Serious Efforts: Making aged hard cheeses at home
I've made a few grana style cheeses, two with one gallon of milk, the latest was made with four gallons and weighs about 1kg and is in it's brine. A couple questions:
• how do you determine how long the cheese needs to be brined for? The recipe for the one gallon grana called for 30 hours of brining time, is this scalable in a linear way? Should my 4 gallon cheese brine for 120 hours? Is there a formula for brining based on weight / size of the cheese?
• I'm keeping them in my wine fridge at about 50* F, not sure what the humidity in there is. Is there anything I should do humidity wise? Do I need a hygrometer?
• I've been flipping the cheeses about every day. I've been cleaning surface mold off with white vinegar, and rubbing with olive oil. Is there anything else I need to do or look out for?
Any other tips, suggestions etc.? Any must read books? I've been getting my info and recipes from cheesemaking.com and from The Cheese Wizard. I've found their instructions to be vague and they seem to omit some critical pieces of info...
Thanks!
[Serious Efforts guidelines »]
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
4 Comments:
I've got a couple of cheesemaking books, and there have been more than a few times that I've stopped in my tracks and thought, "How am I supposed to do that?" So, yeah, I sympathize with you on the sketchiness of the information.
I haven't brined anything yet, I've just got a couple of waxed cheeses going, and there wasn't a peep about humidity for those. I suppose the wax makes that less important. I'm thinking I'll do colby or swiss next, and those are also waxed...I think. I know the colby is.
If you want to check the humidity, I know we've got a few thermometer/humidity things around the house that DH picked up cheap somewhere. For increasing humidity, one book suggested just leaving an open container of water in the fridge. I haven't bothered with that at this point, because like I said, the books didn't specify anything for the cheeses I've got in there now.
dbcurrie at 5:00PM on 09/03/09
hi @simon -- i have a book "home cheese making" by ricki carroll... there's a trouble shooting section in the back of the book.... it says to turn the cheese daily when it first starts to age.... it also says that if curd is warmed too quickly, they will develop a skin that traps the whey inside and prevents adequate drainage, which may leave the final cheese with excess moisture.
i also read that most cheeses prefer and aging temp between 46 - 60F
and a relative humidity of 75-95%. if the agining temp, is too warm, the cheese may develop a sharper more pungent flavor than is pleasing and texture may begin to deteriorate. also the cheese may develop undesirable mold growth and will require more frequent checks. mold may also develop if the aging room is too damp.
re: brining - it says an olive will float on top of a saturated salt solution. there are no guidelines as to how long to brine and weight of the
cheese....
sorry, i wish i could be of more help. here's a quarterly newsletter written up in the back of the book that is supposedly very helpful.
www.smalldairy.com
make a call up to hawthorne valley farm, or there's a great cheesemaker at sprout creek farm (poughkeepsie) who knows, they may be able to help you out. they're very friendly....
i tried brining a home made feta and the cheese completely melted. i used ronnybrook milk -- maybe the fat content was too high. i just read that it helps to salt the curds in the beginning of the process, also. i have a friend that makes all kinds of hard cheese - i'll try and ask her, but she just became a grandmother and is in la la land..... she makes regianno's,
cheddars -- i know she's had a few dewsies.... not always coming out well. it's a hit and miss thing. she uses someone up in vermont for her supplies ... cheese queen of vermont or something.....
anyway, good luck, wish i was more helpful.... sympathetic, yes.
pooch at 10:39PM on 09/03/09
Simon - can't help you personally; I've only made fresh cheeses. But here's another potential resource for you. There are a couple of cheese makers in Vermont who have built a cave where they age not only their own cheeses but those of a few other cheese makers - so I'm thinking they're both experienced in a lot of cheeses and dedicated to helping others. The second link is to a Boston Globe article about their cave:
http://www.jasperhillfarm.com/
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2008/02/29/giant_cheese_cave_gives_small_makers_new_opportunities/
lemonfair at 8:20AM on 09/04/09
@db - my next project will be a cheddar, haven't done it yet because from what I've read it's much more work... Gruyere and Gouda sound like fun too. What books are you using?
@pooch - good idea, I might have to start making phone calls/emails. I got my cultures from the Vermont cheesemaking supply place you mention, I should probably start with them. Thanks for the book suggestion.
@lemonfair - I was wondering about that. I wish there was someone offer cave space near NYC! I wonder if Murrays could help...
Thanks all! The quest for answers goes on...
simon at 12:04PM on 09/04/09