cup of water.  This was because I was using homogenised milk.

In a smaller saucepan I bought 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds and 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds to the boil in ¾ cup of water.  Once boiling, I simmered for 15 minutes, then strained the seeds and kept the water.  When the milk reached the target temp of 33°C, I added the cumin water which was a nice yellow/brown colour.

I then proceed to make the cheese as normal until milling.  After the 2 tablespoons salt was added to the milled cheese, I added the cumin/caraway seeds and mixed well, then pressed as per my normal recipe into two 1 kg moulds.

This is what it looks like now that it is out of the mould and air drying for the next week.

As I have mentioned before, herbs and spices can add such a different perspective to an ordinary cheese and turn it into something extraordinary!

I am so looking forward to tasting my creation in two months time.

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