First Aged Cheese, Part 1

I am sorry that I do not have pictures of the first part of the process, but I will give you the method I used here. Next cheese will have pictures of all parts of the process. Well I started off by slowly warming 4 liters of whole milk (4% fat) to 30° Celsius (oh yeah, we're metric - only metric here - you guys with 12 fingers and toes must manage for yourself). Then I removed it from the stove and added a sachet dried Mesophilic bacteria culture. I buy them in 5-pack each for four liters of milk - however I've been told that this culture will easily stretch to five liters of milk. I might use 4 1/2 liters next time (more on that later) and I will only use one sachet then too. The recipe said to use some Calcium chloride, but I didn't have that, so i thought «Sodium chloride will do fine, I'm sure». Well it wasn't. I's there to help with the curding of the cheese. I have ordered for my next cheese, but this one doesn't have that, something that probably explains some of the problems I got later. Then I added rennet and set the clock to 30 minutes. I got back there, and the milk was totally liquid still. It only had a few spots on the knife when I lifted it up. I needed help, so I called the place I bought the rennet from and asked «It's happened to me once too - just wait it out. Did you add Calcium chloride to the milk?». I told him about the normal salt I used in stead an that I thought it didn't matter much which I used. «Well, it does matter» he said, «You will have to wait a bit longer then and it will not curd as well as if you had used Calcium chloride jut before you added the culture» OK, so I had to wait about 30 minutes more before the milk had curded. Even then the wey wasn't as clear as I'd hoped and it was not a 100% clean break (I'll show you that on my next cheese) but it was curded as well as could be expected, I guess. I lined a siv with a kitchen towel and slowly added the curd and wey. I did not need the wey this time, so I let it go down the drain. Now we're getting to the part when I remembered to take pictures (And as always (almost) with me, you can click the pictures to get it bigger and in it's own page). |
|
I needed som saturated salt brine. I made that by filling the bowl 3/4th to the top, and adding salt and stirring to see if it went totally clear, before I added more salt. I stopped adding salt when no more salt would dissolve and I had just a few salt corns on the bottom of the solution. Then I poured it into another bowl, leaving the salt corns in the bottom. This would not be used before the next day, but I made it just to get it out of the way. Saturated salt brine will not rot! |
![]() |
![]() |
After letting the curd run off the wey for about 40 - 50 minutes, I carefully added my curd to my makeshift cheese press. In reality it's a rib roll press, but it's of about the right size and shape and I had one, so I just went with it. It presses well too, with it's two strong springs. The cheese cloth I'm using is in reality a cloth for making lemonade from berries. It doesn't make the cheese look much better, but real cheese cloths have been ordered!
|
After wrapping it, I pressed the lid on and while I did that, quite a bit of wey came up and was poured in the sink. I actually did that on the sink, because it was a little messy. This press does not have holes in the bottom, so it can not get the wey out that way, I had to put it on it's side and hold it up with a knife, but then I made it work fine. I'll make a jig for that for my next cheese, I think. Now I left it running off and pressing over night on the bench. |
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
I have dried out the cheese for a day and a half. It was firm and dry on the outside and I decided, without really knowing what I was doing, that now was the time to get it down in the basement and keep it between 9 - 12°C (some say 8 - 11, some say 9 -13, but 9 - 12 is the one I've seen the most. I have found a guy that's giving away a small fridge that won't get colder than 7°C. That's perfect for me, and I will fetch it as soon as the guy calls to tell he's come home. He's out doing his Saturday shopping as I write this. |
So the cheese is dry enough, and I need to pack it for aging. I've seen three methods to do this:
But I don't have a vackuum machine, ant that's where the zip-lock bag comes into the picture. |
![]() |
![]() |
When I do the Sous vide, I use the zip-lock bags that I fill with the meat, close the zip almost all the way, then pushing it into water so only the little hole that's left is above water. Then I close it and I cet a close to air free bag to cook the meat in. Here I didn't want that. I was afraid that I'd slip in some water while doing it, something that doesn't matter much when you sous vide, but I didn't want any moist in the bag, that wasn't made of the cheese. So therfore - vacuum cleaner and the thinnest tip. Then I did the same as if I'd done with water. Let the air be sucked out then slowly remove the tip from the opening while closing the zip. |
So here it is! I've rolled the bag from the top and am keeping it shut with a key ring. It was what I had at hand. It will be finished to tasting at the 5th May, and that's when I'll make «First Aged Cheese, Part 2» I will get the fridge to it, and then have a more controlled environment, but for a first try, I don't think I've done too bad. But of cause, we won't know that before the 5th, now, do we? The name of the cheese? Nöst (short for NalleOst - Nalle is I, and Ost is Norwegian for cheese (my mother in law used «nost» as a kid as a nice name for poop, so I had to change the «o» to a «ö»)).
Anyway, have a cheesy day! |
![]() |