Third of december I made 2 Cambozola’s. That was the first cheese since summer that I made. Last weekend I cracked the Cambozola and I think it’s my best cheese until now. Creamy, soft, nice taste of the PR but not too strong, lovely. And last weekend I made 2.5 kg of Gouda (2x 1kg and 1 half a kilo) with “Greek herbs”. That’s a mix of garlic, paprika, cardemom and several others.
Next weekend I plan to make the same amount of Pepper Jack and I have a lot of other already planned, like Cabra al Vino, blue Stilton, maybe even Roche Baron and Epoisse. So, I’m back in business! And the rest of you? Because it’s awfully quite here!
I am still working on cheddar. I made 4lbs again this weekend and it knitted better than last weekend. I was happy while making it too. No temp problems at all. I seem to have figured out raising the temp of the water in relation to the curds. Finally! It went real smooth. I raised 2 degrees every 5 minutes just like the recipe said.
I have made a lot of pepper jack, we eat it real quick. It’s an easy one to make, but my first one molded pretty bad, I had to throw it out. Black hairy mold all over it. I haven’t had that problem since.
The gouda sounds good, I have not started using herbs yet.
If I can get raw milk again this week I think I am going to do cheddar one more time, that will be 3 weekends in a row. I almost have it knitting together properly, and I want to try again.
I’m having a bit of trouble getting back into the business myself. I just haven’t had too many weekends free from work. I was looking forward to doing a cheddar this weekend; and then I was scheduled to work again. Maybe next weekend.
Tammy, I wish I had your success with Jack cheese. Mine always turn out dry and crumbly. It’s just not my cheese to make, I guess.
I did manage to make another 4 lb Gouda a couple weeks ago, using my new press. It is in the cave now and looking good.
I have also now received my new pH meter and some fresh ingredients, so I’m raring to go.
I am doing traditional cheddar again this weekend. Last week it knitted better than the week before but I am hoping for even better today. I try to mill it down to small sizes, but I get tired of standing there cutting it up. I’ve got it smaller than what Ricki Carrol calls for, and I made sure to keep it warm, and I put it in hot stainless steel molds and I wrapped them with hot wet towels. I am going to press it the way Rich says he presses his instead of the way Ricki says to press in her book. She presses a lighter weight for 12 hours and then increases the weight for 24 hours. Rich said that he did a 15 minute, and then a 15 minute and then a 24 hour. I have recalculated his weights from the 6” mold to my 5” mold so I am hoping that it comes out perfect this time. My ph levels were right for draining the curd and salting the curd so I am all excited that maybe it will knit better this time.
good luck on this one Tammy. If you find that after 24 hrs it is still not quite what you are looking for, you can always continue to press it longer. It won’t hurt it any.
It knit smoothly on the sides but the top and bottom have cracks in them. I’m going to try again this weekend but I am going to mill it with the food processor, and then put it back in the warm pot to keep them warm again. I will try the longer pressing if it doesn’t work this time
Sounds like an awful lot of work. But still I envy you: Last weekend I couldn’t make my Pepper Jacks because my internet router broke down and I spend my whole weekend restoring my home network.
Also coming weekend I won’t be able to do anything with cheese. But after that…..
Nice looking cheese! Hermann, I’ve been thinking of making a Cambozola and wonder where you found the recipe? Or did you just adapt from a blue and a camembert recipe? I have considered treating the curds as with a stilton-style recipe and just spritzing on some p. candidum before putting it in the fridge, but if there’s a successful recipe out there somewhere I’d prefer to use it!
Happy cheesing,
Bobbie
(returned from a long hiatus from the forum, but making cheese all along- hi everyone!)
Welcome back!
I just followed the recipe for Camembert found in Tim Smith’s book. When I had filled the moulds for half the height, I just sprinkled some P.Roqueforti powder over the curd and then filled the moulds completely. Just at the moment the P.C. became visible, I punctured the cheeses to activate the P.R.
Excellent- I’ll try this. Thank you. I don’t have any of Tim Smith’s recipes, though I have Ricki Carroll’s book so I’ll try it with her camembert recipe and post as I see results. Come to think of it, I’m at the flipping stage of some “Stilton Style” blues from Ricki’s book, so I ought to take photos and post the process. Gives me something to do during those 15 minute intervals where it’s kind of hard to do anything else…
Take care,
Bobbie
