Tomme #2 tasting after 4 months

I finally decided to take the plunge and taste my first Tomme. I was pretty excited about this as it was the first time I introduced Lipase to open up some of the flavours and pushing the sharpness. The pate was firm and the rind development was pretty hard to cut through. I prefer the rind to be consistently dense for maybe 3mm before hitting a nice consistence pate. This particular cheese had a more gradual hard rind development blending into the pate. The taste was slightly nutty with a creamy after taste. It was quite mild so I'm going to rewax the other half and mature for another few months to see how the flavour develops. My cave is running at 9c - 10c so affinage will be slower. This week I hope to pick up a new toy that will run my cave at 12c - 13c which will help speed things up a little..

Guernsey smoked cheese #1

Its time to experiment again, this time with Guernsey milk, smoked sea salt and vegi rennet. Guernsey milk is has a golden yellow colour due to a high content of beta carotene, the substance in carrots that colours them orange! It also contains a large amount of butterfat (5%) and Protein (3.7%) so its great for cheese making.

Last week I bought some Maldon Smoked Salt and thought it could be interesting to use to flavour cheese either buy dissolving in brine or adding before pressing. For now I will use it within the brine and see how that goes.

1. Warmed up 1 gallon of store bought unhomogenised pasturised Guernsey milk to 32c
2. Added 1/8tsp Lipase mild, 1/8tsp M4002 starter and left for 1 hour. Unfortunately I heated the milk to 42c so I left it to cool back down to 32c and added 1/8 starter again. Mesophilic starter dies at high temperatures unlike thermophilic starters so replacing it would mean starting to ripen again for 1 hour.
3. I then added 1/4 tsp of calcium as the milk was pasturised, I'm starting to add Calcium to raw milk as I was told you get a better curd.
   
4. One the milk has ripens for an hour I added 1/2tsp of liquid veg rennet. This is also new so Ill be interested to see how the milk coagulates.
5. After 1 hour the milk had coagulated well and was ready for cutting int0 1/2" cubes.
6. Once they are cut I left them to heal before raising the temperature up to 38c over 30 minutes. The curds were stirred every few minutes to prevent matting.
   
7. At this point I decided to add 10 drops of annatto so see how it affects the final cheese, its usually added to the milk giving an even colour to the entire cheese. The method I'm using only coats the outside of each piece of curd producing a slight marbled look
8. The curds were then scooped into a mould and pressed at 20lb for 30 minutes, 30lb for 2 hours and then 40lb overnight. The next day I made up a brine using the same whey with added calcium and the smoked sea salt. I'm hoping a 20% smoked brine will add a light smoked flavour to the cheese.
   
9. After 10 hours of bring the cheese was left out for a few days to dry and then placed in the cheese cave. I will turn regularly for the first few weeks, then once a week for 3 months

Store bought creamy homoginsed/pasturised milk

Cutting the very firm Guernsey curds

Healing the curds for 10 minutes, this helps produce a thin layer on each curd preventing loss of butterfat and other goodies trapped in the curd

Cooking the curds from 32c to 38c over 30 minutes

10 drops of annatto added to the cooked curds

Holding the curds for 10 minutes before pressing

In the press...

..at 40lb overnight

Making a brine from the whey adding 1/2 tsp calcium and enough Smoked Maldon Sea Salt to make up a 20% brine

The final pressed cheese the next day, note the slight marbling from the annatto

Then brined in smoked brine for 10 hours

Catal #3 - rind develpment

Both rinds have started to develop on the Blue Cantals. There isn't much sign of blue mold as the smaller dome shaped one below was pressed at 40lb prohibiting air circulation that is vital in blue vein development. This is more of an experiment on the roquefort culture affects the flavour without blue vein development.

As you can see on the lighter pressed cheese below, there seems to be greater penicillin development with a touch of roquefort. There also seems to be a greater roquefort smell compared to the hard pressed version above. Ill be very surprised if there is any development within the cheese

Stilton #1 - rind development after 8 weeks

I decided to check up on the Stilton as its been nearly 8 weeks in a vac-bag. As you can see the rind development has been running wild. It spells like a Stilton and seems to be maturing well. I noticed one area was a little too damp so I left the vac-bag open a little to see if it will dry out slightly. There was also some pinkish mold which occurs if the cheese is too moist. Hopefully there will be some blue viens inside, Ill test the cheese at the end of July.

Monterey Jack #1 - Waxing

I decided to wax the first Monterey Jack as most recipe's I read called for waxing and once done, the cheese can be left alone to do its thing. The first week I'm going to turn daily, then less often over the next few months.

Why Wax?

Waxing is a way of preventing the cheese from dehydrating too much while it ages. It also protects the cheese from moulds and other insects that want to get their teeth into it! I normally go for a natural rind as it looks aesthetically pleasing, with waxing you don't lose the outer skin of the cheese so the advantage here is I get a little more cheese but it doesn't look as pretty.

1. Heat up the paraffin wax slowly in an old pan. You have to make sure the whole thing has melted, this small pan took 15 minutes on a low heat

• Holding the cheese steady with you hands, dip and turn it slowly in the hot wax around once and let it cool.

• Once cooled, hold the cheese from the side you just waxed and dip the bottom in the wax making sure its completely covers the surface of the cheese

• Once cooled, repeat dunking the top
  

• At this point if there are any rough bits of wax from drips, try to either shave them off with a knife or if its still warm, smooth them off.

• Repeat this procedure 3 times until there is a well protected and even layer of wax all over the cheese. To save money the wax can be washed, remelted and reused for your next batch
  

• The final cheese ready for the cave
  

Slip Skin

Slip Skin occurs when the humidity and temperature is too high in the cave during ripening and not enough salt.

Characteristics
The rind become detached from the main cheese body. This is caused by a formation of creamy layer between the rind and Pate causing it to detach.

Prevent
Lower humidity (80%-90%) and temperature below 12c.

slip skin

Peau De Crapaud (toadskin) is caused buy a unwanted strain of Geotrichum Candidum. When its bought Geotrichum Candidum contains good strains that take over and dominate the cheese from bad strains that cause toadskin.

Characteristics
Its characterised by a web of ridges at the cheese surface

Prevent
Lower humidity (80%-90%) and temperature below 12c. Dry salting can hinder the growth.

Brevibacteria Linens

B-lines is used on washed rind cheeses, these cheeses are usually quite acidic as B-lines thrives in this environment. After a 3%-5% brine spray or wash of B-lines is used over a week or two. It can also be added to other liquids like beer, brandy and wine. B-lines also likes a moist/high humidity environment. It can be bought but its also possible to rub a bought cheese that already has B-lines on the rind and transferred over to your freshly made cheese. Back in the day monks used to wash old cheese and new cheese straight after to help spread the B-lines.
B linens needs a pH of 5.7 + to grow. When a cheese in brined (22% salt), it usually drops to around PH 5.1 so Geo is added to the B-line spray, this causes the geo yeast to eat up the acid causing the PH to increase back to 5.8. The B-lines then kicks in to action as it feeds off the by-product of the yeast consuming lactic acid

Geo 13 can also been added to the Blines wash to help rind development

This promotes the yeast which feeds off the lactic acid increasing the PH for the first 3 days. The Geo is the first to develop in the first few days, then the Penicillin then starts to bloom after 4-5 days increasing the PH to around 6.5. The Geo then dies and the B-lines starts to feed off it. Food and correct PH is important for the Blines to survive and thrive on the rind. A good source of food is pantothenic acid which is produced naturally by yeast.

• Salt should be around 3-5% for b.linen spray solution
• A bought Blines cheese can be rubbed and transferred to a freshly made cheese
• Rind from cheeses can be kept, and rubbed on new cheese
• Geo 13 can also been added to the Blines wash to help consume the lactic acid.
  

Monterey Jack #1 - After pressing

The overnight pressing went well, the plan is to now dry out the outer rind at room temperature over the next few days. Ill then wash it in a light brine and start oiling it every week. The cheese can be eaten from 1 month and up to 1 year. Once the rind has dried out after 4 days I'm going to either wax or oil it.

Cantal 1 - First tasting

Today I decided to taste my Cantal 1 after 10 weeks of maturing. It has a long way to go but I want to see how the flavour develops over the next 6 months. The flavour was creamy with a subtle nutty taste and the pate is still quite moist, over the next few months it should dry out and become more complex and sharp.

Monterey Jack - stage 1

I recently took a trip out to Sicily and while I was out there I tried a number of cheeses, one in particular I found interesting was Piacentinu. It was infussed with whole peppercorns and saffron which made its pate very yellow with a lovely mellow but distinctive taste. I thought I might try my hand at infusing a cheese myself and after looking through a number of recipys I found one for Monterey Jack. Once the milk has ripened the sterilised pepper, chillies and basil are added before the rennet. The pepper water is also added to add further depth to the cheese.

• Heat up 7 liters of raw whole milk to 32c and add 1/4 tsp M400 starter and leave to ripen for 45 minutes
• Chop up 1 tsp dried chilli, 1 tsp basil and 1 tsp black pepper and boil in 1/2 cup of water for 15 minutes
• Add the pepper water and chopped up herbs and spices to the milk + 1/4 tsp calcium chloride and 1/2 tsp liquid animal rennet diluted in 1/2 cup water
• Let it coagulate for 45 until a clean break is accomplished
• Cut curds into 6mm pieces and leave to heel for 10 minutes.
• Stir the curds and start increasing the temperature from 32c to 40c over 30 minutes. Once target temperature is accomplished keep stirring and hold for y and another 45 minutes. The curds will reduce in size as the whey is released, the acidity will also increase.
• Spoon the curds into a cloth and let it stand for 20 minutes while the whey drains off
• Add 1 tbsp of Malden salt and mix well
• Place into mould and press at a light weight (10lb) for 15 minutes. Turn, redress and press at medium weight (25lb). Repeat and press over night at a heavy weight (40lb)
• The next morning let the cheese dry at room temperature for a few days until the rind starts to develop. Once the rind develops it can be oiled or waxed and left in the cave for 3 months turning at weekly intervals.

A dash of M400 culture measured out on

Dried chilly, basil and black pepper

Sterilising herbs and spices for 15 minutes

Coagulating milk infused with herbs and spices

Curds after cutting + 45 minutes of cooking at 40c

Drained and ready for pressing

Scooped into mould

After pressing the cheese for 30 minutes I realised the salt had yet to be added. The cheese was unwrapped, milled and salted before repressing again.