I made some Swiss cheese with caraway seeds and it is wonderful. As soon as I cut into it and we tasted it I went ahead and made more because I could tell that I would be needing it.
Ever since then I’ve been thinking about putting Cumin seeds in cheese. I make a lot of pepper jack that we suck up really fast, and I was thinking about trying one with cumin seeds. It seems like jalopeno’s and cumin seeds would go well together.

So I was reading in my Tim Smith book last night and saw a cheese called Edam and there was a note off to the side that says that it is common to put cumin seeds in it and that changes it to be called Leiden. The recipe in Tim Smith’s book adds cumin and caraway seeds and I think that sounds great. In another book I have the recipe only has cumin seeds in it.

Have any of you ever had Leiden? I suspect that Herman has because it says that it comes from the Dutch town of Leiden. Did it have cumin and caraway or just cumin?

The Edam cheese is round in the picture but it says to put it in a mold and press it at 20lbs. In my Mary Karlin book she says to wrap it in butter muslin and shape it into a round ball and hang it to drain. I’m going to do that because I want it to be round.

The recipes all call for low fat milk, so since I can’t get raw milk today I bought some 2% milk at the grocery store to use. I have never made milk from 2% milk before but that is what both books call for.

I think I’ve decided to press it now instead of going for the round. I’d rather have it knitted properly than not. I went to the other forum and found some stuff about Leiden. Nothing I found says to put caraway seeds in it, other than Tim Smith. I think I am going to use just cumin this time.

Hello,  I make Leiden fairly regularly now,  with my new Jersey cow,  Betsy, producing more milk than I can handle.  One drying on the counter as I type this.  I only use the cumin seeds,  I’ve had commercially produced with both but did not care for the caraway seeds at all.  WE love what we call ( Herman, don’t laugh at my attempt of Dutch spelling)  pigjes Kaas.  Good luck with it.  P.S.  how many gallons of milk are you using and how long are you pressing for at what weight?  Still trying to get a good ratio of pressing weight to how long I’m pressing cuz I use a homemade stainless steel bowl with holes drilled in it as my mold.  I end up with an odd looking cheese,  but don’t really care about how they look, just how they taste.  If you want to share your recipe I’d love to look it over and try improve my cheese from yours….

I love to share! I will post the recipe in the recipe section but for the pressing, I have a 6” mold. I used 2 gallons of milk. I was going to press it in my 5” mold but it didn’t fit so I had to get the 6” mold. It probably would have fit in the 5” mold after I pressed it for a few minutes, but it aggravates me to try and mound it up high with the cheese cloth holding it on while I try to get it in the press so that it will squish down and fit.

The first press I did 25 lbs. The recipe says 20 lbs for a 4” mold so I know I didn’t recalculate the weight for my mold, but that’s what I did. 25 lbs for 30 minutes with a 6” mold. Right now it’s in the whey cooking for 30 minutes. Then I am going to press it at 90 lbs for 6 hours because the recipe says to use 60lbs on a 4” mold. I know that’s not calculated right either, technically 60 lbs on a 4” mold is 135lbs on a 6” mold but that sounds like a lot to me. I don’t want dry cheese.

I was raised in a trailer park in a small town. Cheese to us was always that Kraft American cheese slices or cheddar. When I started making cheese I knew a bit more about cheese, but I have learned about so many cheeses that I never even heard of until I bought cheese recipe books.

I should not have used the 6” mold because the 2lb cheese came out big around and a little flat. I knew that, I did that once before a long time ago, but I guess I forgot. The cheese is still good, it pressed nicely and is now in the brine, but I should have mounded the curds up as high as I could and pressed them in the 5” mold like I was supposed to do.

Maybe I will make this one again next weekend. I always want to make a new cheese twice. It seems like the first time something always happens, like I put it in the 6” mold and now it’s a little flat.

My husband has loaned me his beer fermenting freezer to use as a cheese cave until after Christmas. Otherwise I would have to stop making cheese because my cave is full. He says that he can ferment his beer in the laundry room in this weather. The low tonight is 54 degrees.

My Leiden that I pressed in the 6” mold. It’s a bit flat. I have another one in the press now, this one in a 4-1/2” mold.

This is the one I made on Sunday and pressed in the right size mold. It looks good.

Kbjug - 08 December 2012 08:28 PM

( Herman, don’t laugh at my attempt of Dutch spelling)  pigjes Kaas.

LOL (sorry), it’s “pitjes kaas”, which stands for “cheese with little seeds”.

@Tammy: Sorry I didn’t respond earlier, been very busy with other things. I’m not exactly from Leiden, but living between Leiden and Gouda. Never mind, it’s all close by.
I use only cumin, as does the original recipe of Leiden. But originally skimmed milk is used and a part of the curd is mixed with cumin, the other part is used for the outside of the cheese, to prevent cumin sticking through the rind. I use whole milk and mix all the curd, to prevent cumin sticking out I coat the cheese at least 3 times. I read your recipe and I think it’s pretty accurate. Don’t know if I ever posted images of Leiden here, but here they are.

Very nice T !!