The Cheese Thread

[Mardoo]

St. David's does a really nice unhomoginised milk that you can get at better IGA's/Leo's/Maxi.

 

[gap]

It is from the Manning Valley near Taree , north of Newcastle, not a Woolworths brand.

It is not as nice as the unhomogenised Jersey milk I can get from a couple of Farmers Markets.

 

[Tahoose]

Thanks guys, saw some Paul's stuff before at $7/ltr.

Does anybody here use standard supermarket milk and just use calcium chloride?

 

[Florian]

Yep, standard supermarket milk worked perfectly for my mozarella.

 

[wobbly]

In WA Woolworths stock a brand called "Farmers Choice" which comes in hi-lo as well as "cream on top" and unhomogenised and it's $3:00 for 2 litres so no need to add calcium chloride of cream back in to the "cream on top" when making either Cheddar or soft cheese such as Brie or Camembert

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[TimT]

I usually couldn't be arsed with the calcium chloride. I've used a variety of milks for my cheeses. I generally avoid standardised supermarket milk as it has less character.

 

[indica86]

http://www.mistymountainfarms.com.au/

and
http://www.mungallicreekdairy.com.au/products.html

Both available up here and terrific milks. Made paneer a while ago and it was so good.
Awesome fatty rich milk.
$2.50 a litre or a bit less.

 

[Tahoose]

Just tasted the home made mozzarella. Yum!!

Won't get in trouble for this hobby, the girlfriend is hands on and keen to do it also.

 

[motch02]

How does everyone here go about ageing their cheeses? not sure if I can go about having another fridge in the house

 

[gap]

How does everyone here go about ageing their cheeses? not sure if I can go about having another fridge in the house

You need to mature the cheese at a reasonably constant temperature between 10C and 15C so is difficult to do without a fridge or a good cellar.

 

[TimT]

Nah you can just age them in your house. Winter and early spring will be good for your cheese.

Temperature control can become an issue with some of the cheeses where you have bacterial blooms (Munsters) or those with a more complicated microflora - Swiss cheese which needs to be aged a week or so at 25 degrees celsius to allow the Proprionic bacteria to develop; Stiltons which need the right moisture to let the penicillium (blue bits) to flourish.

But your Cheddars and Jacks and Goudas and many many other hard cheeses can just be aged in the room through most of autumn/winter/spring. The temps inside will be around 10-15 degrees - or a bit lower on frosty nights.

Traditional method was to have a cellar for ageing of cheeses (also, I suppose, for lagering of beers).

Watcha making, Motch?

 

[motch02]

I've only just started down this path, I made a feta which has turned out a bit soft but is still really tasty. Next time I'll let it dry a bit more

But my second cheese is the Belper Knolle off of cheesemaking.com. it smells amazing, I'm just drying it at the moment with the fan running on it under the stairs of my house.

I'll likely just move it to the minibar fridge when it's done drying and turn it on the lowest setting.

 

[TimT]

Just looked the recipe up for this Belper Knolle. Sounds fun. If I were doing them I'd probably just leave them out. Cheeses will develop a good rind in about a week and will keep draining for a few more weeks as the insides get a proper cheesey texture, and the flavour will keep intensifying as it ages. Given you're in Sydney, temps will on average probably be a tad higher than those in Melbourne but they're still fairly good for cheesemaking.

 

[motch02]

Should I worry about humidity? Was thinking once its dried covering them during the day and leaving them open overnight

 

[TimT]

I don't think humidity will be an issue. It doesn't say anything in the recipe about controlling humidity does it?

It does get more humid in Sydney, true. Mould in those environments is the biggest problem. Put a covering on it and you might trap the humidity in and make it a more mould-friendly environment.

 

[motch02]

It does mention: "Finally the cheese can go to the cave with about 52-56F and 75-80% moisture. This higher moisture will now help in the aging of this cheese as it continues to dry to the center"

 

[TimT]

Interesting, I don't focus too much on humidity because my cheeses usually don't require that sort of control. So apart from providing a hospitable environment for certain specialised types of bacteria and fungus, which you're not trying to do here, I'm not sure exactly what the point would be. Possibly to help it develop a rind?

I googled Sydney's humidity and it's just over 52%, so you're not too far off anyway. I'd be tempted to just leave them out anyway. The next step up is to get a ripening box for your cheese - one of those plastic tubs from Coles ought to do it - and control the humidity by putting something wet in there, and then placing a lid on (with a gap to let humidity escape). Or, I dunno. Putting them on a grille with a tub of water below them, so the evaporating water provides the extra humidity.

Up to you I guess! You must have several little balls sitting around so I suppose you could do an experiment!

 

[motch02]

Haha thanks heaps for the help!

I may just need to experiment, they just smell so good I don't want to ruin anything.

Do you have any styles of cheese you coukd recommend?, I'm up for something interesting

 

[TimT]

Look up 'ripening box cheese making' and 'humidity control in cheese making' and you should come up with some good online tutorials about that.

At the moment I'm ageing some Cheddars, a few Goudas, some Jack cheeses and some Edam Boulles. The Jacks are especially easy and make a good fresh or aged cheese - look up recipes for 'Jack cheese' or 'Monterey Jack'.

Occasionally I do something for the next day, like a haloumi or a gbejna - a Maltese cheese that I learned about from my friend Joe at the pub, would you believe! Gbejnas are really easy; just curdle some milk, slice up the curd roughly and ladle it into a cheese mould, salt the curds straight away to make the whey run out, cover them over with cheesecloth and let them drain on a board for a few hours. Flip 'em a few times maybe. After that they'll have their shape and you can slice them up and eat them fresh, or use them as a pizza cheese.

 

[motch02]

very very excited about this endeavour!