Little Green Cheese

Cheese making at home with Gavin Webber the Cheeseman

Parmesan Technique

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Cheese making can be daunting and confusing when you first start out.  I know that it was for me, but I found that by taking a basic cheese making course before I made any type of cheese really helped me learn enough to get started in this hobby.

I realise that many people do not have the opportunity to attend a class, so this is the main reason why I offer to answer readers questions as best I can.

Today’s question comes from Nadim in the UK, who has lots of questions about starting out on his cheese making journey, mainly about Parmesan technique.

Hi Gavin

I am Nadim from UK, I recently seen your web blog and it is extremely help for home-made cheese maker, I am a fan of cheese but when tried at home cheese making, but after looking at your blog, you have now inspired me to make it at home!, I want to try either with parmesan or cheddar, but I am stuck with few question, if you please could help me with this then I shall highly appreciate.

As this shall be my first time so i was thinking if it is possible I make cheese in small wheel, probably 300 g – 500 g..? or it has to be in minimum 1 kg wheel..?

I am currently living in share house, so i wont be able to buy wine fridge, do you think if I can store cheese in wooden box in my balcony for aging ..? or any other recommendation ..? I have read somewhere that normal kitchen fridge would not be suitable due to its lower temperature,bacteria contamination and moisture..

Also could you please tell me what would be minimum best time to try the cheese..? 9 months is bit long time, not sure if I would be patient enough to wait this long after making my first cheese!!

last but important, do I need to rotate and wipe out cheese every week even after waxing.? what if I wax it after removing from brine water and drying out..?

looking forward to hear from you soon. thanks

Nadim

Good questions Nadim.  I will answer your questions in respect to making Parmesan cheese.

The wheel on the left is a 3 week old Parmesan before waxing.  The other is a Caerphilly.

 

Recipe size – If making parmesan, I would stick to using the full 8 litres of milk that the recipe asks for.  The cheese does shrink quite a bit, so you end up with about a 800 gm wheel of cheese at the end.

Maturation Temperature – It doesn’t really matter how you keep your cheese at 13°C as long as you can maintain it over the long aging period of 9 months minimum.  Some people use basements, some use insulated boxes, some just use a cupboard lined with greaseproof paper.  It doesn’t matter  how, as long as you keep the cheese at the target temperature.

Aging time – For a 1 kg wheel of Parmesan, the minimum time before trying would be 9 months.  The longer the better really.  In the last week, I tried a two-year-old Parmesan, and it was extremely tasty, much better than one aged for only a year.  If you want to make a cheese that is full of flavour and has a short maturation time, try a Caerphilly.  I highly recommend this semi-hard cheese for beginners, which is very tasty.

Waxing – If you do decide to make Parmesan, then for this sized wheel I highly recommend that you wax the cheese after 3 weeks of aging.  Normal wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano weigh about 38 kg when fully mature and are able to maintain their moisture content.  For a much smaller wheel like the one in my recipe, you need to wax the cheese so that it does not dry out whilst aging.

During the initial 3 weeks without the wax, wipe the surface with a brine solution daily to prevent/inhibit mould growth.  The cheese needs this 3 week period without wax to dry out a little, otherwise if you wax it straight after brining and air drying, it would be far too moist and whey will collect between the cheese and the wax, ruining the flavour of the Parmesan.  After waxing you do not need to do this as the wax coating prevents oxygen from reaching the cheese which does not allow the mould to develop.

Summary – Hopefully this post has been informative to all beginners as they take their first steps towards milk’s immortal!

For all readers, let me know via a comment if you would like more of these types of post.  I would love some feedback, good or otherwise.

Cheese Temperature During Aging

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Is temperature absolutely critical during the aging of your cheese?

Well that is today’s question about cheese temperature during aging is from Albert from Catalunya (Spain).

Albert asks;

Hello Gavin

I’m Albert, from Catalunya (Spain, for the moment…) and I read your
cheese blog since one year ago (sorry if my English is not correct).

I’m trying to age my cheeses as correctly as I can, so I bought recently a
little wine cooler http://www.carrefouronline.carrefour.es/noalimentacion/TemplateProduct.aspx?itemMarcado=catalog310010&strands=true&itemId=117701082(it
works with a compressor, is not a thermoelectic with fan ) and I think there is
a problem.

Example: When I put their temp. to 9º C it starts to cool until 9º
C, ok, but after it doesn’t starts cooling again since the temp. arrives to a
14º or 15º C. In this case I don’t have a constant temperature, I only have a
temperature going up and down again and again from 9º to 14ºC.

So, the question
is: is it a serious problem? Do I need an exactly constant temperature? Do I
need an external thermostat who gives me a more accurate range of temps?

It’s a shame, the wine cooler was so cheap…

Thanks for your help and congratulations for your e-book
—
Albert Campsolinas
http://foratgatiner.blogspot.com/

Well Albert, I believe that the answer is quite a simple one.  No, your minor temperature range will not matter at all for maturing semi-hard and hard cheeses.

My Cheese Fridge shut down for the Summer

Cheese has been made for many thousands of years without refrigeration, in various temperature conditions, so I don’t think it will matter much.  As long as it stays cool, the cheese culture will do its magic and convert the remaining lactose into lactic acid and give the cheese whatever the desired flavour is and get stronger with age.

With that said, if the fridge gets above 14º C and if you do not want to buy a new one, try an external thermostat as you have suggested.

I recently had to move all of my maturing cheese into the normal refrigerator, because my thermoelectric wine fridge could not keep it cool enough due to the extreme heat we are having here in Australia at the moment.  I may need to convert an old kitchen fridge with the aid of an external thermostat as well!

So, if you want a consistent result and want each cheese to taste almost exactly the same, you would have to emulate factory like precision and keep the temperature constant with very little variation +/- 1º C.   But then, what would be the fun in that, as people would just buy store-bought cheese and not make their own.  Making cheese at home is all about the excitement, anticipation, and experimentation–within reason–so if it tastes good, then there is no problem.

The only exception regarding temperature range, that can think of and that I could be cautious about, would be mould ripened cheese like Camembert, Brie, Roquefort,  Stilton, and any other type of blue.  From experience, these types of cheese need very specific low temperatures (around 7ºC) or the mould gets out of control and you do not get the desired taste.  I prefer to ripen these in a normal refrigerator at around 4ºC.  Much lower than recommended I know, and it takes a bit longer to age this way, but it does work and I get a much better result.

Remember that this is just my opinion gained from experience, and cheese purists may answer your question differently.

Hope that helps you and other amateur cheese makers out there trying to make cheese for the first time.

Has anyone else had a similar experience they would like to share and add to the answer?  Feel free to leave a comment as your views will be more than welcome.

Storing Cheese After Aging

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How do you go about storing cheese after aging?  Do you need to stop the maturation process?  Can you?

There are some of the questions that I was asked today by a reader, Roger in NZ.  Here is his email (with permission).

“Greetings Gavin,

I hope you had a great Xmas and New Year.

I wonder if you could tell me about what to do once your cheese has matured. I have made
your Stilton and Wensleydale and they are maturing nicely so when they are ready do you cut them into wedges and wrap them?

Are they then kept in the refrigerator or are they left in the cheese maturing box?

Do you remove all the cheese wax when you first cut into the Wensleydale?

Sorry to bother you about this but I envy your extensive knowledge on these things.

Thanks and best regards,
Roger, Palmerston North, New Zealand”

Well Roger and dear readers, these are some issues that you will need to deal with as your cheese matures.

Personally, semi-hard cheese like Wensleydale can be treated in two ways.  The first way is to leave it to mature in your cheese fridge/cave until you want to use it, as it will grow stronger in flavour as time passes.  However there will come a time when you want to stop maturation and keep that certain special flavour until the cheese is totally consumed.

When I think a cheese has matured, I removed the wax, give the cheese a clean with a clean cloth and brine solution if it has any blemishes or mould, and then taste a little bit of it.

If the cheese has not reached the desired flavour, I re-wax it as quickly as I can and pop it back in the cheese fridge with a new date attached to it for when I am going to retry it again.

Aged Pepperjack with a re-waxed quarter.

 

However, if the cheese is just right, then I cut it into quarters, and either vac-pack each quarter separately, or re-wax each quarter, label them and put them in a cheese box that I have in the normal refrigerator.  By dropping the temperature down to around 4C (39F), it slows down the aging process dramatically.  Excluding air by waxing or vac-packing each quarter ensures that there should be no further mould development.

If it is a Stilton or Blue cheese, you could vac-pack, but I find that it is just as easy and safe to wrap in cheese micro-wrap, or wrapping in grease-proof baking paper.  Then store it in the normal refrigerator as per a semi-hard cheese.

Same goes for a hard cheese like Parmesan or Romano.  I simply wrap these cheeses in baking paper, store them at 4C, and they tend not to dry out any further.

Besides, my finished cheese tends not to be stored too long after maturation, because our family has either eaten it, or I have given it away to friends!

I hope this post has shed some light on what to do with your cheese after maturation.

Do any of you do it differently that may be worth mentioning?  Please feel free to leave a comment.

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