I opened a pepper jack this week that spent 3 months in the cave. It was really good. It had a good cheese flavor to it and a nice pepper bite. At the end of the taste you got a nice amount of creamy coming across. I was impressed. Pepper jack that I buy at the store is not that good. It is more rubbery.

Then I opened a stirred curd cheddar that also spent 3 months in the cave. It was good too! It had a good cheddar flavor to it, although it was a more a mild flavor but it was still obviously cheddar. It had a nice creamy texture to it as well.

I have finally impressed myself! I didn’t expect home made cheese to be better than what I am used to getting at the store, but it was. I guess I didn’t realize that the mass produced store cheese is not made the same way. If you see a cheese making show on TV they always show it made like I would expect, but you never see an American cheese making factory on there, like Kraft. They always show a dairy farmer, or a farmer in Switzerland or something.

So what’s your favorite cheese recipe to make? The one that impresses you the most.

Thats the first thing u learn in that its way better then “commercial” Cheese, wierd but true. They dont take care like we do.
Bloomed and swiss is still my fav.

I haven’t made bloomed cheese yet, but I have made Swiss and was very impressed. I want to make Swiss tomorrow. Today I will have to go buy milk. My traditional cheddars have not had any flavor as of yet. I am just going to leave them in the cave until Christmas and see if that helps. I am going to eat my stirred curd cheddar today. I’m thinking eggs and cheese, or toast and cheese. Those things should not ruin the flavor of the cheese.

I went to the brew store today to buy a beer recipe. The man who owns the store, Doug, used to make cheese. I took him some of mine and he said that the texture of pepper jack was just like his was when he was using store bought milk. He said that it improved a lot when he started using raw milk. I guess now I need to try raw milk. I wanted to figure out how to make cheese before I started using the expensive milk. I figured if I screwed it up, it would cost half as much.

Tomorrow I will make Swiss cheese from store bought milk, and next weekend I will make Swiss cheese from raw milk. They will get ready at the same time and I can taste them together.

Sounds great, it is worth noting that keeping swiss for 6 months will greatly improve the taste, it makes a big difference.