The Cheese Thread

[benno1973]

What sort do you use kaiser?

I just put a weather station unit in there to get some idea of what the humidity is. It's not an expensive one, but it's relatively accurate.

 

[Truman42]

Ok might get myself one of those then.

Heres an interesting website for those wanting to make cheese. He tells you how to make the basic soft cheese or hard cheese curds then from there how to innoculate your cheese to turn it into whatever style of cheese you want to make.

http://thewayofcheese.wordpress.com/

 

[Truman42]

Im about to start making a camembert and Im using 6 litres of skim milk and 400mls of cream as per the recipe. However in the instructions it says this

Preparing the Milk. Warm the milk and cream combination to 32°C (if using homogenised milk and no cream, add the Calcium Chloride solution at this time). Add the prepared starter and mix well. Leave covered for 75 minutes to ripen.

So does this mean if I am using cream then I dont have to use the calcium Chloride?? it seems a bit confusing and I tried searching for this but couldnt find anything.

(Might also post this on the cheese forum but as its now late at night over in the US I didnt expect an answer today and I want to get started.)

 

[benno1973]

Yes, that seems to be indicating that you only need to add the CaCl if you are using homogenised milk with no cream, which I would imagine is a bit odd.

Just so we're on the same page here, CaCl is added to the milk to restore the calcium balance back to the milk. Homogenised/pasteurised milk often requires this, as the process of pasteurisation and homogenisation decreases the calcium in the milk and can affect the coagulation properties. This can range from slow to unstable to no setting at all after adding the rennet.

I assume that both the milk and cream that you're using are homogenised and pasteurised, correct?

If so, I'd be adding the CaCl, despite the confusing instructions.

 

[Truman42]

Yeh mate both the milk and cream were homogenized so I added the cacl.

However I fucked up big time and added 20 Mls instead of 2 Mls.
I had poured some into a tube to draw out 2 Mls from and ended up pouring this tube into my cooled water as well before tipping into the cheese. Don't know why just wasn't thinking.
And I misread the instructions and forgot to add the Camembert paste for the mold spores.
So ended up adding them after 75 mins and let it sit before adding the rennet.

See how it goes.

 

[benno1973]

Yeh mate both the milk and cream were homogenized so I added the cacl.

However I fucked up big time and added 20 Mls instead of 2 Mls.
I had poured some into a tube to draw out 2 Mls from and ended up pouring this tube into my cooled water as well before tipping into the cheese. Don't know why just wasn't thinking.
And I misread the instructions and forgot to add the Camembert paste for the mold spores.
So ended up adding them after 75 mins and let it sit before adding the rennet.

See how it goes.

Adding too much CaCl will probably make for a really firm curd, and a harder cheese. See how that one goes.

Adding the mould spores late isn't really a problem, but possibly allowing the whole cheese to sit for a longer period will allow the meso culture to develop more, and you'll end up with a more sour tasting cheese.

Either way, it will make cheese.

 

[benno1973]

I cut into my camembert yesterday, moulded for 10 days and then wrapped and aged 2.5 weeks. Oh. My. This was so good. It ran all over the cheese plate and had to be herded back into its shell. We just ate it with a baguette and sundried tomatoes, and it was good.

 

[Truman42]

That looks awesome mate. Unfortunately I think mines you going to be too sour as it smells sour now. The curds were like rubber and the cheese is double the height if what it should be

With my blue I had to drain the curds in cheese cloth for awhile before salting. With this recipe it just said to remove 60% of the whey then with a slotted spoon scoop the curds into the moulds. No salting until the next day when the cheese was tipped out of the moulds and no draining of the curds first before spooning into the moulds.

I used the Epicurean recipeftomthe country brewers we site but starting to think its not the best recipe to use

Did you drain your curds in cheese cloth prior to putting them in the moulds??

 

[capretta]

awesome photo kaiser!

since we are doing cheese photos, ive been getting back into cheese this year and my first batch i thought i was going well for the first few days untill i realised the humidity sensor was OUTSIDE the fridge and it was closer to 50% humidity inside! damn! their wooly coats were understandably slow to start but are off and racing now. It looked slightly geen but was more blue irl.
next week they get the chop!

 

[benno1973]

That looks awesome mate. Unfortunately I think mines you going to be too sour as it smells sour now. The curds were like rubber and the cheese is double the height if what it should be

With my blue I had to drain the curds in cheese cloth for awhile before salting. With this recipe it just said to remove 60% of the whey then with a slotted spoon scoop the curds into the moulds. No salting until the next day when the cheese was tipped out of the moulds and no draining of the curds first before spooning into the moulds.

I used the Epicurean recipeftomthe country brewers we site but starting to think its not the best recipe to use

Did you drain your curds in cheese cloth prior to putting them in the moulds??

No draining of the curds in the cheesecloth. You want them to be moist and they will slowly drain whey and compact down to about 1/3 their original height as the whey is removed. With blue, you're trying to allow veins and crevices to remain, so you need the cheese drier and crumbled, and then assembled into mould, which allows cavities to form while the curds mat together.

I think the best recipe I've used is the country brewer recipe. I've tried a few, but that was definitely the one that worked best (with a few tweaks from memory).

 

[benno1973]

Wow capretta! They look fantastic! Did you poke holes in them? Let us know how they taste, they certainly have their fair share of mould on them!

 

[Truman42]

No draining of the curds in the cheesecloth. You want them to be moist and they will slowly drain whey and compact down to about 1/3 their original height as the whey is removed. With blue, you're trying to allow veins and crevices to remain, so you need the cheese drier and crumbled, and then assembled into mould, which allows cavities to form while the curds mat together.

I think the best recipe I've used is the country brewer recipe. I've tried a few, but that was definitely the one that worked best (with a few tweaks from memory).

That was the other problem I had. For some reason they didnt reduce in size like my blues did. They only reduced to about 2 inches tall. I ended up slicing them in half to get them too the required size. Despite all my stuff ups with this cheese Im hoping for an edible finished product.
Will stick to this recipe fior next time then and see how it goes.

Did you bother to make up a spray of the PC from an existing lump of CAM and spray onto the surface of your cheese?

 

[benno1973]

Nah, I find that the mould seems to come up pretty quickly. Once you start seeing fine hairs of white mould, use clean hands and wipe the surfaces of the cheeses with your index finger. This flattens the mould and also spreads it over the surfaces of the cheese. If you see any black mould, sprinkle salt on it and gently run the salt in with cheesecloth. If you use your finger to spread the white mould, it will dominate pretty quickly.

 

[Truman42]

Nah, I find that the mould seems to come up pretty quickly. Once you start seeing fine hairs of white mould, use clean hands and wipe the surfaces of the cheeses with your index finger. This flattens the mould and also spreads it over the surfaces of the cheese. If you see any black mould, sprinkle salt on it and gently run the salt in with cheesecloth. If you use your finger to spread the white mould, it will dominate pretty quickly.

Cheers mate, will do.

 

[capretta]

! Did you poke holes in them?

Hey thanks, yep if you can see closely in the photo there are little specks of white which was interior of cheese which came out with the skewer. I really recommend new cheese makers check on ebay for those cheap humidity sensors that you wire up in a jiffy box. Really helped me get a handle as i had a run where i lost 4 consecutive cheeses to over humidity. It almost ended cheese for me , but my addiction to high cholesterol brought me back into the curds!
Ill add a photo when i clean them up for consumption.

 

[Truman42]

Are they those ones that look like an stc1000?

 

[benno1973]

I have one of these:

Humidity controller

It's good, seems to work well. Wiring diagram is a little difficult to follow, but all wired up now and working. On the downside, it only has a single relay, so the one of either the humidifier or dehumidifier is always on at any time.

 

[capretta]

Yep thats the one, and the wiring diagram gave me a headache too!! Lol, it was just handy to get a feel for what a particular humdity felt like. Its only on rarely now but it gave me a baseline for what goes on inside a fridge.

 

[Truman42]

Okay so they can also humidify or dehumidfy the air or do you have to connect them to a humidifier and dehumidifer? Similar to how you connect a stc1000 to a heat belt or fermentation fridge??

 

[benno1973]

Yep, you need to buy an ultrasonic humidifier and a dehumidifier. Then you wire it with extension cord ends and plug them in, and it will switch them on via the relay.