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Post by feather on Jul 8, 2017 17:09:32 GMT
After the tilsit I did finally make the muenster (recipe was french muenster) cheese. Those two are ripening in a ripening box in the cheese cave. They will be high maintenance of washing every other day or every 3rd day for a while, 6 weeks or so. Once the moisture starts to go down, after a few weeks, they become more manageable. We had finished eating 1/4th of a wheel of each of the smoked gouda and the regular gouda and DH wanted more. We'd vacuum packed the rest and let it continue aging in the cheese cave. The next piece of gouda did taste more aged, stronger flavor. I was happy with that. DH said he liked the less mature gouda more but he would suffer through eating it. I'll tell you that the eating cheese responsibility is much less work than the making cheese responsibilities. Anyone else mucking around with cheese?
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Post by feather on Jul 14, 2017 14:50:29 GMT
@redfish, I have my muenster and tilsit in ripening boxes and I'm washing them every 2-3 days. For washing I have a plain brine solution 2 t. non iodized plain salt to 1 cup cooled boiled water. Then, for when the molds or yeasts are more aggressive I have a brine that has calcium chloride and a little vinegar in it. The vinegar is supposed to inhibit molds and yeasts. If things get out of control I've heard that mixing salt with vinegar alone, will clean up mold and yeast--but this was more for a harder long aged cheese.
With tilsit and muenster, since it is supposed to get that orange/reddish color on the outside, I'm currently just using the plain salt brine. On one of those videos I saw, after one week, it might only have some white mold before the red/orange begins. Since I'm behind you, mine will probably color up later.
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Post by shellymay on Jul 14, 2017 16:19:03 GMT
How was the reunion cheese spread? has it happened yet?
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Post by feather on Jul 14, 2017 16:44:02 GMT
How was the reunion cheese spread? has it happened yet? It was good. We had 2 big 9x13 casserole dishes, one black and one purple, each in wood/straw baskets. The white cheese went in one with the strawberries on the other side, the yellow curds went into the other with green and red grapes on the other side of the dish. People were very complimentary and they ate almost all 10 lbs of curds, and 6 lbs of fruit. Dh was very happy about it all and we received many thank yous from the relatives. We also had 2 lbs more of cheese curds to give to DH's son's family (w/daughter in law and grand girl). It was a good cheesy day. 5 lbs of cheese curds cost me about $12, so not a large investment, and it takes an afternoon but still fun. We are still pumping water from under the basement since the rain storms 2 days ago, so getting into the cheese cave is walking in a little water. I wanted to wash the cheeses. They both stink good, like they should. A very muensterish smell, like walking into a cheese factory that makes an aged brick cheese. There were a couple dots of blue, a few little brownish dots, (which almost washed off but not quite completely) overall they are tacky in texture, and they seem yellower than my other cheeses, so maybe it's the beginning of the orange/red, maybe not. I dried out the humidity from the ripening boxes and touch dried with paper towel the rinds after washing. They were made on 7-1 and 7-3, so they are about 13 days old.
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Post by shellymay on Jul 14, 2017 16:59:59 GMT
Good for you, so happy they all loved the cheese and effort of making an arrangement like that, cheese and fruits....you did good girl and they noticed
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Post by feather on Jul 17, 2017 0:00:03 GMT
Emmentaler1, the first time I made it, 3 months ago. I peeled off the wax and there were small areas of mold but nothing deep, it could be scraped off. I cut it in half and instead of lots of round holes, I had horizontal cracks, I'm sure where gas was being given off, like the cheese was supposed to do. It's not very pretty but it tastes amazing. It is going to be perfect for fondue and I'll be grating it, so the holes aren't going to matter. I put a lb of it in the fridge to eat and the rest vac packed and back in the cave.
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Post by feather on Jul 17, 2017 23:18:29 GMT
I cracked open my blue yesterday. While it didn't develop any mold inside, in spite of skewering, it tastes wonderful! Creamy and bluey, mmmmmmm....... Yum yum yum! when I opened mine up, I ate a lot of crackers with it spread on them to just enjoy it. I'm so happy for you, creamy and bluey, mmmmmm
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Post by feather on Jul 19, 2017 23:51:06 GMT
Redfish, I've been scouring cheese making forums looking for pictures and information on what type of mold I'm seeing on my tilsit and muenster. Mostly on the muenster. I've got the regular tiny splotches of blue which clean up nicely. I have these kind of rusty colored reddish/brown little clusters, a few, and they don't clean up nicely with a brine washing. This last time I washed them I just washed over the rusty colors (and they aren't touching anything, these are happening on the sides), but I left them. If I had to exert more pressure I'd be taking off cheese and I know I don't want to do that. I want to end up with an orange/red rind, which is developed but not pocked with any blues.
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Post by feather on Jul 22, 2017 22:10:54 GMT
I haven't figured out the rusty spots yet. I did some reading on them and have decided it is not a thick mold, just flat spots, so maybe some over excited b. linens.
My muenster started showing an orange hue around the sides yesterday and when I washed it in salt brine the paper towel picked up some of it. The tilsit exterior is a little bit drier, so I washed it kind of wet and with the paper towel infected with b. linens, then I put a wet paper towel scrunched up in the ripening box with it. Both are suppose to remain tacky wet and turn orange/red to some extent.
I think it makes sense to make similar type cheeses at the same time, so the b. linens doesn't infect blue cheese, and the blue cheese doesn't affect the exterior of swiss types that are rind washed. There's enough crazy molds/yeasts/bacteria floating in the air as it is.
I realized that since I started to make cheese, this muenster was my 50th batch, an anniversary! Then I counted the different kinds/types of cheese and I've made 23 of them. If I was going to start all over, I'd skip the flavored or infused cheeses because they are easier to mess up, so merlot, guinness, smoke liquid, sage/spinach, skip those. Stick with the tried and true cheese types, lots of recipes, more chances of success.
The next time we get a cool spell, like 72 degrees during the day, I need to make some cheddar curds, for us, and for a repayment of a favor. If I go by average temperature for here, that will be the 4th week in september and I doubt we'll wait that long. I'd love to have a cool spell here too.
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Post by feather on Jul 23, 2017 17:41:22 GMT
Finally found a post on the cheese making forum, that the redish brown spots are some of the b. linens, and that I should encourage them (by talking to them, ha ha)with the salt brine, smooshing them around.
I found a really interesting post, about a cheese journal from the 1800's, in switzerland, that to encourage propionic shermanii (hole making culture), they took the blooms from clover (which would be blooming around now) and made a tea from it. This tea was added to the swiss type cheese (gruyere, emmentaler, jarlsberg) when it was being made, before the rennet. I may have to go collect some clover flowers for that natural propionic shermanii for the next time I make gruyere.
ETA: I wanted to add, and forgot, they said that the cows that were eating the clover, gave milk that also had holes in it. So if goats are eating the clover, they might make milk, that makes cheese with unexpected holes in it. I thought that was cool.
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Post by feather on Aug 1, 2017 19:25:55 GMT
I'm making cheddar curds today. Some for us and some to repay a favor. Then we are going to go into a cycle of making havarti and butterkase, so they will be ready for christmas gifts and a wedding gift. Not the harvarti with the crazy mold, it will be better since I'm starting to know what I'm doing. Since cheese does best between 70 and 40 degrees, that is when it will get mailed, end of september and middle of october. December will be too cold, August too hot. The middle ground will be 'just right'. That's what the baby bear said. ha ha.
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Post by feather on Aug 4, 2017 16:41:14 GMT
Unexpected cool days! The tilsit and muenster are orangish and smell like a good muenster. I made curds....then 2 days ago Havarti2 which is drying in the kitchen. Today Havarti3. Then those two will get waxed and and then aged for at least 6 weeks. Then more canning as the green beans are still growing like crazy. I just keep moving equipment back and forth into the too small kitchen with no room for cooking. I'll spend one day this week-end cooking, to eat, and to fill up some lunches for them taking them to work.
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Post by feather on Aug 5, 2017 18:21:26 GMT
Today ended up being Butterkase2. The cooler weather is holding! yay.
DH picks beans and pea pods usually and he does a really good job of it. DS has offered to pick them but Dh says that he can pick the peas but not the beans. ha ha, that is so funny. This is something he may at times complain about, but, not this week-end, he wants to pick the beans perfectly for me. What is this? Helpful competition? They are both just great.
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Post by feather on Aug 7, 2017 17:07:58 GMT
Today I'm making Butterkase3. I really enjoy the havartis and the butterkases, they are a washed curd cheese, some of the whey is removed and hot previously boiled water is added to move the temperature up. This takes out some of the lactic acid (food for the bacteria) and makes it mild tasting. These cheeses don't take as long to make as some of the other cheeses I've made. We're crazy about it. The men have been buying crusty bread loaves, which I cut in half, spread with butter and garlic butter, top with cheese and bake. We're all gonna be fat (and happy).
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Post by feather on Aug 11, 2017 22:58:30 GMT
Yesterday and the day before I finished 2 manchegos, so manchego 3 and manchego 4. They are not official manchegos, they are not sheep's milk, they are cows milk. Still they are gonna be good. I have to go wash the tilsit and muenster and I'm so tired! I was canning today and still am doing that. I'll get there, I promise.
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Post by feather on Aug 12, 2017 0:20:58 GMT
You are fermenting 5 gallons of salsa? That is awesome! All that stuff is just so good for the gut and healthy people!
So your muenster didn't change color.. I put the expensive b. linens culture in the basic recipe to the tilsit and the muenster and I've babied it along, slime and all, to keep the orange color going. I hear that it has to be fairly damp and slimy to really get the b linens to take. I'll tell you one thing. After I wash them with salt brine, with my freshly washed hands, doused in vinegar, the STINK is still on my hands even after washing them. I will take pictures for you to show you how it ended up looking, though I have weeks to go before I'm done with the muenster.
Seems to me, some bacteria/mold has to be exactly the right ph, or exactly enough salt, or in the case of b. linens, exactly enough humidity, so mine is in a ripening box to keep the humidity high.
I hope your manchego is delicious. Good luck with it.
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Post by feather on Aug 16, 2017 3:07:43 GMT
This is the muenster now at 6 weeks. At about 3 weeks it was much oranger but now it is more of a yellow. The paper towel under the sushi mat is white, and the sushi mat is tan colored. And this is the tilsit made at nearly the same time, with the same b. linens bacteria, much more orange now. At 3 weeks it was barely showing any color, now at 6 weeks much oranger. A cool thing that happened today. I ran out of the first half of our parmesan1 (used a strong lipase and not aged enough yet) and I needed more parmesan to eat. I had made 7 of them and the last one I made was overcooked and I was afraid it would fall apart if I didn't vac pack it right away because it was so dry after pressing. I really wondered if the flavor would develop since I mucked it up. SO I took out parmesan 7 (used a mild lipase) which is only 3 months old and not the required 10-12 months or even longer for a few years to age. I cut it and it crumbled beautifully, as if it had been a normal parmesan very dried, and it tasted fabulous. It was just salty enough and when I grated it in the food processor, it was perfect! I hope my parmesans 2-6 will have time to age before we need them but I'm sure not as worried about them as I was before, waiting for them to age and never sure if I'm mucked up or not. I'm getting really hungry to try these muenster and tilsit cheeses, 4 weeks and 2 weeks to go respectively. I am feeling very spoiled at my cheese choices. fun.
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Post by feather on Aug 16, 2017 16:27:58 GMT
The first two manchegos were made on 6/19 and 6/20, the second two 8/8 and 8/9. I haven't tasted any of them. Next time down the stairs to wash and flip cheese, I'll check the first two manchegos. If there is any issues with packaging (broken or leaking wax, or air in the vac packing), then I'll bring them up and taste them and repackage. That will be so great for you.
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Post by feather on Aug 16, 2017 19:27:30 GMT
Okay @redfish, I got to the manchego1,made 6/19, so 2 months old, it had a little, like 2 T of whey in the vac pack, so I decided that I'd open it. I flipped all the rest of the cheeses while I was looking for it. This manchego2 uses thermo, meso, and sharp lipase, brined at 18% brine for 12 hours. Dried and vac packed. I'm not sure what manchego is supposed to taste like but this is how it tasted to me. There was a slight parmesan stinky feet smell but very mild, color was good, outside near rind more dense than the inside paste, all of it very solid (like soap or denser). The taste was pleasant like parmesan, with the nutty flavor, slight salt, some sweetness, an earthy flavor in the back of my mouth, and it was spicy, which I didn't expect. The flavor lingered a long time. Very pleasant. Here is what it looks like:
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Post by feather on Aug 16, 2017 23:50:14 GMT
Mine was similar, although a little feetish. We've found that we prefer it fresh. We're all cheese wusses and don't generally like strong cheese. After I tasted it and posted about it, then I searched out how it was 'supposed to' taste. Everything was right on, so there's that. They said after 6 months or so, the center will get darker, like the outside edge, it will evolve from a little sweet to caramelish tones and tastes. That might be pretty interesting. We like the stronger tasting cheeses here, well, some of us do. DS came home early today and tasted it and he liked it, yeah!
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Post by feather on Aug 31, 2017 22:46:21 GMT
After 2 months of washing the tilsit (or alternately called tilsiter), the rind is orange and the interior creamy white and the texture is DENSE, very nice. It slices well and stays in slices or sticks. It smells a little funky, and it's supposed to. So ignore the smell and give it a taste. It is nice, tangy, which is great, and creamy, dense, smooth. DS and I both really liked it and compared it to a good meunster, similar in expectations. I really enjoy the consistency of the cheese. I'm sure I'll make this again. I packaged wedges in 10 oz pieces in the vac packer. The cheese cave is beginning to look like a deli cheese cabinet. Only two weeks more of washing the rind on the french meunster before we can cut it and taste it! I wasn't sure I was going to like the 'smelly cheeses' with the b. linens bacteria but I really do like it. This cheese would be a star on a cheese and cracker board.
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Post by feather on Sept 8, 2017 23:34:32 GMT
Miss seeing you around Redfish. I hope you had a good time on vacation. Only one more week until the French Meunster is ready. Milk went on sale (again--$1.99/gallon and everytime it goes on sale he suggests more cheese) and DH wanted a good melting cheese. Weedkicker suggested using a Fontina with asparagus and either a pancetta or prosciutto. I've never gotten my hands on those fancy meats but I will try to do that. So today I'm making Fontina and I'm 4 hours into 8 hours of pressing at a light pressure of 11 lbs. Then I brine it in cold brine overnight, and dry it for 2 days before it goes in the cheese cave. I've never made this kind of cheese before. It's always fun to try new cheeses. Here is the recipe I'm using. www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/recipe/cheese-recipes/fontina/
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Post by feather on Sept 15, 2017 17:48:15 GMT
Asadaro, I looked at that recipe. I didn't realize there was another pulled cheese I'd never heard of. It looks interesting and there are so many cheeses I've never heard of. I think it is also fascinating, the plant materials that can be used to flavor or coagulate cheese. It's amazing.
My french meunster (vs the american meunster that is colored on the outside with paprika) is colored on the outside, like the tilsit, with the orange red bacteria b. linens, is orange again. It went from orange to cream colored to orange and I believe it had everything to do with how slimy humid it needs to be. It had turned beige and I wet it down with a brine solution, a little more, and it went back to orange. Those bacterias are so temperamental. I'm going to cut it open today or tomorrow for tasting and repackaging. I kind of wish I'd have done 4 washed rind cheeses at once because it takes a lot of time to wash them and it takes so long to age them. (10 weeks)
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Post by feather on Sept 16, 2017 19:53:54 GMT
French Meunster, we cut it open tasted it and repackaged it. It was delicious.
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Post by feather on Sept 17, 2017 14:10:22 GMT
Very nice feather ! My newest Muenster is looking promising,yay! yay! I like a cheese that melts too. I can't really figure out what melts good and what melts slightly. Some cheeses will melt in the microwave. Some just get a little melty if they are in the oven and they puff up a little then get brown on top. It seems like the washed curd cheeses melt more than just the curd to press cheeses (without washing the curd). Since I don't always get a good melty cheese in each type, if the cheese is very flavorful and not melty on its own, I'll blend it with cream cheese for a spread (add some warm peppers to it or some spices). I was thinking that I'd take a non-melty cheese, like a colby or cheddar and blend it into a sausage, to make like Johnsonville Cheddar Sausages that we enjoy so much. With sausage and cheese, I really don't want the cheese completely melting out of the sausage, so a less melty cheese might be better for that. I'm a beginner when it comes to understanding all of that.
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Post by feather on Sept 18, 2017 17:08:10 GMT
One thing I noticed with the cheese last night, very quick curding. I'm guessing it has to do with the soured milk? I would guess so too. The acid formed in the soured milk, like citric acid, or like vinegar, or in this case probably lactic acid??? would help solidify the curd along with the rennet you added.
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Post by feather on Sept 19, 2017 0:49:58 GMT
You do have to wonder, though, who thought of using a poisonous berry to make food? I'd suspect the happy widow down the road. Or the witch doctor with the evil heart. Maybe someone was harvesting something close by the poisonous berries, and they didn't know they were poisonous, but a few ended up in the foraging basket. The kids were helping and they were sloppy about it, moving stuff from the foraging basket to the drying racks. A couple poisonous berries were dropped into some milk that mom had left on the table. Everyone was so tired, mom forgot to put the milk in the earth covered cold storage area. The next morning the milk had coagulated and mom decided to make it into cheese. She found the poisonous berries floating in the curds and removed them. It wasn't discovered until 3 cows died from eating the berries that they might even be poisonous. Yeah, that's my fairy tale.
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Post by feather on Sept 23, 2017 17:05:43 GMT
Seems like the FDA was so stringent in prohibiting so much at first, and then it slowly moves towards balance more like the Europe guidelines. It sure gets controversial quickly when businesses get shut down, some prohibited, forcing first a lack of cheese here and there, and too much that can't be exported in other places. I'm sure there are people losing their businesses and some are capitalizing on those changes. I just don't like the feeling of unfairness and seeing people jacked around like that. I saw an article on swiss cheeses with the FDA regulating the hole size, so swiss cheese in the US changed to meet the guidelines and no doubt flavor was impacted. I noticed my swiss cheeses are much more flavorful than what I can buy here, which is fine with me since I'm making it but it would frustrate me to know that if all I could do was buy the bland swiss cheeses. Sometimes I think the American public like the bland things, everything (not cheese) has sugar or hfc syrup, even things that don't have it when you make it at home. Our taste buds are being under used and blandardized. Of the swiss cheeses, the gruyere is by far one of the best tasting and my all time favorite. It is very solid and heavy, the taste is very strong and pleasant. I can't really say enough about how much I like that cheese. I'd love to see pictures if you go for a fractured cheese. I also thought your cheddar that had blue on it, would be one of the best tasting blue-cheddars and I'm a big fan of both of those cheeses. That was a cloth banded cheddar, right? We got our fill of stinky cheeses for a while. I'll make some gruyere again, 2 more 4 lb wheels as soon as our weather gets cool again, we are sweltering in heat and humidity lately.
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Post by feather on Sept 23, 2017 18:35:43 GMT
I wanted to mention, in case anyone is interested. There is a facebook group, a closed group, called: Learn To Make Cheese. If you choose to join, just click 'join', wait for the moderator to approve you which may take 24 hours or less. There you will find lots of cheese people, new cheese makers, people just curious, people that show their cheeses, very interesting cheesy stuff. They are people from all across the world. Will it inspire you? I don't know. Will it make you hungry? Probably.
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Post by feather on Sept 24, 2017 23:16:50 GMT
@redfish, I have a question for you, about washing the rinds on tilsit or meunster. The b linen's rinds. When I wash them with a simple brine (just salt in cooled boiled water) versus a regular brine (salt, vinegar, water, cacl2). I think the little bit of vinegar in a regular brine might inhibit the b linens. I wash off any colored mold, like blue or fluffy white, anything that isn't red/orange/yellow, and I slosh around the 'good' mold, and wet the surface (no puddling), so it is slimy and moist. The red/orange/yellow mold seems to like it. The reason I'm asking is because I don't generally rub off the b. linens orange color on purpose.
I don't think there is really a right or wrong to this.... I saw the new Gavin Webber video and he is washing a Port Salut, a b linens rind, and he washes off most of the orange. It never occurred to me to wash off the orange mold as I'm washing the cheese. Do you have a preferred method at your cheese land?
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