u/Smooth-Skill3391

Re-submitting in the hope it doesn't get arbitrarily deleted this time:

So everyone knows Gianaclis and her amazing books. She also does a newsletter, which hopefully most of you subscribe to and should if you don't.

I just wanted to share a Caerphilly like that I incredibly got a mention for in it. I'm attaching as a shared link from my Dropbox. Worth a read even if I hadn't got a mention!!

This is a massive accolade for me by any stretch, especially since it wasn't the most comely of cheeses. That said, it tasted pretty good by my lights. Lipolysis but not much Proteolysis - possibly acidity again. One of "those" wheels.

Fede's Theory of Cheese Cubes - which I've since tested and can confirm - is that if you serve a cheese in cubes it will be consumed at least 10x as fast as if served ready to cut. So that's how I'm laying out cheeses at the moment. Just one or two at a time.

The tweaks to reduce acidification and improve syneresis have worked.

This is a fraction over-stirred so it didn’t get a perfect closure in the stufatura, but other than that, texturally and flavour wise it’s incredibly similar to the one I had in Piedmont over the summer. Elastic, mild, fresh and with a decently persistent finish.

I’m aging three other wheels to see how it plays and will then move on to adding inclusions and different rind treatments again.

I’m really pleased with this - there’s making cheese and then there’s knowing enough to fix and make authentic cheese. I feel like I’ve grown a bit as a cheesemaker.

I’m hoping this isn’t a problem I have too often in the future as I’ve identified it and probable causes.

Hitherto my cheeses have generally been too acid and crumbly. I get away with it with British Territorials by and large because the cheddar and press deal with a lot of the syneresis and the curds salting stops acidification in its tracks.

That said I’ve always wondered about the citrate cycle and how it might be used to take a crumbly disaster and turn it into something preferably sliceable and useable.

In this case I did a few iterations starting with 1.5% of citrate to cheese weight and ended up with 5% and a 25% moisture addition in water and milk.

I did this in three stages over three days as I kept falling short of the dosage and eventually overshot a little. Still far better than it was.

Trick is to allow it to become genuinely runny like unwhipped double cream.

I used about half and half of both cheeses, 770g to a 1.10kg dome. Flavour is definitely milder, the pepper has become a bit diffuse, but very useable.

At the risk of caseological apostasy - I’m going to label this a qualified success as a mitigation strategy and probably use it again if on existing and future disasters.

The images show the paste and framework at each stage.

Oh and after the first go I used a microwave rather than a double boiler.

I’m getting on in years at 57, and don’t have the time to spend faffing about for hours while the cheese does what a quarter of an hour will accomplish with 70 year old technology.

As you can see my old curd harp snapped. (I was having the garage floor repainted and there was a bit of damage
As they were rushing around).

I wanted slightly wider harps and I wanted to use piano wire rather than fishing line so it wasn’t as floppy in the curds.

These are my attempts. Using basic wood trim from Wickes (a ubiquitous UK hardware shop) that cost me about £10. I’m really no kind of handyman so this was a saw and a drill and a morning.

I did get little eyelets for the holes to keep the wire from cutting into the soft wood. I’m not sure they were needed. All in, probably another £10 for the wire and eyelets and I have a load left over.

Trying them out today on a caciotta make to see how the 1/2” one gets on.

The design is pretty self explanatory but DM me if you want to try this and get stuck. The holes I drilled used a 1.25mm bit which gave me a 1.5mm hole.

This post is to boost Ned Palmer author of Cheesemakers History of the British Isles, Cheesemongers Tour de France, Cheesemongers Compendium of British & Irish Cheeses; a genuinely wonderful, warm and brilliantly clever guy - and his curated cheese business The Cheese Tasting Company; and share the feedback I got from his very insightful and expert critique of my cheeses.

I'd intended to do a small dinner at the Travellers Club Library for a visiting friend/cheese dignitary (just our two families at her request - I had dancing elephants, orangutans with trombones and other pomp and circumstance in mind as befitted her status) and had asked Ned if he might give a talk/tasting on the history of the British Isles and its cheeses and join us for the evening. For reasons beyond anyone's control, it fell through as the other couple had to return home with some urgency. Ned generously changed the arrangements and gave Jo, I and our three boys his talk at our home, and further agreed to taste and critique my cheeses at the same time. The opportunity to get an informed and honest critique of my cheeses from someone in the know was a priceless opportunity, and Ned didn't disappoint on any level.

It was a unique and thought provoking experience. Ned is eloquent, passionate and has a deep and fascinating perspective on cheese, it's place in history as well as a wealth of anecdotes about the cheese-making and mongering community in the UK and abroad. We went from Neolithic to Roman, Edwardian, post-War, Modern and Avant-garde cheeses, tasting examples made in those styles with intent, and guided by a discussion on the time, tools, processes, and restrictions of each era. An absorbing, illuminating and delicious journey.

I forgot to take pictures unfortunately as I was flapping about logistics, so I'm posting a montage of online images of each of his cheeses and the photos he took of my boards. His selections were tremendous. If you get a chance, absolutely give them a try. The Yoredale, Brightwell and Spenwood were our favourites (I'm in Berkshire; and no we're not called "hunts"; so I'm going to be a little biased on that last one).

If you have the opportunity to attend or commission a talk by Ned, I'd urge you to do so. There's cheese tasting, and then there is the incomparable journey of intentionally tasting cheese led by an expert historian and cheesemonger on how and why each cheese tastes as it does, where it comes from, and how those cheeses are relate to each other and to who we are today. Ned is also an expert oenologist and his wine pairings were uncanny. It was an evening of eye-opening discovery.

If you can't do either, definitely read the books: they're learned, light-hearted, transporting, and engrossing; that is how I every enjoyably learnt of Ned in the first place, I promise they won't disappoint.

On to my cheeses: Ned went through most of them. He was very flattering overall, even though I felt these recent ones have fallen far short of my zenith. He was a little astonished at how far a hobbyist could come in 18 months, though you guys, having seen my lows, know better. He loved the Crottin, and thought some of the territorials as well as Todds (u/Best_Reality_78) Coconut Gouda were "smashing", though he'd have liked to taste more coconut in the latter. The pressed lactic goats milk was delicious but claggy, and he suggested changing it to a goats milk Tomme to preserve the flavour profile but make easier eating.

The Flor Azul, he pointed out had a soapy finish which slighlty spoiled a really terrific initial flavour. This is down to insufficiently wide piercing and an attempt to "Stilton" the cheese by closing the piercings, and accidentally halting beta-carboxylization in the lipolysis. Knowing that it's there, I was able to track down the cause and will now be able to fix it. The sherry and natural rinded Caciotta he was quite taken with while pointing out they weren't actually Caciotta and the Sao Jorge he was kindly able to describe in more detail so I can do the next one so it actually resembles a cheese I've never tried in person.

He also concurred that I'm over-acidifying curds and under-expelling whey. Something I suspected strongly, and the scale of which was confirmed by our recent holiday to Piedmont in Italy, where I got to try every day cheeses like Crescenza, Primo Sale and Caciotta. The flavouring is very delicate and gentle and the Caciotta is extremely elastic. Style-wise very different from my intensely lactic and fudgy productions. I need to stir more vigorously and frequently due to the nature of the milk I'm using (homogenized, pasteurised) and so need to take longer and run lower innoculation rates.

YMMV, but my major takeaway is that you most likely already know whats wrong with your cheeses, and how to make them better, sometimes you just need a reason to look critically.

Sorry this is long-winded and only peripherally cheese-making related. It sort of sits between r/cheese and r/cheesemaking so I might post on both. I'm sure the mods will set me right if I'm crossing any lines.

And hopefully I'll get a chance to host my pals again in the future and share some of this experience with them too.

I made these quick cheeses (the Valencay style and the tiny little Crottin in the first picture) as part of the make for a golf club’s annual dinner up in Lancashire that a pal had asked me to do the cheese board for. (Cheese list shared at the bottom of the post).

The dinner is tonight and so I’ve spent the past fortnight making some extra cheeses, putting together blurbs, and cards for each cheese, vacuum packing and labeling everything, getting the recommended boxes and ice packs and on Wednesday I shipped it by DPD by their 10:30am next day service. Clearly labelled “cold chain and fragile”

It was a lot of work and I’m a hobbyist, I was giving him the cheese not selling it, but it’s not often you get to test your work against genuinely independent palates and at that scale so it was really flattering and exciting to be asked.

Thursday came and went with no word. My pal got a message late Thursday saying there was “an operational issue at the depot”. We had no information or contact beyond that. Yesterday was spent with me frantically calling and chatting with DPD staff who were incredibly hard to get hold of and started with “we don’t have any information” and eventually about 8 hours later admitted the boxes had been damaged (you can see how badly in the final picture). I offered to actually have another courier collect them from the depot and physically drive them to Lancashire (where it turns out they already were) to be told “we don’t do that” and this morning half the shipment was returned to me in the state you can see, with still no hint of an explanation as to why. No idea where the other half is.

My pal has had to make other arrangements. Thankfully the cheeses I’ve had back are fine in their vac pack despite the box looking like someone ran over it with a truck. My pal has said he’ll do a standalone cheese tasting event at the end of August so all is hopefully not lost.

Lesson learnt though. I’ll never use these guys again if it’s in my gift. The level of disinterest, carelessness and lack of any kind of ownership were infuriating and heartbreaking.

Anyway - cheese blurbs below hopefully to give you guys a bit of a chuckle at my terribly overwrought marketing speak:

Cheese Tasting Cards

Applewood Smoked Gloucester
A twist on the Gloucestershire classic. Creamy and soft-pasted, laced with a gentle applewood smoke. A paprika and olive oil rind brings a hint of spice to the edge.

Coconut Gouda
A Dutch classic, gone tropical. Buttery and creamy, made with Jersey milk and coconut cream for a gentle, tropical sweetness on the finish.

Derby: SeoGast
A twist on the Derbyshire classic. Mellow, softer than a cheddar, soaked through with vintage Ruby and Tawny Port and 12-year-old Calvados — a warm, boozy depth with a hint of animal spirits.

Herne's Wheel: Pressed Lactic Goats Milk Tomme
Named for the ghostly huntsman of Windsor Great Park. Rich and brothy, with bright lemon notes and a finish that coats the tongue. Full-flavoured — pairs well with a chutney or jam.

Crottin
A classic of the Loire Valley, France. Sweet, milk-forward coin of a cheese, mousse-like at the centre, with a touch of bite on the rind. A dusting of white mould adds earthiness and nuttiness. Eat on its own or on a cracker, with a clean, ice-cold white.

Valençay-Style: Hatshepsut
The pyramid shape is said to trace back to Napoleon himself — furious at being reminded of his defeat in Egypt, legend has it he sliced the top off with his sword. Ash-coated, bloomy-rind pyramid, hiding its secrets beneath the ash — Berkshire pastureland and milk. Unctuous, with a hint of mushroom.

Flor Azul
Argentina's answer to Gorgonzola Dolce. Sweet cream up front, savoury whisper beneath the veins, lifting into cool herbaceous brightness. At the end of its age range: don't wait out the finish, punctuate with a sip of fruity red.

Old Lancastrian
Traditional 1890s Lancashire style, from Berkshire pasture. Buttery, slightly crumbly, with a cool, cucumber-fresh lift — flintier soil trades the usual woody, floral hay notes for a quieter, cleaner minerality.

Butterkäse
A German dairy classic. Lactic tang, light crumble — a firmer, more assertive acidity than the classic buttery-soft style. Pairs well with a savoury chutney to round it out.

Kasseri
One of the oldest cheese styles, from the island of Crete. Firm, dense and faintly springy, with a mild, salty-milky flavour, a light lactic tang, and a clean, quiet aroma. Easy to eat.

Vaccino
A staple of the Italian table. Firm and fibrous, with real structure and a deep savoury note through the paste. The larger format gives a denser core, with more contrast toward the rind.

Vaccino Ubrica Vin Rosso
Steeped in the flavours of Tuscany. A Vaccino aged at least two weeks under a bold, meaty red wine — dark fruit and a warm, savoury finish.

Vaccino Ubrica Xeres
A nod to Jerez, Spain — home of sherry. A Vaccino aged at least two weeks under a 15-year-old Amontillado, taking on a warm, toasty, nutty character.

Caciotta
Soft, moist and supple — closely related to the Vaccino, but gentler, milder and even-textured, without the deeper savoury edge. An excellent canvas for other flavours.

Caciotta Aged in British Rye Grass
A nod to the British countryside. Soft and supple, with a gentle sweet-savoury warmth drawn from a month resting under dried rye grass.

Caciotta Aged in Alpine Hay
From the high meadows of the Alps. Firm, dry rind; soft, supple centre. Floral, sweet hay notes, harvested in early flower, set against a long lactic finish.

Caciotta Alle Erbe, Rye Grass-Aged
A classic Italian herb blend. Thyme, rosemary, sage, basil, marjoram and oregano folded through the paste — resinous and peppery notes to the fore, softened by the creamy lactic tang beneath. Chilli builds slowly at the finish. Rind's sweet-savoury umami echoes the herbs' earthier side.

Caciotta Alle Erbe, Alpine Hay-Aged
The same classic herb blend, aged in the high Alps. Same slow-building chilli warmth, but here the alpine hay's floral sweetness draws out the basil and marjoram — a lighter, sweeter profile than the rye grass version, with the creamy lactic base still underneath.

Caciotta con Pepe
In the Italian pepe tradition. Creamy, lactic-tangy paste laced with pink peppercorn's fruity sweetness and allspice's warm spice, against the woody heat of mixed ground peppercorns. A smattering of chilli flakes builds a mild, deep heat through the finish.

Caciotta al Pistacchio
A nod to Sicily's famous pistachios. Buttery, nutty pistachio against a sharp, pecorino-style tang, cut by the tangy pop of yellow mustard seed. Sweet and sharp in contrast, with real bite underneath.

Caciotta al'Aglio e Cippolina A rustic Italian favourite. Heavy garlic and chive charge through the paste — pungent, sulfurous garlic rounded out by the cheese's fat, with chive's fresh, oniony green threading through. A sharp tang builds on the earthy notes for a bright finish.

Scamorza
A mozzarella cousin from Southern Italy. Firm, dense and faintly elastic, aged and dried for deeper, more complex savoury notes. Still mild and milky-sweet, with a light lactic tang and a clean, quiet aroma.

Scamorza Affumicata
Scamorza, given a smoky twist. Firm, dense and faintly elastic, smoked over apple and cherrywood. Mild and milky-sweet, carrying a soft, fruit-toned smokiness — excellent with a glass of whiskey and a slice of sweet apple.

Queso Mantecoso / Havarti
Devised in the southernmost coastal town of Punta Arenas, Chile. Buttery, semi-soft and springy, dotted with small irregular holes. Fresh-cut grass and hay notes from pasture-grazed milk lead, backed by a creamy, buttery sweetness and a light tang.

Stracchino Sott'olio
Typical of the Calabrian coast. Bright, considerable acidity up front, with a slow curl of chilli heat beneath. Garlic and herb-laced oil carries the whole thing, spring onion cuts through with a fresh green snap, and sundried tomato lends only a whisper of sweetness. Lively, layered, coastal.

Imeruli
A staple cheese from Georgia, at the crossroads of Asia and Europe. One of the oldest styles of coagulated cheese known. Soft, with a light spring; fresh, milky and brined, bright and lightly acidic, with a clean salt-lactic tang and a faint sweetness beneath.

Isfahan: Fromage Tartiner with Gin-Infused Barberries, Pistachios and Nutmeg
Inspired by the gardens of Isfahan, Iran. Soft, slightly crumbly base carrying gin-infused barberries' sharp tartness, buttery pistachio, and a warm curl of nutmeg. A juniper whisper threads through the whole.

Andalus: Fromage Tartiner with Marmalade, Fennel and Pink Peppercorns
Evoking the citrus groves of Andalusia, Spain. Soft, spreadable base carrying marmalade's bittersweet citrus tang, a gentle aniseed lift from fennel, and pink peppercorn's fruity, mild heat. Bright and sun-warmed throughout.

Teochitlan: Very Spicy Fromage Tartiner with Candied Jalapeños
Inspired by the fire markets of Mexico. Very spicy, spreadable base built on candied jalapeño's sticky, sweet heat and the smoky depth of toasted ground peppers. Sweet, hot, and smouldering.

Mistral Gorse: Fromage Tartiner with Juniper, Rosemary and Lemon Zest
Evoking the windswept garrigue of Provence. Soft, spreadable base carrying juniper's resinous bite, rosemary's piney depth, and a bright lift of lemon zest. Herbal, citrus-edged, windswept.

Cealc: Fromage Tartiner
Named for the chalk itself. A plain, spreadable base — clean and milky, with a light lactic tang and quiet sweetness. Simple and smooth, true to the curd.

Taleggio-Style Washed Rind
Where the Alps meet Lombardy. Washed rind, pungent and savoury, wrapped around a firmer, more structured paste than the classic. Small holes through the rind carry a nutty, faintly sweet Alpine note from the propionic culture.

I’ve got a set of fromage tartinér/chèvre style cheeses I made for an earlier cheese board.

After the dust settled I vac packed the leftovers and they’ve sat in a 4C fridge for about a month.

Unpacked them today (half are off to a Lancastrian golf club annual dinner for a 100 souls) and half are intended to impress a renowned British cheesemonger, author and media personality who’s stopping by tomorrow after a dinner event in London fell unfortunately fell through to talk about the history of the Isles through the lens of cheese, god help him, to just Jo, I and the barking mad sprogs.

He’s kindly agreed to taste some of my cheeses and tell me how to do a bit better.

I tried the tartinér and they’re all weirdly bitter. Anyone have any ideas why and what I might do to fix them?

5.3 kg wheel of Swaledale. Just bandage wrapped in beef tallow.

I'm in the middle of an experiment at the moment, which I'll post about in stages as I get there doing a Wensleydale, Swaledale and Cotherstone to compare side by side. All have the traditional dale's no-scald make and cut about the same. The main difference is the acidification curve and press weight, but they're supposed to be wildly different cheeses. Swaledale has a PDO but went extinct and is now operated commercially and with no public recipe by a single producer and Cotherstone (made in Durham rather than Yorkshire - but technically still a Dales cheese) went extinct in the 50's and was revived by a single family who still keep their recipe a commercial secret. I've used historical records and interpolated from their organoleptic properties.

SWALEDALE — Traditional PDO Framework

Ingredients

Milk

Calcium Chloride (0.3 ml/L effective volume)

Bulk Mesophilic Starter MA4002 (0.1-0.2 ml/L effective volume)

Rennet (45 IMCU/L)

Brine (85° SAL)

1. Heat milk to 28 °C. Add Calcium Chloride and Bulk Starter at 0.1 ml/L. Ripen for 2 hours (Target pH: 6.60).

2. Add rennet (45 IMCU/L). Coagulate 45–60 min to achieve a clean break (3.5x multiplier).

3. Cut curds large (about 2 cm / broad bean size).

4. Stir gently for 40 min maintaining exactly 28 °C. Apply zero heat (no scald).

5. Pitch curds 10 min, then drain whey completely. Curd must be sweet (Target pH: 6.40–6.45).

6. Cut curd mass into large blocks (approx 30x15 cm) and drain 10 min.

7. Cut into smaller blocks and stack two-high for 20 min to texturize (Target pH: ~6.30).

8. Break blocks by hand into walnut-sized nuggets. Do not add salt. Hoop immediately un-salted at strict target pH 6.20–6.25.

9. Press under light weight (1–2x final wheel weight) at ambient room temperature (18–20 °C) for 18 hours total.

10. Turn once in the moulds after the first 4 hours of pressing.

11. Remove from press at terminal pH 5.20–5.30.

12. Submerge in 85° SAL brine. Brining duration is calculated at 1 hour per 450g of curd weight per inch of wheel height.

13. Age 3–4 weeks at 10–12 °C to develop natural grey-green mould rind.

As you know I had my pals over for a cheeseboard yesterday. With only 40 days to prepare and a shortage of cheese, I had to improvise and make younger cheeses.

On the table:

Flavoured chèvre’s: (L-R B-T)
Andalus: Pink peppercorn, toasted fennel and Seville marmalade
Chinook: Black tea, orange blossom and candied jalapeño
Cealc: Pure goats milk Chèvre
Poivre: Crushed black pepper
Simoom: Toasted sesame, orange blossom honey, coated in Sumac
Foehn: Ground toasted juniper berries, mint and lemon zest
Féo: 50/50 Goat and cow milk soft cheese
Tramontane: Bkack garlic, toasted crushed pumpkin seeds, smoked sea salt.

Scamorza Affumigato
Cheshire over acidified
Hard goats milk cheese courtesy u/mikekchar
Scamorza
Ragusano
Caciotta Ubrica
Caciotta Ubrica lo Vin Jaune
Caciotta

Left board
Lancashire
Applewood smoked cheddar
Coconut Gouda
Imeruli
Butterkase
Gruyère
Port Derby
Helvetic Tallegio

Right Board
Bottom row aged in rye grass
Caciotta
Caciotta with red peppers
Top row aged in Aloine floral hay
Caciotta
Caciotta with red peppers

Flor Azul Blue
Petit Brie
Stracchino
Kasseri

Also Shown:
Baked Ricotta with pepper and truffles
Whipped Ricotta and Gorogonzola with Fogs simmered in Balsamic syrup
Ricotta and Saffron croquettes with mozzarella Centers

Not shown
Lemon Ricotta Drizzle cake with limoncello drizzle
Ricotta, Date, Pistachio Torta spiced with Szechuan peppers and bitter orange dust and served with a strawberry coulis.

And because we’re British and can’t help it an utterly cheese unrelated Victoria Sponge.

Not that many cheese varieties and a lot of making do and tweaking through adjuncts and post Affinage. Still do-able and appreciated though. :-)

Another young but relatively punchy make. Just out of the heating room and finished two days of salting.

Simple and fast, now in vac pack till it’s ready for service.

Big thank you to Todd for putting me in touch with this one

Hi all. So just when I thought I was getting the hang of this pasta filata thing, I’m learning I absolutely am not even within a million miles of getting the hang of it.

I’ve just taken delivery of a couple of wedges that turn my big green egg into a pizza oven. I’d also decided to make the Stracchino later in the week as it will only keep for a week and I don’t need it till Friday so - I had some milk on my hands.

I decided to give the pizza oven a test drive on Friday, so, quick mozzarella seemed the order of the day. This is the recipe on cheesemaking.com for 30 minute mozzarella.

It uses 7.5g of citric acid per gallon and 62.5 IMCU/l of coagulant.

As you can see the damned thing turned out perfectly. The stretch was the most elastic I’ve had in ages, the paste was supple, the curds were solid, far superior to my cultured efforts even now.

What’s worse, the drained curd cubes were really moist and soft into the heat stretch and the ph read 5.48.

What on earth is going on?! All we’ve done is swap one acidifier with another. Why is this better? Have I been reading the pH all wrong? I’ve read the curds should resemble cheddared curds before cutting to stretch. These were much more like Tomme curds.

What am I doing wrong??!!

Still pushing for a decent cheese board on the 19th. It’s going to be tight.

Decided a Scamorza was the way to go. Is it just me being unable to shape them (a true thing) or are these just a little err… visceral in shape? I’m a little hesitant to display them on a clean living, upstanding sub such as this in case they cause all sorts of quickened breathing and trembling of the knees, not to mention possible outrage of the sensibilities.

I’m feeling a lot more comfortable with Pasta Filata cheeses in general now. Two major factors, trusting and checking the pH meter and cheating and using the microwave on low temp to get a steady heat without breaking the protein chains.

These ones were milk, cream and SMP and local tincture. Worked fine though I wasn’t using gloves so could have stretched more but my hands got sore.

The heads have steadily dropped off them so I’m not sure if they needed more stretching to strengthen them, or just a thicker neck and less weight or ribbon rather than twine to tie with or I just stuffed up the shaping.

Still they’re hanging out at the moment and hopefully should be good for next Friday.

I’m under the cosh trying to get cheeses done that may just be ready to serve on the 19th, although I recognise that compared to my usual attempts this is going to be a relatively scant table.

I’ve never made this style before and I’m certain my Teutonic pals would be twisting their lederhosen into knots in horror, but I’ve been keen to start on the German/Austrian style variants of cheeses as an examination of the tradition of Abendbrot that tends to derive much higher consumption of cheese in German speaking compared to anglophone nations - obviously there was a time we shared broadly the same cultural and culinary practices and I'd really like the tradition of a small meal of good bread, well made cheese and some meat and fruit, with perhaps a small cup of wine to wash it down to become more widespread here again.

Anyway, this was a minor variation on Jim Wallace’s recipe from New England cheese making (I added a bit of LH to my culture and used my own Meso and Thermo). I did the unwashed version to keep it traditional, which meant really big curds and very little stir for syneresis. The curds were absolutely sodden going into the mould, and lost nearly 60% of their height during the drain phase.

I missed the bit where he suggested using a weight to press in the early stage, so I suspect there was some case hardening and although it did fine under its own weight, there are areas where it clearly just folded over itself, including a big gap on the side.

Taking the phrase butterkäse a little literally, I’ve sealed the gaps with butter and it’s now aging to let the geo do its thing.

I’m still excited to try it, but acknowledge this may not be at all authentic.

On the plus side, inspired by Jak I’ve managed to keep the curds reasonably intact through the make. That’s practically right before hooping.

Todd (u/BestReality_6718) amazingly generously shared his recipe for a coconut Gouda based on the ones he’s made and shared here in the past.

This is my attempt out of the brine and into aging. It will be a short affinage, as I have some friends visiting on the 19th and it needs to be ready for then.

It’s aged for a few days already as the make was at the start of this week.

The curds were a little smaller than intended, so I need to learn to be slower and more delicate with my stir obviously. At the same time, they don’t look and feel quite cooked enough, but that could be because of the coconut milk.

Smells a bit of coconut, and will report back when we cut in to it. Really looking forward to it!

It’s the hottest day of the year so far so I obviously decided to do Pizza. I mean on the big green egg so technically a barbecue..

That means I got to test and can share the results of my Mozzarella make from earlier this week.

I followed u/cheeseslady (Gianaclis Caldwell)’s instructions from her book scrupulously. I used a pH meter and pH strips side by side. I used fresh (from the supermarket, let’s not get ahead of ourselves) milk and added nothing to it. I hovered and monitored at length. I sent my wife to do the kids pickups with an iou rather than be out by 5 minutes.

And it worked!!! Not my finest effort, but certainly my finest in the traditional method. I could have given it a few more minutes and a bit more ripening to really get a stretch and more syneresis - but it was and is a a really nice soft pasta filata cheese.

Things I was doing wrong - I’d read Gianaclis’ temps of 32C for a Thermo culture and a lot of cheeseforum comments that suggested the cheese was slow to acidify - I assumed this was a typo.

After over acidifying half a dozen batches it’s clear to me that the low temps for a thermophilic allow a more measured ripening at the tail end when a precipitate drop on pH can be disastrous.

I was also using slightly hard water to calibrate with and was off 0.2 pH points on everything.

I was so convinced I knew all the science behind the process and was arrogant enough to question a tried process on frankly, hearsay - well a reminder to be much more measured and scientific in the future and to not make assumptions without doing the work first.

I’ll progressively re introduce variables in future makes to see if any of them make any difference to the outcome.

This was so supposed to be a nice easy make. 34L of milk, 1.8L double cream, 2.7kg slim milk powder.

Gornall method. Over two days. Literally just 30 minutes stir, no scald.

The spots are where I scorched the milk on one of the days and couldn't be bothered to re-do.

Honestly this was just too big to manage easily. It was 9kg post milling, has pressed for 48 hours. I needed three place mats to wrap around because of the size of the mould. The curds never got below the rim of the mould. I also forgot I was low temp pasteurising the SMP on day 2, and left them at 65C for about the hours. The curds were very soft and shattered easily.

If I'm going to make at this scale, I need bigger moulds and more time /attention to detail.

Otherwise fine, well see how it turns out...

Hi all. So Jo has been on at me to make an applewood Smoked style cheese for some time. The commercial stuff is processed high cream cheddar, melted drown at which point smoke flavor is added and the cheese is reformed.

Obviously I didn't fancy any of that. Some research suggested that the style was more akin to, and suited to a double Gloucester, than a cheddar. I'm happy to use liquid smoke though, as I can't imagine messing about with sawdust and stuff for hours on end.

To emulate the Jersey milk, I added cream to take the mix to 6% butterfat. Started with 34L of whole milk. 1.8L 50% cream and a mixed meso, targeting 5.45 at milling. Scald to 35-36C. Single layer cheddaring. I wasn't expecting this kind of jump in yield. This is a kilo more than last week's cheddar with the same milk but no extras.

I've learned there's a thing called cold slump where there isn't enough free calcium to support the extra cream and the cheese starts fine but collapses under its own weight in Affinage like my old Wensleydale did. Although I added extra calcium chloride and cut/stirred to barley grain size as opposed to pea size curds at draining, I'm still a little concerned. On the plus side?, an hours cheddaring turned into three as the curing took way longer than expected. I'll be giving it the requisite paprika wash when it's dry.

I'm quite proud of the form factor on this, had to use some flexible PVC table mats as a guide above the mould and press slowly to keep it in shape. The liquid smoke was added at the same time as the salt, and has given a little marbling effect.

I've never aged a wheel of this size, or for that matter, this shape. I don't think I have a vacuum bag large enough to pack it if things go wrong. Any advice from you great and good of cheese on how to manage this would be hugely appreciated.

Hi guys. So I was trying to make Gianaclis Caldwell’s Brie de Melun (Lactic set bloomy rind cheese) but thought I’d substitute goats milk for the cows milk. I used 14L of St. Helen’s Farm, homogenised, pasteurised goats milk.

I’ve had numerous problems with the set of this milk before, but they seem to have a lock on the supermarket section so it’s hard to find a substitute, and when I did, I still had some problems with coagulation, so to be honest I’m not sure if it’s them or me.

In this case, I added if anything, a little extra rennet and the standard 0.5% meso. The recipe says 18-24 hours for the set. I checked after 12 and the pH was already down to 4.2 and the curd was a runny mess, the consistency of buttermilk

I’ve got it draining now, but I’m not sure if I’ll get anything at all tell you the truth, and as it’s dropped to 4.1, I’m not even sure the Geo or PC will find a home.

Do you folks know if goats milk acidifies noticeably faster than cows milk? Could I have done something else wrong?

Thanks very much!

I felt like I needed a bit of a win, so went ahead and made a Cheddar again. Long make as usual, especially since I under-dosed the culture a little at 0.5% so cheddaring down to 5.3 took more like 3.5 hours than two.

This was all pasteurised, homogenized milk, different to my usual Milk, Skim Milk Powder and Cream mix that allows me to work in a smaller pot. The yield was a little higher, especially for a Cheddar, at 3.9kg but 11% is about right post press. Not my best press, had to blitz it at 150kg for a final overnight past the 24 hrs, to get it to seal, but I'm wary of over-pressing early after the last Wensleydale, which trapped whey and wound up proteolysing too much.

It's not the right form factor, this is my second hand commercial Gouda mold, and it presses right down. I'm not sure how to get more height on it, perhaps some kind of sleeve around the mold is the way to go initially. That will affect post make flavour, but hopefully not too much - I suspect it will wind up sitting somewhere between an artisanal and block Cheddar in flavour intensity and paste structure.

As it goes, other than the fact that I don't have a container/sink large enough to fit the 50L pot so this was managed on the hob and had a longer warm to temp - it was pretty easy to manage, and a less fussy clean up. I also got 1.1kg of a nice Ricotta with just the right moisture from the whey having held back 4L for bread making so that's a bonus.

This wheel is for my Swiss pal Andy, who after some skepticism (Donna, his wife was a cordon bleu Chef and was a bit bemused that Cheddar could be a board cheese. Not so in Switzerland or her native Jamaica) loved it. I'll age it to rind if it goes well and then vac pack for the balance of the year, or will PVA if it looks like it doesn't want to hold.

So far so good. Will keep you guys posted.

Like Ari and his Beaufort, Mozzarella’s becoming my white whale. Funnily enough, I’ve never failed the fast acidified version and I can’t seem to get this right.

The latest came close, but was still over acidified, and as a result didn’t really stretch much. Just about melts but that’s it.

These are, from the top left, a dried and blued labneh style cheese I’ve posted before, long, pronounced yoghurt tang and umami follow. A creamy cows milk spreading cheese, Gianaclis’ Kasseri, but with an annato wash because why not? (also bottom left sliced) and a Cheshire when I realised I’d overshot and didn’t bother with the filata at all. Vac packed as it was over even for Cheshire and had started to crack.

The Kasseri tastes like a nice version of a Mediterranean cheese but without that distinctive filata texture and pliability to the paste.

It may be that because I use skim milk powder, cream and a pasture tincture as a UF replacement to supplement my milk, acidification is just really fast and I’m giving myself too short a window. I’m going to try plain milk next.

Ho hum… but I haven’t forgotten you guys, I’m just currently too ashamed to opine on anything. I’ve got a few Territorials to produce as we’re pretty much out and some bloomies. Then it’s back to the drawing board….