Swiss

Yesterday was my first attempt at Swiss! It's a similar process to the other hard cheeses, with the notable exception of adding a specific bacteria--Propionic shermanii--to the milk at the same time as the thermophilic starter. (That's what will produce the gas during aging, creating the famous "holes" in the cheese.)

Part of the process is cooking the curds, bringing them all the way up to 120F degrees -- by far the highest temp I've had to hit for cooking curds (cheddar only neeeds to go to 104F). Then there's the stirring...and stirring... and stirring. I was definitely happy to make use of my motorized stirrer!

Pictured above is the cheese after pressing overnight, floating in a saturated brine solution. Tonight I'll take it out of the brine and start aging. The aging is a bit more specific on this one: One week in the cave (50-55F, 85% humidity), then 2-3 weeks at room temp, and then back in the cave (45F, 80% humidity) for at least three months. No wax on this one, either, so it'll be interesting to see how it fares. I'll keep you posted, of course!

2 gal. Trader Joe's Organic Whole Milk
1/4 tsp. freeze-dried Thermophilic Starter
1/8 tsp. freeze-dried Propionic shermanii
1/4 tsp. Double-Strength Liquid Vegetable Rennet
1 gal. Saturated Brine Solution

Gouda

Finally back at it! My friends Stephen and Sarah came over this afternoon to help out with a batch of Gouda. It was only 3 1/2 hours from starting to pressing at the full 50 lbs. ... so much faster and easier than cheddar*!

Tomorrow morning I'll brine the cheese** for 12 hours, and then move it to the fridge to dry for a couple of days... then a few layers of wax, followed by a lot of patience.

Check back in four or five months to see how it turned out... okay, maybe just three months!

* Although the ingredients are similar to Cheddar or other hard cheeses, the process is more like Colby, in that it's a "washed-curd" cheese. Part of the process is to pour off some of the whey and then replace it with hot water (175F) slowly increasing the temperature a couple of degrees (it doesn't take much). The curds are stirred, allowed to rest, and then washed a second time. There's no "cheddaring" process ("cooking" the curds at a higher temperature--just over 100F), and--blessedly--no interminable stirring and stirring and stirring like some of the other cheeses...

** Instead of directly salting the curds, the salt is added after pressing--like Haloumi--by soaking the wheel of cheese in a saturated saltwater solution. The salt is simply absorbed while it's soaking, and will eventually make its way throughout the cheese during aging.

2 gal. Trader Joe's Organic Whole Milk
1 pckt. Mesophilic Starter
1/4 tsp. Calcium Chloride
1 tsp. Double-Strength Vegetarian Liquid Rennet
1 gallon Brine (Water + 1 lb. Cheese Salt)