What I've Been Up To

 

Firm Camemberts - my most successful cheese! I've made 8 wheels in the last few months!

Hi Everyone! 😊

It's been nearly a YEAR since I posted here on Rainy Day Cheese Making! I can't believe how time flies. Most of my friends know that last February, my husband and I bought our first home. We bought sight unseen and moved from a bad situation in Quebec to a lovely rural and peaceful setting in New Brunswick.

I put my cheese making on hold because of lack of time, though I snuck in a few wheels here and there, I didn't have the time to blog about it.

Jarlsberg is another successful cheese in the roster. I've been making that one every few months.

I was hoping to try many new cheeses in 2020, but we had a lot of issues with the new-to-us house and those plans had to be put on hold. Now that things have settled down a little bit, I plan on re-activating this blog with my cheese making efforts!

A few months ago, Alex designed these cheese labels for me, aren't they nice?

I don't ever plan on selling my cheese (too many legal ramifications), but I have been giving a few wheels away with lovely feedback, so I thought it might be nice to have fancy-shmancy labels to go with them!

This is a 6-month Cheddar that will be ready in April 2021

I miss making new cheeses. I've been looking up new recipes and I plan to do more videos this winter/spring.

I'm trying to make everything possible from scratch and this includes all of my cheeses. It's time consuming and it takes a lot of planning, but it's so rewarding to have some homemade soup, homemade crescent rolls and homemade cheese to go with it!

All recipes are listed on my right sidebar!

Cheese Updates: Raclette, Fontina, Colby, Jarlsberg

My babies are thriving! :) 

From the left:

Raclette - ready December 7th

Fontina #1 and Fontina #2 - both ready December 17th

I'm still washing these with brine a few times a week and they're doing very well. The colours are fantastic, the rinds are forming and they smell divine!

I made two more cheeses in the last week - a Colby and another Jarlsberg. I had so much success with my first wheel of Jarlsberg, I decided to make another one. I'm not going to post the recipe for the Colby just yet because I took the recipe from two different sources, mixed and mashed and kind of came up with my own way of doing it. IF it's a success, I'll post it!

Jarlsberg Taste Test!!

Hi Everyone :)

Last night Alex and I opened up the Jarlsberg that I made at the beginning of August. It was a success! 

Emergency Cheese Cave! Cheese Updates

Hello Friends!

How are you all doing today? I think that summer is officially over this year, sigh. Usually we get an especially hot and humid September. For the last x number of years, I've been swimming in the lake all the way to the beginning of October! But this year, it's already close to zero at night. Oh well.

I wanted to give you an update on a few things. Firstly, I've made two new Fontina cheeses using two different types of culture for comparison. They are air drying and will be ready for ripening boxes in a few days. I'll post about that in the next few weeks! I have a goat milk cheese going too, which I'll also post about soon.

Also...I got too big for my britches lol...I ran out of room in my cheese cave! It's a small fridge and I have four wheels in there already, plus the Parmesan in a ripening box and the brine...For the next three cheeses, they need to be in ripening boxes for 2-3 months too and I have no more shelves!

So the "emergency cheese cave" has been born. I took an old Styrofoam cooler we had in the basement.

I added two blue cooler thingies (dollar store) and did a 12-hour test to see if it would hold my temperature between 10-12C. It passed the test! It varied from 9.6C to 11.3C - perfect!

My emergency cheese cave will now sit on the counter in the kitchen - safely away from the pets. I'll have to replace the blue cooler thingies every twelve hours to keep the temperature right, so I'll have to hit the dollar store in the next few days to get a few more.

Necessity and lack of funds are the mother of all invention!

Jarlsberg Update: My Jarlsberg is aging at room temperature in the kitchen. If you look close, you can see that the cheese wheel is becoming a little spongy, it's also really expanding in the vacuum seal. This is normal as the "eyes" or holes are developing on the inside of the cheese! I have to watch to make sure it doesn't burst out of the seal. If it does, I have to simply reseal it. This will be ready in about 3 weeks!

And here is a video update of my Parmesan. It's doing what it's supposed to do!

Update after I filmed this video: After doing some more research today, I learned that it's a good idea to have your ripening box slightly open for air circulation. This is how I accomplish that:

A binder clip on the edge of the box with the top on. This leaves a slight crack in the opening for air flow.

Also, I read that you need to wipe the lid on the inside daily to make sure no moisture drips on your cheese, which causes it to mould faster! Forever learning!!! :)

Jarlsberg (Recipe and Instructions)

Hello Friends,

Today I'm going to post about Jarlsberg cheese and how to make it. This is the first time I've made a Jarlsberg and it's going to be ready for tasting in late September. I'll always do follow up posts when I taste the cheese, just to share the results!

Click here to see the taste test video!

Jarlsberg was born in the 1950's and is often mistaken for a Swiss cheese. It's actually Norwegian made in the style of a Swiss or Alpine cheese but it's a little sweeter and more buttery. The only other places that have licenses to make official Jarlsberg are Ireland and Ohio.

So again, I'm hoping the Norway people don't mind me calling my cheese a Jarlsberg!

Here are the ingredients and the process. For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Ingredients for Jarlsberg cheese:
(Recipe courtesy of Gavin Webber)

Yield: about 1 kg wheel

9.5 liters Whole Milk

1/2 liter 2% Milk

1/4 tsp Thermophilic Culture "C"

1/8 tsp Propionic Shermanii Culture

1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride

1/4 tsp Double Rennet

Cool filtered water

Brine

Directions:

Stage 1: Mixing The Ingredients

Stage 2: Caring for the curds

Stage 3: Molding, Pressing and Brining

Stage 4: Drying and Aging

Stage 1: Mixing The Ingredients

1. In a double boiler, heat the milk to 92F or 33C. (Just a note: one degree higher or lower isn't going to ruin your cheese! But don't go beyond that one degree.)

2. Add the Thermophilic and Propionic cultures and let sit 3 minutes. Thermophilic cultures are cultures that can withstand higher heat that Mesophilic cultures. So when you see a recipe saying you can heat your milk at a high heat, the starter culture should be Thermophilic. The Propionic culture is used to make the "eyes" or holes in a typical Alpine style cheese.

3. Stir and let sit 45 minutes, maintaining the temperature.

4. After about 40 minutes, prepare your Calcium Chloride by mixing it in 1/4 cup of cool filtered water. Mix your double rennet in 1/4 cup of cool filtered water.

5. Add the Calcium Chloride and stir for one minute. Add the rennet and stir for one minute. Let sit for 45 minutes, holding the temperature at 92F or 33C.

Stage 2: Caring for the curds

6. Check for a clean break. If you knife comes out relatively clean, it's a clean break.

7. Cut the curds in small 1/4 inch pieces. The best way to do this is to use a balloon whisk in an up and down/side to side and scooping motion. Be very gentle when you cut the curds.

8. Stir the curds very gently for 20 minutes, holding your 92F or 33C temperature. Let sit 5 minutes.

9. During the stirring, prepare about 5 liters of water in a pot and heat it to 120F or 49C.

10. Using a strainer and a ladle, remove enough whey to reach the level of the curds.

11. Stir the curds for about a minute to make sure they don't stick together.

12. Pour enough of your hot water into the curds to reach the level where the whey used to be. This is called washing the curds. Your temperature should be around 100F or 38C.

13. Over 30 minutes, very slowly increase the temperature of the curds to 108F or 42C. Stir very gently and don't rush this process because you are encouraging the curds to release whey slowly. (sorry no photo!)

14. When you've reached 108F or 42C, allow the curds to sit for 5 minutes.

Stage 3: Molding, Pressing and Brining

15. Drain the curds into a cheesecloth-lined mold. Make sure the cheesecloth isn't wrinkly, pull tight then put on the follower and press at 24 pounds for 30 minutes.

This is the cheese after the first 30 minutes of pressing.

16. Gently remove the cheese from the mold and cheesecloth, flip, re-cover and press at 50 pounds for 8 hours.

This is the cheese after the full 16-1/2 hours of pressing.

17. Again, gently remove the cheese from the mold and cheesecloth, flip, re-cover and press at 50 pounds for another 8 hours.

18. Remove the wheel from the mold and cheesecloth, and brine for 12 hours, flipping it over at the 6 hour mark. Keep the cheese brining in your cheese cave (50F or 10C).

Stage 4: Drying and Aging

After air drying for a few days, you can see the cheese starting to release fats.

19. Air dry your cheese for 3 days, flipping twice a day.

20. Vacuum pack the wheel and age for 2 weeks in your cheese cave (50F or 10C), flipping daily.

21. After the 2 weeks, remove the cheese from the cheese cave and continue to age it at room temperature for 4-6 weeks, flipping it twice a week. **My kitchen gets cool at night so I put a towel on top of the cheese to keep it closer to room temperature.

Note: Finishing the aging at room temperature is supposed to encourage the "eyes" or holes to form in the cheese. As the cheese develops at room temperature, it will swell up, you'll see it swell as the eyes form on the inside. It could crack your wax or your seal, just re-seal it if that happens!

Note: Some cheeses require a lot of your time at odd hours. This was one of them! I started this cheese at around 10am and by 11pm I was just on step 17, flipping the cheese for another 8 hour press. It's important to really read the recipe, or watch a video in completion so you can estimate timing for each step and you're not forced to stay up past your bedtime or wake up at 4am to flip your cheese!