Port Salut - Again!

OK, this time, armed with even more helpful hints, I made another Port Salut this weekend.  We did eat the last one, even though it did not manage to have it's signature orange/red bloom of b. linens.  It tasted great, and from what I described to a cheese master, it was close in taste to the real thing.  The Port Salut you get at a store is not really Port Salut.  It's a "prettied-up" version.  Commercial Port Salut is softer and close to a cross between cream cheese and gooey Brie in texture.  It is rind-less, too.  And the color on the "rind" is imprinted onto the surface using food dyes, so the color is way off...almost neon orange.

Since I've detailed what I've done making Port Salut's before, I'll just cover the highlights of what I did differently this time, to ensure it ripens properly and develops a rind.  I received two tips from different sources that indicated that my previous versions were too acidic, and that's why the b. linens didn't grow.  It's a fast grower, so I should not have had the trouble I did.  To remedy it, I was told by both sources to add a tiny bit (1/64th of a teaspoon) of either GEO 15, Danisco's Choozit brand of geotrichnum candidum (yeast form) bacteria, or a strain of kluyveromyces yeast, Choozit brand KL71.  And I am supposed to use these in the bacterial wash as well with the b.linens.  A 1/64th teaspoon is about the size of the tip of knife full of powder.  The yeast acts to stabilize the pH of the cheese and keeps it from becoming too acidic.

I have both of these on hand, so I used both, to make up the 1/64th tsp.  The cheese came out of it's brine solution yesterday afternoon, and after drying for 12 hours at room temperature, it's now in the ageing container at 52F.  Believe it or not, I can see some very faint mottling of yellow mixed in with the usually creamy white color of the cheese already.  That didn't happen last time until a few days after being in the ageing container.

Another tip I received was that it was possible that by avoiding having the cheese be too moist in the container, I accidentally let it get too dry.  So, I will have to monitor the moisture on the surface more carefully and try to find the right balance.

Finally, the cheese is supposed to weigh 2.75 lbs.  Mine weighs 3.2 lbs, or almost half a pound too much, meaning there may be too much water/whey left.  I did press it for 12 hours under medium pressure.  But I think I'll lose some weight as it ages.  So I'll weigh it again in a week to see what it is.  The salt from the brining is still on the surface.  It should pull more moisture out over time..

Creme Fraiche

With all the "little bugs", bacteria, mold, and yeast, I've collected trying different cheeses, making Finnish viili (yogurt), and cultured butter, I thought it time to make some creme fraiche....real creme fraiche.  Since it's Thanksgiving, it should be a great compliment to the pumpkin pie I will be making to share at my sister's house.  The tartness of the creme fraiche will counter the sweetness of the pie.  But not just ordinary creme fraiche.  I had the idea to slightly sweeten it and flavor it with a spice that compliments pumpkin pie.  What I got is a tart, thick, eggnogy flavored creme fraiche.  Tastes great.

According to the recipe, I heated a quart of whipping cream to 70F, added 1/4 teaspoon of the aroma mesophilic culture, and let it rehydrate for 5 minutes.  Then gently stirred it into the cream.  I let it sit out on the counter for 48 hours, chilled in the refrigerator, and then spooned it into a container.  When completely chilled, it is firmer, but soft like prepackaged pudding.  If I wish, I could whip it like whipped cream to make it fluffy, but I think I'll leave it the way it is.  I found a variation online to sweeten the creme fraiche.  It said to use 1-2 Tblsp of sugar for each cup.  I thought that a bit too sweet, so I used about a third of that, and added some nutmeg to taste, realizing that the nutmeg will infuse it's flavor while it sits in the cream.

Speaking of sour cream, I compared the creme fraiche recipe to the one for sour cream.  I never realized they were identical, except that for sour cream, you let the cream and starter set out for 24-36 hours, not 48.  Not sure what the big difference is.  So I took a taste of the creme fraiche after 24 hours, when it was in the sour cream phase.  It was slightly thinner than creme fraiche, and not as tart.  Nothing like the sour cream you buy at the store...it's better.

Our kitchen this week is a veritable "bug" factory.  The creme fraiche was sitting on the counter next to the villi I was making.  The Caciotta and Stilton are ripening in the wine refrigerator, and the cheddars are waxed and ripening too.  I ordered a new strain of b. linens and will be making a new Port Salut on Saturday.  I am determined to not let that cheese defeat me!  But then I think I'll take a break from cheese...at least until Christmas vacation :-)

Port Salut, The Saga Continues

I thought the lot number of the LR series b. linens (Choozit LR from Danisco) might be bad.  The b.linens growth had stopped completely a couple weeks ago.  I trimmed off the surface and rebrined it, then applied a smear of b. linens.  It's supposed to be a fast growing bacteria, but two weeks later, nothing.  So I cut into it.  It tastes great.  But not quite right.

I wrote Danisco and they referred me to Diairy Connection, their distributor in Wisconsin.  I thought they could tell me if there was a problem with the lot of LR I have.  Instead, they gave me some more advice.  The pH of my cheese is probably off, inhibiting the b. linens.  I should use the KL 71 yeast to neutralize the pH in the milk and in the smear. 

I sent their response to Debra Amrein-Boyes, author of the recipe book I'm using, to get her thoughts on this.  I am determined to conquer this cheese!  Stay tuned.  I'm not going to post again on Port Salut until I have a pic of a nice bloom on the darned thing.

Waxing Cheddars

I waxed my three cheddars this morning.  I bought a low melting cheese wax and placed it in a stainless bowl over a pot of boiling water to melt the wax.  I used a combination of dipping and brushing to get the wax on.  Fortunately, our kitchen ha a marble cutting slab (under the cheeses in the pic), so I put wax paper down and the cool marble solidified the wax quickly.  I used a low melting cheese wax so I could heat it in a double boiler instead of directly on the stove in a pot.

It was not as hard or messy as I thought it would be.  I made the labels to remind me which one is which, and to remind me of when these ought to be ready. They are now residing quietly in the wine refrigerator at 50F for the next six months. 

I had some difficulty with, you guessed it, the port wine cheddar.  Even though the surface was dry, the wax peeled away from an area after the first coating.  I just removed the wax, remelted it, and continued on.  And, this one had three spots where the curds just would not knit completely.  I held them closed and "spot welded" the joints with wax, letting it cool before handling.   It seemed to work well.

I realized as I was working with these, that when I wax my 3.5 lb Caciotta, I will have to brush on the wax only.  It will be too large to handle easily for dipping.  Oh, well. 

Port Salut Disaster...Again!

I had posted that my remake of the Port Salut was progressing.  Well, it turns out, it's not.  The b. linens stopped growing (if indeed it WAS b. linens), and spoilage mold began to appear.  At first, I tried trimming it.  But when the b. linens wasn't taking over, I had no choice but to either toss it, or carefully trim the rind, re-brine it, and start with a fresh packet of b. linens.  I chose the second option.  It's been two weeks since retrimming it, and no b. linens.  It's supposed to be a fast growing bacteria.  This is not fast.  Now, once again, I am getting small spots of other molds starting on the cheese.  The cheese itself was made over 5 weeks ago.  By now, I should be close to having a ripe Port Salut, with another 1-3 weeks before it's supposed to be done.  Not even close!

I think the lot# of my LR series of Choozit b. linens culture from Danisco is bad, somehow.  I am not giving up, though.  I ordered the SR3 series b. linens and will make a new Port Salut soon.  Although the SR3 is not as aromatic as the LR, it should still work.  My other Choozit cultures all work fine.  It's just the b. linens LR series that isn't.

I now consider this Port Salut a dud.  BUT....it is still edible.  I'm bringing it to my sister's house for Thanksgiving.  Why let it go to waste?

More on Cheddar Troubleshooting

After the port and beer cheddars sat overnight, after I had already tried to re-knit the curds using the water bath method, my port cheddar still showed signs of cracking where the curds meet.  The beer flavored cheddar seemed OK.  I emailed the author of "200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes" to see if she had more suggestions.

Evidently, I am doing all I can now that this happened.  She said she has run into this as well, until they finally discovered that the wine has a low pH (acidic) and that interferes with the curd's ability to knit when pressed.  Beer can also have this effect, but less so.  Hmmm...seems to match my experience.  She suggested that the next time, I buy a wine conditioner and add it to the port before soaking the curds.  It raises the pH and helps.  The downside is that it sweetens the wine.  Wine conditioners are made with complex sugars.  I think, too, I'll still warm the port to 100F to keep the curds warm while they soak, just to be sure.  Patting the curds with a lint-free towel after they've soaked will also help.

But for now, I just have to baby the port cheddar until I can wax it.  Waxing will hold the curds together.  Right now, I'm repressing the port cheddar while it's wrapped in dry cheesecloth, under very light pressure.  This is expressing any moisture, holding the curds closed, and the cheesecloth is wicking away that moisture so the curds can knit a little more.  After that, it's handle with exreme caution.

Learned Something New - Cracks In My Cheddars

Before I get into what I learned by making cheddars, regarding cracking, I have a pic of my Caciotta a day after it has come out of it's brine bath.  I did not use a flash but kept it low light so you can see the couple of specs of saffron on the surface.  What you cannot see is that the saffron continues to infuse yellow color around the threads of saffron, so there are areas where it's brighter yellow with the orange thread in the center.  Glad I decided to keep the threads in the cheese, and not skim them off before draining.  I can smell the slight aroma of saffron if I get my nose close enough to the cheese.  This should be ready by the Holidays...only 4 weeks to ripen.

Now to the cheddar cracks.  My plain cheddar is just fine.  The cut curds knitted nicely, and the surface is drying properly.  The two flavored cheddars developed cracks, more like "looseness" between the curds where they meet.  I read up on it and found that by immersing in the port and beer for 30 minutes, the curds cooled too much and that's what caused them to not knit properly.  Also, it's really dry in the house and they may be drying too fast. Even though they are well packed, if you move or bend the cheese even slightly while handling, you can see a slight separation occur.

OK, I know what causes it.  How do I fix it?  First off, I've read that I need to keep the curds warm until I pack them in the mold.  That means my port and beer needed to be around 100F while they soaked, not room temperature as my recipe called for.  I already made notes in the margin of the recipe book to remind me in the future to do this.  I need to have the surface sealed before I wax them.  So how can I repair the cheese once this happens?  The trick is to immerse the cheese in 150F water for 60 seconds, then repress it for a couple hours.  I made a solution of 3% salt water and did just that.  I placed the cheese on cheesecloth and used it to dunk the cheese, quickly rewrapped it and put it in the press.  This method to repair the cracks kind of works.  Many of them sealed up, but not right away.  There are a few areas where the curds separate from each other still, but it is better.

Finally, I placed the cheese in an ageing container and left the lid partially off so the cheese dries more slowly.  After drying overnight, a few more areas of separation have sealed up.  The tops are sealed, but the underside resting on the mat were more damp, and there were areas that didn't seal on the underside.  I believe that now that I've flipped the cheese, the undersides will be on top and as they dry slowly, they should knit together.

Many thanks to Glenn K. for pointing me in the right direction to find the solution.

"Caciotta Sunday"

If yesterday was Cheddar Saturday, then today is Caciotta Sunday!  After the labor intensive cheddars, the Caciotta was a walk in the park.  Right now, it's pressing for 6 hours.  After that, I'll brine it, age it for a week, then wax it.












To the left is a picture of the sheep's milk with the saffron threads on top.  I lightly crushed them to have more bits of saffron dispersed throughout the cheese.  To the right is of the gelled milk just before I cut it into curds.  I thought the saffron threads that got trapped floating on top when it set up looked cool.  You can see the color change as the saffron seeps into the milk.

Although I knew sheep's milk gave higher cheese yield per gallon, I was not prepared for it.  I am so used to the way cow's milk behaves.  The sheep's milk gelled much more quickly and was firmer.  The volume of curds was visibly larger than with cow's milk too.  For example, for the same size of molded cheese, I used 3 gallons of cow's milk for the Port Salut, and only two gallons of sheep's milk for the Caciotta.  I did taste the milk before I started.  It's nearly identical in flavor to cow's milk (to me), but it is richer.

Finally a shot of the Caciotta in the press, without the running guide (cylinder) for the top plate.  The top plate is simply on top of the lid for the tomme mold.

"Cheddar Saturday"

I spent the entire day Saturday devoted to making cheddar.  Quite the experience!  Of things I've never done before while making cheese that I did this time:  used annatto, cheddaring process, flavoring curds before pressing.  I can add to that list waxing a cheese when I wax them on Tuesday.  The recipe made just over 3 lbs of cheddar.  Instead of making one large tomme mold of plain cheddar, I opted to divide the curds into thirds to make one plain, one port flavored, and one beer flavored cheddars, each about 1 lb.  Thankfully, I have three smaller tomme molds.

Not much to say about using annatto except that it is an intense colored natural dye.  But when I put it in the milk at the doseage specified, the milk was only as yellow as butter.  But the dye stayed with the milk protein, and the curds got slightly darker.  After pressing, the cheese is developing it's color better.  The curding and cheddaring process were easier than I thought, but time consuming.  I spent 45 minutes stirring the curds in the whey as I raised the temperature from 88F to 102F slowly over that period as the recipe indicated.  Then there was 45 minutes of cheddaring, where the curd mass was in a water bath to maintin the 102F temperature, flipping the mass every 10 minutes.  Not as messy as I thought it might be.  The pic to the right of the cheddaring process is rotated.  No matter what I do to the pic before uploading, the blog decided that this is the direction it needs to be in.  But you get the idea.

Here's a pic of the curds in port and beer before pressing.  This also went way better than I thought it might.  The only problem with soaking the curds to flavor them is that the curds cool down and don't knit together as well as with the plain cheddar.  When I took them out of the press, a few cracks appeared where the individual curds meet.  I put them back in the molds and press and increased the pressure.  I'll leave them there a few more hours to see if this helps.  Even if it doesn't, the cheeses get waxed in a couple days anyway.  So as long as I handle them carefully, it shouldn't be a problem.  If you're interested, the port was Warre's Tawny Port, and the beer is a Belgian style Trappist beer from Canada (La Fin du Monde - or "the end of the world")  It's one of my favorites, and is a strong beer to pair well with cheddar.  I really like the marbling effect the port had on the cheese.  Very pretty.

When I wax them, I decided I need to identify them some way to keep the different kinds separate.  I think I'll print up small labels and after waxing, place the label on the cheese and wax over it to hold it in place.  Somehow, I don't think a sticky label will work well on wax.

Finally, the four gallons of milk I used resulted in about three gallons of whey.  Cheddar is a lower yield cheese, about 10-11%, compared to 15-18% for many cow's milk cheeses.  So the whey had lots of milk in it for ricotta.  So I made ricotta too.  I got about a cup and a half.  Normally, I only get between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of ricotta from other cheese whey.  But because I used annatto, my ricotta is peach colored.  But who cares, it still tastes the same.

Sheep's Milk Found

After all this time, I found a farmer who is willing to sell me some sheep's milk.  But I have to travel a distance for it.  Luckily, we'll be going past the area on something else, so on our way back, I can pick it up.  It will be frozen, but that should not harm anything.  The farmer assures me that he recently used the frozen milk to make cheese and it turned out fine.  So, I may be changing my plans on the cheddars and making the Caciotta I've been wanting to make, using the sheep's milk.  I think I'll pick up extra milk and keep it in the freezer for a batch of another type of sheep's milk cheese. 

Maybe It's Time To Cheddar

My follower, Glenn  K., just made a cheddar.  There has been something about making cheddar, besides the time to age it to get a sharp cheese, that has kind of put me off.  But my recent trials with the Port Salut have gotten me past the "What if I screw up?" feeling about trying something more difficult.  The cheddaring process makes this a bit more labor intensive.  I'll have to devote an entire day to this.  Cheddaring means that once the curds are drained, you press them into a mass then return it to the pot, and heat the mass, turning it frequently to further acidify the cheese.  Then you have to cut the mass into fat strips, kind of like steak fries in size, salt them, and then press them under high pressure for 12 hours.  Then of course, there's the waxing of the outside of the finished block.

I really like cheddars that have been laced with port wine.  So, I figure if I'm in for a penny, I'm in for a pound.  I have decided I want to attempt flavored cheddars.  Since the recipe uses 16 quarts of milk and one large tomme mold to make a 3 1/2 lb wheel, I think I can actually make two or three smaller cheddars from this simultaneously, one flavored with port wine, one flavored with my favorite beer, and one plain one, just to add to the difficulty.  But that really does not make it that much more difficult. Flavoring happens after the block has been cut up into strips and just before pressing.  So I just need to set up three bowls for the curds and three molds.  If I do it this way, I'll have three 1lb cheeses.  If I made a separate recipe for each, I'd have three 3lb cheeses...whoa!

I need to order some supplies first, and with my schedule, I may not be able to get to this for a couple weeks.  So I am placing an order for some annatto to color the cheese the familiar orange, and some cheese wax, as well as several smaller tomme molds.  I figure once I wax the cheeses, I can imprint an identifier into the wax for the different versions.   My press can accommodate up to three small molds stacked one on top of the other, and they have special molds that are meant just for this purpose.

As they say, go big or go home! 

Viili Smoothies - A Treat & Port and Stilton Update

My cousin in Eau Claire and her mother came up with a great idea of making smoothies with the viili culture I gave them.  I've tried it, and I like it!  No real recipe, but I take a cup of viili, add a banana and some frozen berries we get from Schwan's, though any frozen berries or fruit pruee would do, and then blend them up.  The consistency is good, and I don't use any sugar....usually.  Having lived in the UP of Michigan, I'd love to try this with thimble berries when they are in season.  But I doubt that will happen now that I live further away.  I'll just have to make due with blueberries when they are in season to get that feeling of being in the UP when I drink it.


The Port Salut and the latest Stilton are progressing.  Once again, I'm in a lull as I decide what cheese to try next.  My blog follower, Glenn K., is making cheddar.  If you read this post, Glenn, send me a pic of the cheddar so I can post it.  I am very interested in hearing how it goes. 

The Port is just starting it's b. linens bloom.  The color is darker than I expected, but the older spots become more vivid after the scheduled brine washes.  Still fighting the blue/black mold, but the spots are not numerous and very tiny.  I just carefully trim them out.  This should ease once the b. linens takes hold more completely.   The pic of the Port is recent.  But the Stilton pic is a few days old and it's now completely blue and fuzzy.  Although I have to turn and monitor the Port daily, I can now leave the Stilton alone a full week between turnings. 

Now that I have a healthy colony of b. linens on the Port, I started washing with a brine/beer solution to impart a different flavor.  I also found an old miniature fan that I cleaned up.  I use it to rapidly dry the surface of the Port after the washings so the errant molds don't have a chance to take a better hold on a damp surface. 

Pic of Stilton

I like the way this next batch of Stilton looks!  The recipe I used was from the book of cheese recipes I referenced earlier, and not the one that came with my cheesemaking kit, like last time.  The main difference was that the Stiltons sat in the mold without any weight on them, so the curds are a bit looser, allowing more air in between the curds so the mold develops easier.  The only trouble is that the curds on the corners tend to flake off if I'm not careful.

On the Port Salut, things are progressing a bit better than the first time.  I made it to the second bacteria wash without large blooms of spoilage mold.  Only a few flecks, more tiny than pepper flakes, every few days.  I've been able to keep it at bay, and now the b. linens appears to be taking off.  I did use Geo 15 in the second wash, as suggested by the recipe book author.  Hopefully, now that the b. linens is taking off, it will crowd out the unwanted mold.  Keep your fingers crossed.