Emmental Disaster # 2 at 4 month tasting

Like Emmental disaster 1 (accidentally heated to 43c after pressing) the overall final cheese tasted pretty good considering it was heated to extreme temperature in the brine. I enjoyed it so much I forgot to photograph and upload it to the blog. It didn't contain any air holes from the carbon dioxide but it did develop a nice rind and tasted quite creamy with a slight nuttiness. Think its time to have another try at Emmental...

Note the hole from a cheese iron tasting last month

Emmental 1 tasting after 4 months

After the disaster with my first Emmental I decided to keep it to see how the heat may have affected the cheese. I accidentally heated the cheese to 32c after it had been pressed. I wasn't expecting much but I must say I'm was pretty impressed with the final cheese. Despite the pate being quite dry the overall taste was slight mushroomy. There were small air holes from the carbon dioxide but nothing like there should have been if it had developed properly from the shermanii culture. Its not a great cheese but its a damn sight better than I had expected it to be.

Emmental Disaster 2 - Hot Brine

All was going well until brining! The recipe explains that the cheese must be kept around 22c while pressing and brining. As its pretty cold here in London I used a water bath heater and left this over night. I realised the next morning it had heated the brine to 38c. The cheese was pretty firm as if it had been cooked so I'm guessing my Emmental Version 2 is also a failure?

Emmental the second

I decided to have another crack at an Emmental after over heating my first during maturing. The first few weeks is dedicated to forming the eyes within the cheese, this is done leaving out at room temperature around 20c - 24c. Unfortunately I accidentally heated the room to 32c which caused the cheese to soften and tun into a frisby! I also added a little more rennet as my target took and extra hour to get a clean break. Below shows the different stages of during cooking the curds to 49c.

5 mins of cooking

20 mins of cooking

40 mins of cooking

All was going well until brining! The recipe explains that the cheese must be kept around 22c while pressing and brining as as its pretty cold here in London I used a water bath heater. I left this over night and only realised the next morning it heated the brine to 38c. The cheese was pretty firm as if it had been cooked. I'm guess my Emmental Version 2 is also a failure? Ill do a bit of research to see if I can save it.

test

Emmental disaster

During maturing this cheese the recipe directed me to leave the cheese out at room temperature for 2 weeks at around 20c-24c. All was going well until I decided to move the cheese to a warmer room as it cooled dramatically in its currant room. While I was out the room temperature raised to 32 which caused the cheese to literally melt to a flat pancake.

I moved it back to its originally place and despite its shape, it seems to be doing ok? It may taste bad but it seems to be swelling again so the shermanii seems to be kicking in again. Ill leave this for a week and then place back in my cheese cave at 9c. Each day I'll wash with a light brine to keep away and mould and keep my fingers crossed.

Emmantal

Last week my shermani culture arrived, for a while I have wanting to make Emmental, not so much for the flavour but the challenge of making a cheese with 'eyes'. After reading a number of recipes I decided to use a recipe from 'Making Artisan Cheese' by Tim Smith book. The one key thing about making this cheese is to leave it out at room temperature for 3 weeks to help promote co2 that form the eyes although it doesn't mention this in all recipes. It's also a low moisture cheese so the curds are cooked at a height temperature (49c) as well as being cut to the size if rice. So, I bought some raw milk from my very expensive farmers market in Islington, north London and also added some store bought pasteurised milk to help bulk it out. As I'm a newby to cheesemaking I'm still at the bottom of the learning curve which means I do encounter the odd problem from time to time.

1. heat 1 gallon milk to 33c, once target is hit add 1/8 tsp of Thermophilic culture and 1/2 tsp of shermanii powder to the milk. Although it didnt mention inthe recipy I added some lipase to enhance the flavour, this also helps when using pasturised milk.
   
2. Let it ripen foear 10 minutes maintaining 33c. Then add 1/4 animal rennet and let it stand for 30 minutes. It actually took around 2 hours to get a good clean break. I noticed coagulation always seems to take a little longer when using Lipase, maybe I'm wrong but I must look into this.
3. After a clean break I used a knife and cut teh curds into 1cm cubes, then used used a whisk to break them up even smaller