CHEESE MAKING NOTES
QUESO BLANCO
Flavoring: This cheese process is very tolerant to change. Feel free to add spices and/or peppers in the milk during heating, cooling, or draining. We like to drop an ice cube or two of minced hot peppers from the summer garden to each gallon of milk. This brings great heat and color to the cheese. Citrus juice can also be substituted for the vinegar. This can add a citrus note to the flavor (albeit slight).
Salting: All Queso cheeses will need salted in order to draw out the flavor. Salt the curd when straining. Add salt to taste at this point.
Hanging time: Fresh Queso can be strained and served immediately, or hung for hours to further dry out the cheese. It can also be pressed into the form of your choosing.
How to eat: Use it as a garnish on salads, meats, and pizzas, or grab some simple crackers and enjoy it straight up!
Salting: All Queso cheeses will need salted in order to draw out the flavor. Salt the curd when straining. Add salt to taste at this point.
Hanging time: Fresh Queso can be strained and served immediately, or hung for hours to further dry out the cheese. It can also be pressed into the form of your choosing.
How to eat: Use it as a garnish on salads, meats, and pizzas, or grab some simple crackers and enjoy it straight up!
FROMAGE BLANC
This simple lactic cheese is best left to simplicity. We prefer to use it like a cream cheese for bagels and sandwiches. This cheese will pair well with fruit and spice; so don’t be afraid to utilize it as a savory or sweet compliment.
FETA
If you like your Feta dry like we do, you will spend a few extra days draining whey from your Feta as it ages in your regular fridge. Be careful not to over salt this cheese! The recipe in Karlin’s book says “Tablespoons” and it should be teaspoons. The result of that mistake had me wheezing in the kitchen after my initial bite.
CHEVRE
We love a good Chevre. It’s a lactic cheese, so it will need to set overnight. In a Cheese Desert, Chevre is the only thing people know when you say “Goat Cheese”. So, this cheese makes our “Desert Patrons” happy. It’s a mild and chalky cheese with good tang. It’s excellent on sandwiches, burgers, pizza, salads, or just read/crackers. We love to roll our chevre in Herbs de Provence.
MANCHEGO
You’ll want a cheese press for this one. We’ve just started this cheese, but the initial process is straightforward (meaning only 5 hours to make – prior to brining and aging). The recipe we used called for an 8” Tomme mold. This has our Manchego a little thin (2” thick). We do use Lipase in ours for more diversity in flavor. We are used to tall Manchego’s that have more width between the rinds. We are tempted to work a double batch next time (4 gallons) and mold in the same 8” Tomme to get a better weight and thickness (or use a 5” Tomme next time with 2 gallons).
Affinage: Brine for 6-8 hours in medium brine in a shoebox style cheese container (flip once). It will float in the saltwater. Store in a container with slightly open lid to achieve 80-85% humidity. Turn daily for 10-60 days. Get rid of unwanted mold with vinegar/brine solution and cheesecloth segment.
Affinage: Brine for 6-8 hours in medium brine in a shoebox style cheese container (flip once). It will float in the saltwater. Store in a container with slightly open lid to achieve 80-85% humidity. Turn daily for 10-60 days. Get rid of unwanted mold with vinegar/brine solution and cheesecloth segment.
REBLECHON
Use a double boiler for this cheese! Be patient with temperature.
Affinage: Remember, cross contamination is the largest concern here. For each batch of two 1-pound cheeses we use just a few ounces of medium saturated brine (poured into a small dish) and a simple square of cheesecloth. Despite others saying you can reserve your wash for up to a week, we throw out the cheesecloth squares and any used brine after each wash.
Some recipes call for washing both sides of the cheese and others only ask to wash the upturned side. We are having better results lightly washing both sides. This prohibits the Geo from taking over the orange bloom and seems to keep the cheese rind in better balance. I find that keeping the cave container closed keeps my humidity in check, but for the first week or two, the moisture needs wiped out of the container daily (even though the cheese is being washed and turned every other day). Without daily checks for moisture, unwanted mold creeps in.
When the cheese looks right, it is right. Stop the every-other-day-washing and wrap. Let the cheese finish aging in the regular fridge for two weeks. Don’t stack them on top of each other or stack other items on them. They will squish!
Eat anytime within two weeks. We vacuum seal our extra Reb’s and get an additional 2-3 weeks of life out of them.
Affinage: Remember, cross contamination is the largest concern here. For each batch of two 1-pound cheeses we use just a few ounces of medium saturated brine (poured into a small dish) and a simple square of cheesecloth. Despite others saying you can reserve your wash for up to a week, we throw out the cheesecloth squares and any used brine after each wash.
Some recipes call for washing both sides of the cheese and others only ask to wash the upturned side. We are having better results lightly washing both sides. This prohibits the Geo from taking over the orange bloom and seems to keep the cheese rind in better balance. I find that keeping the cave container closed keeps my humidity in check, but for the first week or two, the moisture needs wiped out of the container daily (even though the cheese is being washed and turned every other day). Without daily checks for moisture, unwanted mold creeps in.
When the cheese looks right, it is right. Stop the every-other-day-washing and wrap. Let the cheese finish aging in the regular fridge for two weeks. Don’t stack them on top of each other or stack other items on them. They will squish!
Eat anytime within two weeks. We vacuum seal our extra Reb’s and get an additional 2-3 weeks of life out of them.
VALENCAY
The Valencay is truly the most difficult cheese we make. The key to the Valencay is getting the right dryness in your cheese prior to ashing. Once ashed, the Geo takes over and begins to develop the rind. If the internal moisture level is too high, this cheese will build up too much ammonia and will turn to goo from the outside in. While still tasty, too much goo equals too much ammonia, and the ammonia taste will eventually become off-putting.
Affinage: As a lactic cheese, we give it 12-18 hours of set time at 72 degrees Fahrenheit. We then drain away the whey and mold on a draining rack. We turn it every 12 hours for 48 hours before ashing. After ashing, we find that the rind growth is too aggressive at room temp so we begin caving. Rind formation is typically complete in 5-10 days. To control the rind, I give it a light pat as I turn each cheese daily (turn daily and wipe out excess moisture). I have read that this is a bit of trade trick in France, and the result for us is a more controlled mold growth with a tendency to gray rather than bright white exterior.
I am finding that leaving the lid open early on in the cave helps the cheese to develop a tighter/healthier rind. High humidity will sabotage this cheese, so we end up taking exhaustive measures to keep the airflow up during development.
Our travels to Europe allowed us to taste the real deal and we wanted that same end result showing up here at home. We’re nearly right on now with our Valencay, and our latest batch is superb! See the Cheeses or Pictures page for some great before and after shots!
Affinage: As a lactic cheese, we give it 12-18 hours of set time at 72 degrees Fahrenheit. We then drain away the whey and mold on a draining rack. We turn it every 12 hours for 48 hours before ashing. After ashing, we find that the rind growth is too aggressive at room temp so we begin caving. Rind formation is typically complete in 5-10 days. To control the rind, I give it a light pat as I turn each cheese daily (turn daily and wipe out excess moisture). I have read that this is a bit of trade trick in France, and the result for us is a more controlled mold growth with a tendency to gray rather than bright white exterior.
I am finding that leaving the lid open early on in the cave helps the cheese to develop a tighter/healthier rind. High humidity will sabotage this cheese, so we end up taking exhaustive measures to keep the airflow up during development.
Our travels to Europe allowed us to taste the real deal and we wanted that same end result showing up here at home. We’re nearly right on now with our Valencay, and our latest batch is superb! See the Cheeses or Pictures page for some great before and after shots!
Saint Marcellin
This cheese is a soft Cow's Milk disc that is finished in a ceramic crock. It's an 8 on The Foot Scale (that's pretty stinky!). It breaks down rather quick when ripe, so the window for eating is small. Because it's a soft cheese, it takes less rennet than most. I found that it needs a little longer to reach a clean break than our recipe suggested. We wait 14-16 hours. Karlin's book again appears to suggest too much salt for this cheese. I back it off by half and that seems to be plenty (if not too much).
Brought to you from deep within the Cheese Desert: Population 2 – Kelly Wensing & Tommy Reddicks