April 6th, 2013

Andrew:


Oddly enough, over the past 4 years the number Swiss folks involved with windward has been on the rise. :)

Recently a friend of Windward paid us a visit. While here, we got to talk shop about our parallel life as goat herds. He'd recently visited Switzerland and learn a simple, traditional style of hard aged goat cheese from a local cheese maker. Below is the gist of the recipe and process.


MM100 (a common mesophyllic starter) purchased from The New England Cheese Company

Ingredients:

Handy Equipment:


The Process


Mesophyllic bacteria thrive in a moderate range of temperatures of 85-100 degrees F

1.) CULTURING
heat milk to ~100 degrees F
add culture (1/8 teaspoon per gallon. For 5 gallon)
into the haybox for 1 hour



You don't need a lot of culture to make a gallons worth of cheese.

2.) RENETTING
add renet 1/2 teaspoon (Do not add additional heat)
dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
into the haybox 1 hour




3.) CUTTING THE CURD
After an hour you should have a big solid curd
cut the curd into large, evenly sized squares squares



Gentle, you dont want to break them up too much.

stir the cubes lightly to break them up a little bit.
into the Haybox ~20 minutes


4.) DILLUTING THE WHEY
remove approximately 3 cups of whey
add approximately the same amount of water @ 100 degrees F
into the haybox for ~20 minutes



Marc could not explain to me why this is done.

5.) STRAINING OUT THE WHEY
strain out whey with collandar
put the curds into the mold
put the mold into the collander inside pot
into the haybox for ~20 minutes



This mold/draining system worked really well. it all fit right back into the haybox.

remove the cheese and flip it over mold every 20 minutes or so. place the mold/collander/pot into the haybox in between flips to keep the whole thing warm. repeat the flipping 3-5 times.


this is what you should have at the end of all the flipping. an evenly compacted, relatively dry wheel of cheese. In our case, the cheese shrunk to about 1/3 the initial size of the curds place in the mold.
6.) BRINING
Put it in 100 percent warm brine
~30 minutes on each side allow to drain in the pot/collander for a few minutes before drying.


Cheese floating int bring

A traditional way to make brine of adequate strength is to fill a pot (one that's large enough to hold your cheese and then some) with warm water. Put in a potato, and add salt until the potato floats, exposing more than a quarter size portion of itself above the surface of the brine.


Floating potato in the brine to test the salt concentration.

7.) DRYING sit the brined cheese on first board over night.
come morning flip it over and put it on fresh board.
(Boards soak up moisture and need to be changed.
Flipping gives more uniform shape and drying)

The drying boards we used are ~6.5" x 18" X 3/4" rough-cut pine from our sawmill. They have no sign of mold on them, and were completely dry/cured for many years before when we started.

Pine boards are traditional for curing boards. The wood soaks up draining whey, while also whicking some of it off to the air, helping ot moderate the temperature and humidity around the cheese. More info on curing boards is available at the New England Cheesemaking Supply website. Using Wood for Aging Cheese

after 3 days the cheese should stop shedding notable amounts of water – coat with bees wax

8.) WAXING
Melt some cheese wax and apply several light coats around the cheese.

Here's a good reference for ways to wax the cheese, and things to think about. Waxing Cheese - New England Cheesemaking Supply


A waxed cheese, ready for curing!
9.) CURING
Optimal conditions for curing are a dark place with good air circulaiton, 52-56F temperature range and 85% moisture.
Low moisture is fine as well. It will result in denser, potentially more crumbly cheese.
This cheese should be aged at least three weeks.
The longer it ages, the more flavourful it can get.
It may also get harder and drier (like parmasean) with increased aging.

10.) ENJOY!