Cotswold cheese in progress

[passedpawn]

made it last week. I intentionally cut the curds too large, hoping to make a soft cheeses, but I overdid it and left too much whey in the curds, and the entire cheese pancaked two days after I removed from the mould. It's still about 1.5 - 2" thick, and seems to have the expected firmness, but I've never had that happen. Lesson learned!

Cotswold is an english pub cheese. It's soft (but not spreadable), and flavored with minced onions and chives. Perfect for topping crackers and washing down with german lager

I'll vac bag it soon and age it for a month or two, then hopefully remember to get a picture of it up here after I wedge it.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Awesome, passed! I know virtually nothing about English cheesemaking, though I love many English cheeses. Following with interest. Somewhere in my library is "The Cheeses and Wines of England and France, and IIRC it's got decent coverage of Irish whiskeys, too. You've inspired me to take a look.

Very cool, thanks for the thread. I had the same press, can't recall his name and sadly I believe he no longer produces them, right? Great little unit. I used it for tommes, mostly.

 

[passedpawn]

Awesome, passed! I know virtually nothing about English cheesemaking, though I love many English cheeses. Following with interest. Somewhere in my library is "The Cheeses and Wines of England and France, and IIRC it's got decent coverage of Irish whiskeys, too. You've inspired me to take a look.

Very cool, thanks for the thread. I had the same press, can't recall his name and sadly I believe he no longer produces them, right? Great little unit. I used it for tommes, mostly.

Yea, that was probably I that told you that (at least, I think I posted that here a month or two ago). His name is Bob Samuelson. Sturdy Press.

 

[passedpawn]

Made a Jarlsberg this morning. Will get pics up after I get it out of the press, and after eyes develop in a couple of months.

 

[passedpawn]

BTW, here's a cotswold I made in 2014. Note the size of this thing and compare to the one above. Derp. I definitely cut the curds smaller on that one.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Yea, that was probably I that told you that (at least, I think I posted that here a month or two ago). His name is Bob Samuelson. Sturdy Press.

Ha! Well, that's unfortunately my crap memory in play. I can't remember when I got mine but it was several years ago now - came to it on recommendation from Cheese Forum.org (I think it's called, haven't been involved for years there, either). Shame he stopped producing but I understood.

I do miss doing it, probably go back at some point.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Made a Jarlsberg this morning. Will get pics up after I get it out of the press, and after eyes develop in a couple of months.

Never made a jarlsberg either, cool. Do you happen to know the intensity of propionic acid in this cheese (if any)? My friends, brother farmers who I got my milk from and work with from time to time, make wonderful gouda as part of their offerings.

Had I not stopped, an underground cave was something I was driven to build. I had a small cave with humidity and temp control, but I really wanted something with stone and earth. How do you age your cheeses?

 

[Gadjobrinus]

BTW, here's a cotswold I made in 2014. Note the size of this thing and compare to the one above. Derp. I definitely cut the curds smaller on that one.

Beautiful, man. Looks like an impeccable knit.

 

[passedpawn]

Never made a jarlsberg either, cool. Do you happen to know the intensity of propionic acid in this cheese (if any)? My friends, brother farmers who I got my milk from and work with from time to time, make wonderful gouda as part of their offerings.

Had I not stopped, an underground cave was something I was driven to build. I had a small cave with humidity and temp control, but I really wanted something with stone and earth. How do you age your cheeses?

I use a proprionic subsp. shermanii. Not sure what you mean by intensity. I used it before to make same cheese, and it produced a great cheese that melted perfectly. Coincidentally, both the larger cotswold above and one of the jarlsbergs I made before were eaten by my dog. Not mad, dog has good taste, that's all. She buried moist of the jarlsberg wheel in the side yard. I found a day later, dug up, and (to be unnecessarily honest) still ate some of it.

 

[shelly_belly]

Nice. Sweet looking curd cutter.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

I use a proprionic subsp. shermanii. Not sure what you mean by intensity. I used it before to make same cheese, and it produced a great cheese that melted perfectly. Coincidentally, both the larger cotswold above and one of the jarlsbergs I made before were eaten by my dog. Not mad, dog has good taste, that's all. She buried moist of the jarlsberg wheel in the side yard. I found a day later, dug up, and (to be unnecessarily honest) still ate some of it.

On the propionic, sorry, my mind was going to milk, and what is found in alpine pasture flora that grazing cattle pick up. I can space, just a thing I've mentioned here probably too much. When you said eyes, I wasn't sure whether you had an added propionic culture, or it was endemic to your (raw was the idea) milk for some reason.

Your dog is a dog after my own heart.

Edit: I should add that Willi Lehner, a local guy with deep swiss roots, actually has a cheese with soil-based cultures. He makes astounding bandaged cheddars.

 

[passedpawn]

I can get raw milk locally, but I have no idea what bacteria their gut contains

 

[Gadjobrinus]

I can get raw milk locally, but I have no idea what bacteria their gut contains

Hahahah, no, I couldn't either. Though I knew by serial inoculations the general house of micro-critters I was working with. That's cool you can get the milk - my friends' cows are Ayshire, which I found almost perfect for cheesemaking (very small and very evenly dispersed - almost homogenized out of the udder!). The propionic thing was actually looking at alpine flora, specifically species of flowers I think (though I can't recall well now - I was started on the flower road by an Aussie cheesemaker who really piqued me to research it more), and the nature of lactic acid and propionic acid bacterias, both synchronistic and antagonistic. Not so much for eye formation, which I wasn't interested in in the varieties I focused on (tomme, Abondance, reblochon), but other characteristics of such an environment due to the primary foods of the grazing cattle, and the later LAB and propionics that developed.

Anyway, I'll quit diverting your thread, passed. Very interesting and looking forward to following.

 

[passedpawn]

Hahahah, no, I couldn't either. Though I knew by serial inoculations the general house of micro-critters I was working with. That's cool you can get the milk - my friends' cows are Ayshire, which I found almost perfect for cheesemaking (very small and very evenly dispersed - almost homogenized out of the udder!). The propionic thing was actually looking at alpine flora, specifically species of flowers I think (though I can't recall well now - I was started on the flower road by an Aussie cheesemaker who really piqued me to research it more), and the nature of lactic acid and propionic acid bacterias, both synchronistic and antagonistic. Not so much for eye formation, which I wasn't interested in in the varieties I focused on (tomme, Abondance, reblochon), but other characteristics of such an environment due to the primary foods of the grazing cattle, and the later LAB and propionics that developed.

Anyway, I'll quit diverting your thread, passed. Very interesting and looking forward to following.

I find your discussion really, really interesting. Because I don't normally use raw milk, I never considered the natural cultures in there. I vaguely knew this was how it was made back in the day, it didn't occur to me that something like the eye-forming proprionic bacteria originally came from outside the cow. I'll look into it a bit more.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

I find your discussion really, really interesting. Because I don't normally use raw milk, I never considered the natural cultures in there. I vaguely knew this was how it was made back in the day, it didn't occur to me that something like the eye-forming proprionic bacteria originally came from outside the cow. I'll look into it a bit more.

Look forward to reading your journey. I was really driven by alpine cheese and traditional practice, and the more I learned the more I was grabbed by these things. Have fun!

I don't know if I can convey this well. But believe it or not I was buying grass seeds and so forth from Europe, known alpine species of things, and germinating/growing them inside and then in a test soil patch outside our place. It's a tiny little maybe 6' x 6' patch but it actually produced some interesting results (I was interested in seeing how well high altitude grazing species would do in our lowland WI area).

Anyway my best bud Chris dropped the idea of synthesizing up tiny cattle to work the plot as a rotational grazing plot. Only problem is that each milking yields like .00001 ml milk, so I had to have a huge herd, and minuscule milking cups. That cracked me up, but maybe it's impossible to convey in a post. Or my pal and I just have an odd sense of humor.

 

[Owly055]

I like your cheese press..............

I'm wanting to make some sort of Swiss............ I wonder if one can inoculate with commercial Swiss rather than buying a culture..............

On my Tilset (pit washed) cheese, I intentionally made the cheese flatten to the size I wanted, filling my mold to the very top with soft curd, and as soon as possible removing it from the mold, and flipping it hourly at first, and then less frequently. The result was from a mold 4.5 x 4.5, filled over the top, I ended up with a cheese 5.5 x 1.5, which was my intention.

H.W.

 

[passedpawn]

I like your cheese press..............

I'm wanting to make some sort of Swiss............ I wonder if one can inoculate with commercial Swiss rather than buying a culture..............

On my Tilset (pit washed) cheese, I intentionally made the cheese flatten to the size I wanted, filling my mold to the very top with soft curd, and as soon as possible removing it from the mold, and flipping it hourly at first, and then less frequently. The result was from a mold 4.5 x 4.5, filled over the top, I ended up with a cheese 5.5 x 1.5, which was my intention.

H.W.

I like the idea of harvesting cultures, but I also like successes. For cheesemaking, it's nice to have a few successes before going maverick. That's me, anyway.

For the flavor and eyes that define alpine cheeses, you'll need a culture that develops CO2 during fermentation. You can by proprionic cultures on Amazon or anywhere, so I'd suggest that. They must be used in conjunction with a thermophyllic culture for making this type of cheese.