February 9, 2010
Posted by Jake Lahne, February 9, 2010 at 3:30 PM
Cabrales, a cheese ripened with blue Penicillium molds. [Photograph: jlastras on Flickr]
The magic that is cheese only really needs four ingredients to happen: milk, salt, rennet (or some other coagulant, as I discussed earlier), and microbes. Like everyone, I used to be vaguely aware that there were "good" bacteria and molds that grew on and in cheese, and that's where my interest ended. But there's a real variety of microbes that bring us the variety of cheeses we enjoy, and they're worth knowing about. I would be a bad scientist if I didn't mention that, since I am no microbiologist, if you want all the details, you should peruse the Wikipedia articles I'll link to or consult your local library.
Many modern cheeses are made with preselected cultures, consisting of only a few types of microbe, but many traditional cheeses are inoculated using whey or other products from previous batches, meaning that they can be made with dozens of types of microbe, some highly unusual. This microbial wealth is among the many reasons that traditional cheeses can be so much more complex than modern, controlled-inoculation cheeses. Modern microbiology has yet to fully explain the role of all microbes in cheese-flavor and cheese-ripening, so the limited selection of controlled inoculation produces cheeses that may be less interesting.
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Posted by Jake Lahne, February 2, 2010 at 1:30 PM
Here's how to store your cheddar collection. [Photograph: steve p2008 on Flickr]
I've had a number of SE'ers here ask for my advice on storing cheese, and luckily it's not too hard to keep your cheese happy until it's consumed. I've got a particular wrapping technique for cheese storage that I hope everyone will find useful.
When I worked as a cheesemonger, we always advised our customers never to store their cheeses in direct contact with plastic, and not to wrap them too tightly. There's some science behind this, as kitchen scientist extraordinaire Harold McGee writes in his indispensable kitchen reference, On Food and Cooking. There are, McGee says, three essential reasons to avoid tight plastic wrap. First, any kind of tight wrapping will promote the growth of bacteria, including those not native to the cheese, which can cause food-safety issues or off flavors. Second, tight wrapping prevents the dissipation of natural off odors, like ammonia, which is produced by bacteria native to the cheese. Finally, cheese, being mostly oil and fat, is able to absorb flavors and chemicals from the plastic, which you definitely don't want.
So what's a better alternative? At Cowgirl Creamery, we sold cheese wrapped in waxed paper, which I recommend, as does McGee. If you're worried about your cheese drying out, you can then wrap it loosely in plastic wrap or place it in a plastic bag that's not fully sealed, but remember to leave a way for ammonia and other unpleasant chemicals to dissipate. Here's a pictorial guide I put together on what I consider cheese-wrapping best practice.
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Posted by Jake Lahne, January 19, 2010 at 4:10 PM
"Dip in crusty bread or whatever else you have on hand. Easiest party food ever."
Torta del Casar, a Spanish, thistle-rennet cheese. [Photograph: MollySVH on Flickr]
While there is an apparently infinite variety of cheese, the basic ingredients for any cheese are incredibly simple: milk, salt, microorganisms, and a coagulating agent. The first three probably have the most influence on the ultimate flavor of the cheese, but when cardoon thistles are used instead of rennet or acid to coagulate the milk, it can produce a unique style of cheese that is worth considering on its own.
What the Heck Is Rennet?
In order to make cheese from milk, it must be coagulated, either with acid—in the case of fresh, crumbly cheeses like chevre or paneer—or with rennet, an extract of stomach enzymes found in juvenile mammalian stomachs (here are step-by-step instructions).
Because there has always been a limited supply of fresh juvenile calf (or lamb or kid or what-have-you) stomachs, and because in recent times vegetarians are uncomfortable with animal extracts being used in cheese, alternative rennets have been used for many years. Currently, much of the rennet used in cheesemaking, especially in large industry, is microbial in origin; that is, it's made from genetically modified bacteria which produce chymosin (the active enzyme in rennet) without any animals actually needing to be eviscerated. A win for everyone! (Purists claim this changes the taste or texture of the cheese, but that's pretty debatable.)
But, more interestingly for cheese lovers, the cardoon thistle, a relative of the artichoke and a current leading prospect for new, cool, indie vegetable of the next couple years, actually produces a close analogue of chymosin. Shepherds and cheesemakers in Spain and Portugal in the middle of the last millennium might not have known that, but someone figured out that if they stirred milk with the heads of the plant, the milk would coagulate and could be made into cheese. Thus were born some of the coolest, weirdest traditional cheeses in the world.
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Posted by Jake Lahne, January 12, 2010 at 2:45 PM
Please welcome Jake Lahne, a former cheesemonger who is currently studying food science at the University of Illinois. He'll be chiming in every week with Serious Cheese. Take it away, Jake! —Editor
Stichelton is a blue cheese like Stilton but made with raw milk. [Flickr: adactio]
My life as a cheesemonger at the rightly famous Cowgirl Creamery began partly out of desperation (I needed an escape from my death-spiral of a line cook's job) and partly because of a religious experience involving Cypress Grove's Humboldt Fog, an epiphany most cheese lovers can relate to.
However, unlike most cheese lovers, I'm allergic to cow's milk, giving my continuing romance with fermented dairy products a certain Capulet-Montague cachet. Thus, if I tell you that a certain cow's cheese, say Pleasant Ridge Reserve, is delicious, I have weighed its tastiness against certain internal distress.
With this hard-earned knowledge, I'd like to talk about some good cheeses done wrong—cheeses that have had their reputation spoiled by mass-market, lowest-common-denominator clones, chalky bricks or milky pap unfit for any thinking person's consumption.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, August 18, 2009 at 5:15 PM
I was pleasantly surprised to hear one of my favorite radio shows, NPR's Science Friday, tackle the science of cheesemaking on its most recent show. The program featured Liz Thorpe, vice president of Murray's and author of The Cheese Chronicles, a new book about making and selling cheese in America.
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