I’ve been making a Colby with bacon bits for quite a while, and it goes over real well around here.  I’ve also used diced ham - my sister’s favorite.  So last week I made a “JackHam’r,” which is Monterey Jack with diced ham.  I took a taste of it before it went to age, and it’s fantastic!  Today I’m going to be making a “Jackeroni,” Monterey Jack with diced pepperoni.  I’m looking forward to sampling this one.  On the down side, I made a Colby with salami that wasn’t all that great.  Maybe I used too much salami - the flavor is really strong.  Should make a great grilled sandwich, though.

Anyway, I’m open to ideas for other additives.  Got some ideas?

Sounds great !! Pics ???

OK, Neil, OK. . . .  You always did hound us for pics.

lol, nice looking.
As someone said, show pics or it never happened

do you have to do anything to add the meat to the cheese? Bacon sounds delicious but will it go rancid, do you dehydrate or cure the meats you add?

So far, I’ve only used ham or bacon.  For bacon, I use commercial bacon bits found in the salad toppings section of the super market.  Since it’s already sterile, I don’t have to do anything to it.  With the ham, I use diced deli ham, and I haven’t had to do anything with it either.  Both come out well, with no off flavors, molds, etc. Even after aging for 4 months, no problem.  When I do peppers, I steam the diced peppers to sterilize - no problems there, either.  Oh, I did try salami, but the sausage was too strongly flavored for my taste.  I’d suggest cutting the amount down to at least 1/2 lb to a 5 lb batch.

thanks, my husband is very enthused about the idea of bacon in cheese. So far I have a goat gouda, swiss and a parmesean that are shrink wrapped in my wine fridge, it’s the waiting game til they have aged long enough to see if they are good cheese or gross cheese. I have ordered 4 gallons of raw milk for this weekend and just got some flora danica so I am wanting to get more of my cheese basics down, but I am starting to think about adding spices to the curds like cracked pepper, to see how that goes.
Christie

Hey Christie,
By shrink wrapped do you mean with something like saran wrap, or are you talking about vacuum sealing?  If it’s just shrink wrapped, watch out for mold.  If the swiss is finished rising, you could vacuum it.  I heartily recommend vacuum for aging cheese.  It eliminates a lot of problems.  BTW gouda is good in just 2 months, so you don’t have to wait too long.

Foodsaver, sorry my old retail background is showing, they are vacuum sealed, I have been turning them and checking for anything that looks like mold but they look ok, i think.
Christie

A good salt rub on the outside can reduce allot of problems, I like doing that before sealing.

do you rub with straight salt, I was wiping them with salt brine before I put them in the food saver.
christie

Salt brine gives you the “Washed Rind”, it turns orange and changes the cheese. I just used fine sea salt, rock salt is fine too.

thanks I will try that, I read somewhere that vacuum sealing keeps you from having to worry about humidity, so that seemed the way to go since I already had the foodsaver for my dehydrated stuff. This is going to be my winter hobby, I drive my husband crazy when I don’t have the garden to work in and we have both become cheese snobs, so it seemed like a good fit and since he has done homebrewing we had almost everything i needed except the bacteria/rennet.  I bought the controllers for temperature and humidity before I figured out the unused wine fridge did most of the work for me, but the fridge we have will only hold about 16 cheeses at the most, so I am going to have to get a used fridge sooner or later. You Tube has been helpful but doesn’t always explain everything even when you see it being done.
Christie

This guy has lots of nice info.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE31MqUy6nIMJ_f8y4R3_AA

I use regular canning salt for both my cheese and for rubbing prior to sealing.  Cheap and readily available.

When you need to increase the size of your aging fridge, I recommend a freezer rather than a refrigerator.  Unless you can find a refrigerator with no freezer compartment, which wastes space and creates much too much condensation.  Pawn shops and used furniture stores usually are a good source for finding what you want at a reasonable price.  Even better if you have a fried that has one they don’t want - they might volunteer it to you in exchange for a cheese every once in a while.

I agree with the boredom with a lack of garden in the Winter.  So I built a greenhouse for Winter growing.

I have been keeping my eye open for fridge or freezer, my family is still a little put off by the whole “raw milk” deal so more cheese for us, except for my boss, who is an misplaced italian from NY, keeps hitting me up for ricotta and figs.