Wurst Case

Thanks for resurrecting the chese making thread. I began making cheese last May and am still hooked. I have attempted, with varying degrees of success, the following: Epoisses Afeuga'l Pitu (Spanish DOC cheese with hot pimenton) Goat Tomme Cow Tomme Bleu des Causses Crottin Valencay Ste Maure Queso Murcia al Vino (Drunken Goat) Munster Camembert Montenebro Stilton Chevrotin des Aravis (washed rind goat cheese) Chevre Frais Fromage blanc I think that's it. I've equiped two compact fridges to control temperature & humidity. And I finally got my back-ordered press from New England Cheesemaking. I plan to start with Caerphilly tonight (only two months aging required). I always use raw cow's milk, even for fairly short-aging cheese like camembert. I sometimes use raw goat's milk. Wish I could get sheep's milk. I have a pretty big cheese library. I would be happy to share recipes or info and would love to hear from any of you similarly afflicted with the cheese bug.

I came upon this passage in Margaret Morris's The Cheesemaker's Manual, "A low pH at hooping time gives a brittle textured cheese and a high pH at hooping time will result in a soft, soapy, fruity or bitter cheese." This seems to correlate with your runny blue cheese (too much acidity) and with your dry one (too little). Anyway, it looks like this forum isn't going anywhere, alas! If we were to get some momentum, we could possibly enlist an "expert" to counsel us. Today I am making an epoisses, which I will wash with grappa (instead of marc de bourgogne); a couple of days ago I made some crottins and Ste Maures (ash covered logs). The camemberts are getting nice and felty white. I think I may have scored some raw goat's milk, and I plan to make a Tomme de Chevre. Good thing I am semi-retired and totally deranged! Tell me about the cheddar you made. That one was successful yes? How long did you age it? ← Whoops! I just noticed a mistake. The low pH is high in acidity, of course, and the high one is low in acidity. So I switched 'em. Anyhow, I got a trusty pH meter, which helps.

I came upon this passage in Margaret Morris's The Cheesemaker's Manual, "A low pH at hooping time gives a brittle textured cheese and a high pH at hooping time will result in a soft, soapy, fruity or bitter cheese." This seems to correlate with your runny blue cheese (too much acidity) and with your dry one (too little). Anyway, it looks like this forum isn't going anywhere, alas! If we were to get some momentum, we could possibly enlist an "expert" to counsel us. Today I am making an epoisses, which I will wash with grappa (instead of marc de bourgogne); a couple of days ago I made some crottins and Ste Maures (ash covered logs). The camemberts are getting nice and felty white. I think I may have scored some raw goat's milk, and I plan to make a Tomme de Chevre. Good thing I am semi-retired and totally deranged! Tell me about the cheddar you made. That one was successful yes? How long did you age it?

About my blue cheese (attempt), recently a bit of the rind broke and it was oozy inside, so I fear the worst. From what I have read, I suspect the acidity is at fault in both the oozy and the dry blues. Too much acidity and the cheese turns out dry and crumbly; too little, it can turn out moist. (Anyhow, I am more ocnfident about the first part of that). Oy!

Hi J. I remember you from the Charcuterie forum. I bought a 4.3 cubic feet fridge from best buy and connected it to a Johnson Controls thermostat controller. You also use these for lagering beer. The fridge plugs into the controller, which is set at 54F, the optimal cheese ripening temp. Then I put the individual cheeses into plastic food containers to maintain the necessary humidity (RH 95%). Ideally, you want the ambient humidity of the fridge to be 85% RH (i.e., around the closed containers), for aging cheddars and the like. I usually have a bowl of water but it gets only to around 60% so I ordered a cheap mister fogger. The individual container idea I like because I am aging cheeses (or prospective cheeses) with different ripening molds or yeasts and want to avoid cross-contamination. I filled up one fridge in about a week and just bought another! Tell me about the stracchino. Where did you find the recipe?

They probably merged the threads... is it this one? http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=8864 ← They moved the thread because it seemed more appropriate here. Yesterday I made (i.e., started) a batch of 4 camemberts. In one week they should start developing the Penicilium candidum mold and in two weeks it should be a winter wonderland, all covered in snow. I used raw milk, which is the norm for true Camembert in France but prohibited here because the cheese hasn't aged the requisite 60 days. I have a friend (actually, an employee) who is French and will eay ANYTHING, so I will offer him the first taste and observe. I buried some goat cheeses in the last few days, RIP. THey developed something called peau de crapaud, toad's skin, or oidium. Possibly due to undersalting. I have the Carroll book and others (the Tim Smith book and a great one, Cheesemaker's Manual).and search the web for authentic recipes. Yogurt cheese is called, I believe, laban, and sure that counts. I am looking forward to making mozzarella. I own two beer bar cum restaurants, so I will buy the curds wholesale and make the stuff for pizza and insalata caprese. My next project (next week) is a raw milk stinky cheese. Sorry your blue cheese didn't work out, Carolyn. I started a raw milk one. I am letting a natural rind form but so far, of course, it's mostly blue and I hope not too pungent finally. It's only been three weeks so no telling....

Hi there, Turkie, Well, it's pretty easy as well as impressive to make fresh cheese--either fresh cow cheese (fromage blanc) or fresh goat cheese (chevre). New England Cheesmaking, cheesemaking.com, sells cultures for this. You just heat a gallon of milk, add the contents of the little packet, leave it overnight, and drain it the next day. You should avoid ultrapasteurized milk (like the goat milk sold by Whole Foods). Anyhow, you get around two pounds of cow cheese and 1.5 lbs of goat. You can eat the stuff with a spoons, or smear it on toast. It's yummy! And relatively low-cal. In fact you can use low fat milk if you like. That would be a good start. Just made the goat cheese for a birthday party and it went over big. I simply added salt, but you could add whatever. THanks for replying.

I have been making simple fresh cheese for years (fromage blanc) but a couple of weeks ago I started making more complex cheeses--blue-veined, washed rind, bloomy rind, tomme, crottin, valencay, etc). Is it ever fun! Chemistry, molds, yeasts, bacteria--cooties galore! There are already a few such sites but I feel they are wanting. By the way, my nom de Gullet, wurst case, comes from my other hobby of sausage making. But I am totally taken with this new one.

Running water for twelve hours? Wouldn't it work just as well to soak with periodic changes of water? The mojama sounds intriguing. Anyone know what it tastes like? ← Tastes yucky! Try ordering it from Spanish Table.

Welcome Catherine, There is no recipe in the book for mojama. However, I did a bit of Googling and it appears to be a fairly straight forward concept. EVERY description I found called for the loins to be layered in salt for 2 days, rinsed in fresh running water for 12 hours then hung to cure for 2 weeks. I agree with Mark. With what we know now, from the book and our experiences, we can cure just about anything. I'm game for this one. As soon as I can locate a suitable loin I'm going to give it a try. I've got my second attempt at lomo curado in the chamber now. This time I used a loin instead of a tenderloin. ← Hi Catherine, I too researched making mojama. Fortunately, I bought a miniscule piece of the stuff at the Spanish Table, found it very hard and VERY salty, and so now won't have to mess up a large piece of tuna attempting to replicate it.

Hi there. Drytheair.com sells a hygro-thermometer for about $15.

Hi Jason, Did you ever post photos of isolating the coppa muscle?

The lomo is beautiful. What's your recipe?

Have to admit, it's not the first time I'm been accused of that! It does sound better than fanatical though. ← Halp! Meat curing is taking over my life. I think I am turning into a big sausage!

See Paul Bertoli, Cooking by Hand, where he has you testing the pH as it goes into the casing, then 24 hours later, then eight hours later. wHAT IT involves is putting a little stuffing into plastic wrap, then making a slurry with distilled water at each stage. I just ordered the Oakton pHtestr 2 meter that he recommends.

I deferred to brian on that one. I'd had a discussion about it with Anne Burrell, the ace dry curer at mario's italian wine merchant, where it is a whole muscle, shoulder, but she didn't say that it was a particular cut from within the shoulder. I'd love to know specifics of inner shoulder cut if anyone knows them. ← Hi Michael, Len Poli's site has photos of the muscle used for coppa. Here's the site: http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/page0005.htm