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My Trip to Ellie’s Dairy and the Young British Foodies

18 Friday May 2012

Posted by handyface in cheese, cheese making

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

amateur cheese, animal rennet, camembert, cheese, cheese making, cheeseawards, diy, diyfood, ellies dairy, food, goat milk, goats milk, kid rennet, local, organic, raw milk, urban cheese

Good news!  I have been shortlisted for the Young British Foodies in the “Honorary Young British Foodie” category, with my entry which involved making cheese from a single animal, a goat from Ellie’s Dairy called Footsie.  The results will be announced on May 29th at the Young British Foodie awards event.

The event will feature food created by entrants to the Young British Foodies, and I’ve teamed up with Kiren Puri of the Bladebone Inn to create a canape featuring my cheese.  Obviously since cheese making is a hobby for me, this requires some careful planning to ensure I have sufficient cheese available, as the event will be attended by around 200 people.

After some careful calculations, I decided to make 45 small raw goat white cheeses, over the course of three days, and matured for around a week.  This meant tripling my usual milk order from Ellie’s Dairy from 24 pints to 72, so rather than ask Debbie to lug them all the way to Franklins for me to pick up, I thought I’d take the opportunity to visit the dairy in person, and meet Footsie, who had helped me get to the finals with her lovely milk!

Ellie's Dairy

Ellie’s Dairy

Situated in Kent, just over an hour from my home in South East London, the dairy is home to the happiest goats I’ve ever seen.

Happy goats

Happy goats

A few seconds after I took the photo above, the goats noticed I was a new person and came over to investigate.

Inquisitive

Inquisitive

Goats have a fantastic habit of staying perfectly still until you’ve pressed the button on your camera to take a photo, at which point they bob their head around.

Little kids

Little kids

It wasn’t long until the little kids got in on the action and started bleating for attention and running around to see what was going on.

Standing on a bucket

Standing on a bucket

Kidding season has just finished, so there were plenty of newborns vying for prime position, which apparently for a young goat is standing on a bucket.

The wonderful Footsie

The wonderful Footsie

After a bit of cajoling, and luring with bananas, Footsie came back in from the field to see what was going on.

Feeding Footsie

Feeding Footsie

Having never fed a goat before, I started peeling one of the bananas I’d brought for her, only to have her grab the whole thing and chew it down, skin and all.

Jake the Peg

Jake the Peg

I also got to meet famous Jake the Peg, who had jumped on fence too many and broken his leg, which is now in a little cast.

Goats wandering round outside

Goats wandering round outside



We took a little wander out into the field, where we were quickly surrounded by inquisitive grazing goats, who seemed to enjoy nibbling the pegs on my duffle coat and shoes quite a lot!

Julie, Debbie & Francesca

Julie, Debbie & Francesca

Thank you to Debbie, Julie and Francesca for letting me come and take a look around, it was so heart-warming to see how healthy and happy all the goats are.  The importance of good quality milk in cheese making is absolutely paramount, and it was fantastic to meet them in person, especially Footsie!

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Milk Type Experiments – The Results

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by handyface in cheese, cheese making

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

amateur cheese, animal rennet, ayrshire milk, camembert, cheese, cheese making, diy, diyfood, ellies dairy, food, goat milk, goats milk, guernsey milk, jersey milk, jess's ladies, local, organic, raw milk, salt, sea salt, urban cheese, vegetarian rennet

The cheeses I made using different milks have been maturing for 14 days, so its time to crack them open for a tasting session!

Cheese made from different milks

Cheese made from different milks

From top left to right: Ellie’s Dairy raw goat milk, Ivy House Jersey mixed with Ellie’s Dairy raw goat milk, Ivy House Jersey milk, Taste the Difference Jersey milk, Sainsbury’s Basic whole milk.

The first thing to note is that there is a fair bit of natural blue mould growth this time around.  I used the mild white mould geotrichum candidum rather than the aggressive penicillium camembertii as I wanted the flavour to develop naturally and aggressive moulds can overtake the flavour.  However, being less aggressive, geotrichum candidum can also act as a blank canvas for other moulds to grow on.

Since I had no idea what moulds would develop (good / bad), I decided to take on this tasting on my own, rather than sharing around any potential illness – all in the name of cheese science!

Ellie’s Dairy Raw Goat

Ellie's Dairy raw goat

Ellie's Dairy raw goat

First up, the Ellie’s Dairy raw goat milk cheese – note the mottled rind, which is remarkably thin, rather than the thick, leathery coat of the previous cheeses I’ve made.

Ellie's Dairy raw goat cheese cut open

Ellie's Dairy raw goat cheese cut open

Cutting it open shows a beautiful white curd, with the rind under a millimetre thick. In the firm paste, the flavour is huge – smooth and goaty, with just a hint of butteryness.  The natural blue mould adds a little aftertaste which is quite interesting.

Ellie’s Dairy Raw Goat & Ivy House pasteurised Jersey mix

Jersey & goat curd mixed

Jersey & goat curd mixed

Next up, an experiment in itself – when the St Helen’s farm goat milk failed to coagulate at all, I decided to mix up a couple of the curds – Jersey and goat.  These are two completely different types of milk, so I didn’t really know what would happen.  Jersey is full of fat, and a bright yellow colour, whereas goat curd is less fatty, and sheer white.  Note that this cheese shows both natural blue and non-natural fluffy white mould, due to cross-contamination between another batch in the same fridge.

Jersey / goat mixed curd cheese

Jersey / goat mixed curd cheese

How cool does that look?!  The Jersey curd was showing a yellow, broken down line right the way through the cheese.  Interestingly, the Jersey curd had reduced a lot in depth – when I ladelled them they were pretty much equal, but after maturing, it seems the white paste of the goat milk dominates.

Cutting into the cheese it’s obvious that something’s not quite right with it.  The skin is very slippery, and almost seems detached from the the paste inside.  Scooping up the slice as best I could, with a dribble of Jersey seeping out, I bit into it.  The flavour wasn’t altogether unpleasant, it just wasn’t very nice.  The pastes were so different, with the fatty Jersey wrapping round the goat flavour and making it a bit acrid.

Ivy House Farm pasteurised Jersey

Ivy House Farm cheese

Ivy House Farm cheese

Ivy House Farm Jersey cheese next.  The skin was a little bit loose from the inner paste, with a slight yellow breakdown below the rind.

Ivy House Farm cheese

Ivy House Farm cheese

The paste itself was quite firm, with a buttery, mild flavour, followed by a pleasant aftertaste.  The fatty breakdown below the rind softened it even further, making it very easy to bite through.  This cheese showed least amount of natural blue mould, and ended up sitting in my (actual) fridge for a fair few days after the tasting, being consumed alongside other shop-bought cheeses.

Taste the Difference pasteurised Jersey

Taste the Difference cheese

Taste the Difference cheese

Next up, the Taste the Difference Jersey milk, which showed a fair amount of blue mould, and surprisingly little white.  There were fairly large areas completely uncovered by natural or inoculated mould, which is a little strange.

Taste the Difference cheese

Taste the Difference cheese

Unfortunately there’s not much to say about this cheese in terms of tasting.  It was literally so uninspiring I actually wrote down in my notes: “nothing”.

Sainsbury’s Basic

Sainsbury's Basic cheese

Sainsbury's Basic cheese

Cheese made from Sainsbury’s basic milk was the one I was most excited about trying.  The others – raw goat milk, good quality pasteurised cow milk – I expected to perform well, but I had no idea what would happen with this one.  The curd was weak from coagulation, but through some careful flipping and gentle handling, it prevailed with only the tiniest loss of curd, and a tiny blob of disconcertingly black mould, which I decided against eating.

Sainsbury's whole milk cheese

Sainsbury's whole milk cheese

Seriously.  What on earth is that?!  It’s a complete mix of textures and pastes – liquid on the right hand side, yet firm and pasty on the left.  I sampled a few different areas of the cheese to see if it made a difference to the flavour, but unfortunately it didn’t.  I was really hoping that I might be able to write that the cheese was outstanding, or at least reasonable, but the reality is it was rank.  The paste was bitter, the aftertaste made me wince, not to mention the fact it smelt strangely of chlorine.

In Conclusion…

Homemade cheese tasting plate

Homemade cheese tasting plate

Laid out in true cheese tasting fashion, the above plate shows clockwise from top: Ellie’s Dairy raw goat, Jersey / goat mixed curd, Ivy House Farm Jersey, Taste the Difference Jersey, Sainsbury’s Basic.

In summary I think the conclusion is clear – better quality milk gives better quality cheese.  Not exactly groundbreaking stuff, but at least now you know: don’t make cheese from bad milk, the results won’t be pretty!

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Milk Type Experiments – The Cheese

02 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by handyface in cheese, cheese making

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

amateur cheese, animal rennet, camembert, cheese, cheese making, ellies dairy, food, goat milk, goats milk, jersey milk, organic, raw milk, urban cheese

In my previous post Milk Type Experiments – The Milk, I detailed six different milks I would use in an experiment to see which milk produces the best quality cheese.

I decided to stick to my standard white moulded camembert style cheese for this experiment, although I am feeling a hankering to branch out into rind washing soon after tasting some excellent Kernel Brewery washed Golden Cenarth on Thursday, courtesy of Mootown cheese!

Milk in vats

Milk in vats

I decanted each milk into an individual vat, each holding 2 litres of milk.  From top left, to bottom right: Ellie’s Dairy raw goat milk; St Helen’s Farm pasteurised goat milk; Hook & Son raw cow milk; Ivy House Farm pasteurised cow milk; Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference pasteurised cow milk; Sainsbury’s basic milk.

There is an immediate colour difference between the milks, with the creamy Ivy House Farm Jersey milk showing a striking yellow colour, whereas the others show just white.  The goat milk is a substantially more “clean” white than the Fresian-Holstein and Sainsbury’s milks.

Starting temperature & pH

Starting temperature & pH

Taking the pH of each of the milks, I noticed something quite strange.  Usually I would expect milks to be lightly acidic, however both Sainsbury’s milks had an almost neutral pH, both at 7.3.  I’m not sure why this is, but potentially the milks might contain some kind of acidity regulator to prevent it going off too quickly, giving it a longer shelf life.

Rennet syringes

Rennet syringes

After adding a small pinch of DVI starter and geotrichum candidum (now a new culture, the previous strain having been taken over by fluffy penicillum camembertii), and allowing to rest for 30 minutes, I added 0.04% rennet diluted in three times it’s volume of cold, clean water.

Renneting temperature & pH

Renneting temperature & pH

When the rennet was added, the pH of each of the milks were quite consistent, with even the previously neutral milk five and six from Sainsbury’s showing quite a large change towards acidity.

I anticipated from previous experiments into how much rennet to use that the set would occur in 90 minutes.  Identifying a clean break is something I’m still learning – usually I just stick my (clean) finger in, and check how it feels.  If it has some resistance, breaking cleanly as you move your finger upwards it has set successfully.

Ellie's raw goat milk set

Ellie's raw goat milk set

As expected, milk number one, Ellie’s raw goat milk gave a nice clean break (apologies for the shaky photo!).

St Helens pasteurised goat milk set

St Helen's pasteurised goat milk set

On the contrary, milk number two, St Helen’s pasteurised “lightly homogenized” was a complete disaster.  The milk had coagulated, but had hardly any structure.

Hook & Son raw milk set

Hook & Son raw milk set

Milk number three, the Hook & Son raw cow milk gave a good clean break.

Ivy House Farm set

Ivy House Farm set

Underneath a thin layer of yellow Jersey fat, milk number four, Ivy House Farm pasteurised milk gave an excellent set, probably the best of the bunch.

Taste the Difference Jersey milk set

Taste the Difference Jersey milk set

Milk number five, Taste the Difference Jersey milk gave a very good set.

Sainsbury's Basic whole milk set

Sainsbury's Basic whole milk set

Unsurprisingly, the homogenized milk number six, Sainsbury’s Basic whole milk gave a weak curd, but was still usable, unlike the St Helen’s “lightly homogenized” goat milk.

It was at this stage that I unfortunately dropped my pH meter.  As it was making it’s way safely towards the soft carpeted floor, I decided to try and catch it, which caused it to fly off in another direction, hitting the wall causing the display to start acting weirdly, which unfortunately means there were no further pH readings.  It’s actually ended up being quite a good excuse to buy a new pH meter, with higher resolution … not that I broke it on purpose of course!

Curds ladelled out

Curds ladelled out

The curds were ladelled out into moulds without cutting.  There were two batches of six, side by side, representing each of the milks.  Since milk number two, St Helen’s goat milk didn’t have enough structure to stay within the moulds, I decided to use some of the leftover curd from other batches to make a mixture of curd, including one with a mixture of Ellie’s raw goat milk and Ivy House Farm milk, which I thought might be interesting due to the different colours of the curd.

Curd draining

Curd draining

The curd was left to drain overnight in 18C @ 75% humidity.  I was quite concerned that milk number six, Sainsbury’s Basic might not make it through the night, since there was significant leakage due to the weak curd.  The picture above shows the Sainsbury’s Basic on the left, compared with Ivy House Farm (middle) and Taste the Difference (right).

At this point the cheeses were ready to salt, at a rate of 2.8% based on my previous experiments on how much salt to use.

Jersey / goat curd cross

Jersey / goat curd cross

I won’t go through how each of the drained curds looked, other than a the two notables.  The mix of Ivy House Farm Jersey and Ellie’s Dairy raw goat milk looked immense!  I’m really excited to see how it turns out, and whether the yellow and white line persists through to the final cheese.

Contaminated curd

Contaminated curd

Unfortunately milk number three, Hook & Son raw cow milk didn’t make it in either of the two batches.  The curd was very bubbly and weak, which I’ve encountered in the past with contaminated milk.  I’m not sure exactly what caused this, as all milks were treated in the same way, but unfortunately it means the raw cow milk cheeses could play no further part in the experiment.

Curd yield of different milks

Curd yield of different milks

Curd yield seemed higher amongst the cow milks which was quite surprising, since I’d always read that goat milk had a higher solid content and would give a better yield.  Note that milk number two batch one is the Jersey / goat cross, and batch two is milk number five, Taste the Difference Jersey milk – this was due to the real milk number two, St Helen’s goat, not forming a usable curd.

Salted cheese

Salted cheese

Once salted, the cheeses were left to dry for a couple of days, flipping twice a day. Milk number six, Sainsbury’s Basic had to be flipped quite carefully, as the curd remained quite weak throughout the drying process.  They were then placed in my homemade cheese cave for a couple of weeks for the moulds to grow.

Cheese tasting will be some time this week when i’ll post the results!

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Milk Type Experiments – The Background

01 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by handyface in cheese, cheese making

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

amateur cheese, animal rennet, ayrshire milk, cheese, diy, diyfood, ellies dairy, food, goat milk, goats milk, jersey milk, jess's ladies, local, organic, raw milk, salt, sea salt, urban cheese

When I tell people I am an amateur cheesemaker, their first question is often “can I buy some?” (no, but you can have some for free) – and their second “when will I be able to buy it in shops?” (not in the near future!)

It’s great people are so keen to invest in amateur cheesemaking, but I’ve never really looked to sell my cheese, perhaps due to an ill-fated attempt to sell halloumi at MsMarmiteLover‘s Underground Farmer’s Market.  Despite some careful pre-planning, budgeting and pricing, it ended up costing me far more than I earned back (over £100!), due to the large numbers of people only interested in sampling the product rather than purchasing it.

That experience made me realise that cheese is a hobby for me, and I’ve no particular desire (at the moment) to turn it into a money-making business.  Plus, if I were required to produce even small volumes of cheese on a regular basis, I’d have to look at scaling up my operation substantially, and would put a stop to much of the experimentation I enjoy.

Not my idea of fun

Not my idea of fun

However, I am still interested in the question of what price I would sell my cheese at, were I to take it to market (even if that’s academic at the moment).  It’s a dilemma many suppliers face: wanting to produce the highest quality product whilst keeping the final sale price within reason.

Using quality raw ingredients feels important to me, but taking cost into account, I’ve begun to wonder which items can be substituted out for cheaper options without impacting the quality of the final product?

Experiment 3: Milk Type and Quality

This was an obvious candidate for another experiment!  My main raw material (and a huge portion of the cost of a make) is of course that creamy white liquid – milk.  I wanted to find out whether there was any discernible difference in resulting cheese when I varied the milk type – not just the animal, but also the quality.

Why would you milk a yak?

Why would you milk a yak?

I purposely left out any milks I wasn’t easily able to get my hands on.  I would’ve loved to use some Helsett Farm organic pedigree Ayrshire milk, or some bizarre rare milk in the hope of finding something spectacular, but I decided I should concentrate on milks which were easily accessible.  After all, I could always repeat the experiment with another set of milks later, then have a “final” where the supreme champion could be declared!

So, last Friday I got up on my bike and cycled round the local shops picking up milk, and came back with the following list.

Milk 1: Ellie’s Dairy (Raw Goat)

Milk number one on the list is my old favourite – Ellie’s Dairy raw goat milk.  Each 2 pint container costs £1.50, giving a per litre price of £1.32.

Raw goat milk

Raw goat milk

I’ve been using Ellie’s Dairy for the entire time I’ve been making cheese, mainly because it’s readily available, and has never given me any problems.

Ellie

Ellie

Having spoken with Debbie (who recently appeared on Countryfile surrounded by goats!) and reading about the farm’s values, it’s clear that the herd are well taken care of, with antibiotics and hormones not routinely used.

Milk 2: St Helen’s Farm (lightly homogenised pasteurised goat)

Milk number two is the only goat milk available from my local Sainsbury’s – St Helen’s Farm pasteurised goat milk.  Cost: £1.44 per litre – surprisingly more than Ellie’s Dairy raw goat milk.

Pasteurised goat milk

Pasteurised goat milk

It took me a fair while to actually find any milk other than cow in Sainsbury’s, although no doubt that is due to lesser demand.  There’s no detail about where the milk comes from on the side of the cardboard packet, although the website gives a fair bit of detail – they have 3,500 goats, and milk three times a day.

Suspiciously perfect St Helen's goats

Suspiciously perfect St Helen's goats

The milk itself is said to be “lightly homogenised”, which strikes me as a little odd, since goat milk is naturally homogenised by virtue of the fat globules being small, and evenly dispersed throughout the milk.  The St Helen’s Farm website does however state that some of the fresh milk makes it’s way to Cricketer Farm for cheesemaking (which is a good sign), who appear to make a “healthy” cheddar from the milk.

Milk 3: Hook & Son (raw cow)

Milk number three is Hook & Son raw cow milk, picked up direct from Borough Market.  Raw cow milk comes with a premium price though – a whopping £2.70 per litre!

Raw cow milk

Raw cow milk

I’ve used this milk a fair bit in the past, even getting one of my blog posts replicated on the Hook & Son site.  Last Summer though, a combination of an extremely warm day, and unfortunate placement of the milk by the delivery driver outside my house left me with 30 litres of spoiled milk, which was quite upsetting.

Hook & Son cow

Hook & Son cow

They’ve recently started selling their milk at Borough Market though, which makes it relatively convenient to pick up, although it does mean an early start on a Saturday to beat the crowds.  The herd is Fresian-Holstein, known for it’s excellent milk volume production, set in Hailsham over 180 acres.

Hook & Son online shop

Hook & Son online shop

Hook & Son also run the only raw cow milk dispenser in the UK, located in Selfridges, London.  This has reportedly been out of action for some time now though, and ominously it seems their online shop seems to be shut too, plus they weren’t at Borough Market this weekend.  Hopefully it’s nothing too serious, and they’ll be up and selling again soon!

Milk 4: Ivy House (pasteurised cow)

Milk number four is Ivy House Farm, a pasteurised cow milk available from Franklins locally, or Neal’s Yard Dairy.  Cost £1.39 per litre.

Ivy House whole milk

Ivy House whole milk

This milk has great memories for me.  When I first started making cheese, a friend (the excellent Curd Nerd on twitter) working at Neal’s Yard Dairy set aside some almost-expired milk over New Year’s, when the shop was going to be closed for a few days.  I spent the entire New Year’s of 2010 furiously making cheese, none of which turned out very well – likely due to a lack of skill than anything else!

Ivy House Jersey

Ivy House Jersey

Ivy House milk comes from organically farmed Jersey’s, based in Somerset.  Traditionally Jersey milk is seen as not being the best fit for cheese making, due to the large size of the fat molecules, which are often lost when the curd forms, as the casein molecule bonds are unable to trap the fat.  I’ve generally seen good results in the past though, and the milk itself tastes delicious!

Milk 5: Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference (pasteurised cow)

Milk number five is Sainsburys Taste the Difference Jersey milk.  Cost £1.00 per litre.

Pasteurised Jersey milk

Pasteurised Jersey milk

There doesn’t seem to be much information on the Sainsbury’s website about this (other than the helpful “Dietary Information: contains milk”), however this is on the side of the bottle:

Fabulously creamy, milk from Jersey cows is renowned for its rich flavour.  Ours is produced by a pedigree Scottish herd, and left unhomogenised for an old-fashioned ‘top of the milk’ taste

Aside from the odd shape and volume of the container (why 750ml?), there isn’t anything else to report, except that it tastes quite sweet, which is a little odd.  Doing a bit of digging around Google’s cache seems to indicate that at one point the milk for Taste the Difference may have come from Graham’s Family Dairy, based in Scotland.  Their website makes a big deal of being organic though, which the packaging makes no mention of so perhaps this is no longer the case.

Milk 6: Sainsbury’s (homogenised pasteurised cow)

Milk number six is the most basic milk available from Sainsbury’s, simply called “Whole British milk”, priced at £0.52 per litre (or even cheaper at £0.44 per litre if you buy three of the four-pinters).

Whole British milk

Whole British milk

The packaging reads:

Pasteurised homogenised standardised 3.6% fat whole milk

Not exactly the most friendly description, with no detail about how the animals are kept, fed or nurtured.  It does say that the milk is produced “in partnership with our farmers” – but I’m not sure what that means?!  How would you produce milk without being in partnership with farmers?  Steal it?

Note that usually homogenisation and standardisation are a complete no go area when it comes to cheese making, since the high-impact jets which break up the fats also smash everything else in the milk, leaving the casein unable to form any kind of bonds.  I thought it might be interesting to include the milk (and the “lightly homogenised” goat milk) anyway, just to see what would happen.

So those are the milks, the actual home cheesemaking will follow in the next post!

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Raw Goat White

25 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by handyface in cheese making

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

animal rennet, camembert, cheese, cheese making, ellies dairy, food, goat milk, goats milk, raw milk, urban cheese

Ingredients:

  • 11 pints Ellie’s Dairy raw Goat milk
  • 2.5ml animal rennet
  • DVI starter
  • Penicillium candidum

I’ve been concentrating on cheddar-making now for a while, which although a lot of fun, takes quite a long time to produce results!

I decided it would be fun to make some quicker cheeses, which would ripen up in a couple of weeks rather than needing a year or so.

The make itself is also a lot simpler and less involved than a cheddar – a couple of hours work as opposed to 6-7 hours.

Excellent Ellie's Goat Milk

Excellent Ellie's Goat Milk

Barely filling the vat

Barely filling the vat

I only used a small quantity of milk, as the curd won’t be cut.  This pretty much doubles the volume of curd which will need to be ladelled out later – plus, this is all the milk Franklins had left on a Saturday afternoon!
Penicillium Candidum

Penicillium Candidum

I used Penicillium Candidum in preference to Penicillium Camemberti, as the Candidum seems to give a thinner, less leathery rind than the Camemberti.

Measuring out rennet

Measuring out rennet

Added a few grains of DVI starter and Penicillium Candidum to the milk at 32C, stirred and left for 30 minutes.

DVI needs a higher temperature than normal starter, which begins working at around 21C.

At this point, measure out the rennet and dilute in 5-6 times volume clean, cold water.

2.5ml rennet might seem quite a large amount for this volume of milk, but this is required to coagulate the milk in a reasonable time (1h30).

I’ve only noticed after making cheddar repeatedly, that I need to double the amount of rennet recommended in recipes in order to achieve a good coagulation time.

I suspect this is either down to my rennet being poor quality, or the recipe’s referencing the different strengths of their time / experience.

Mixing in the diluted rennet

Mixing in the diluted rennet

Add the diluted rennet to the milk, and stir for around 3-4 minutes.

Clean break

Clean break

After 1h30 the curd is sufficiently coagulated to give a clean break.

Notice swirly lines on the right hand side – not sure what causes these, but I notice them sometimes, usually when making soft cheese.

I suspect they may be down to insufficient stirring at renneting, or the quantity of water in dilution being too high.

It could also be that the curd has coagulated enough to actually start breaking away from itself … if anyone has other ideas, please let me know!

Ladelled into moulds

Ladelled into moulds

Curd is ladelled out without cutting, and allowed to drain naturally with just the follower on top for pressure.

7 hours in

7 hours in

After around 7 hours of draining, the curd should have reduced in height by about 2/3.

Flip the curd, making sure the bottom doesn’t end up resting in the drained whey.

Draining curd

Draining curd

Flip again the next day, at which point the curd should be pretty well drained, and almost be able to survive on it’s own outside the mould without collapsing.

Ready for salting

Ready for salting

After another 7-8 hours, remove the curd from the moulds and rub them with pure, fine salt.

For the 4 larger cheeses, I used 4g salt, whereas the smaller ones got 2g.

Curd surface

Curd surface

Dry off at 18C @ 70-80% humidity for a couple of days.

Wrapped up

Wrapped up

Wrap the cheese in wax paper to prevent the mould from growing too thick and from spreading to other cheeses!

Store at 10-12C @ 85-95% humidity, turning daily for 10-14 days.

8 days young

8 days young

Cut open

Cut open

After 8 days I decided to check out one of the smaller ones:

  • Outer appearance: consistent layer of thin, white mould without discolouration
  • Colour & texture: uniform natural white; open texture, breaks easily in one clean line
  • Consistency of body: soft; slightly chalky
  • Flavour & aroma: very clean; no mushroom flavour or acidic bite; a little low on salt; very mild
9 days old

9 days old

The next day, I tasted the same cheese, half of which had been sitting in my (actual) fridge, wrapped in wax paper.

What a transformation in just a day!  It may look pretty much the same, but the flavour and aroma had altered significantly from practically nothing to quite a fresh mushroom, reminiscent of a young Caerphilly!

10 days old

10 days old

Creamy inside

Creamy inside

Another day, another completely different cheese!  I opened one of the larger ones:

  • Outer appearance: roughly 1mm layer of white mould
  • Colour & texture: changes from slightly yellow at the edges, to white towards the centre; breaks cleanly
  • Consistency of body: rind gives slight resistance; creamy and soft below the rind; chalky towards the centre
  • Flavour & aroma: clean; subtle, warm flavour; no acidity or bite; no particular smell
 Can’t wait for tomorrow!

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