Sweet Teats Creamery
Tales of a fledgling creamery in CaliforniaArchive for Goat cheese
The New Cheeses are Delicious!
I was getting nervous about the new cheese, in the new cave. Particularly that they were losing too much moisture because I use the cave both as a drying room and as an aging cave.
I decided to cut open one of the smaller wheels to see where it was at. I was more concered about this wheel than the others because it was rather small- it was a 5-6 gallon batch, so I suspect it weighs just a hair over 4lbs. At this size there is proportionally more rind to interior, so I figure it is drying and aging a bit quicker than the wheels that are about twice the size.
… I was pleasantly surprised! It had a really nice crumble-y texture, but the rind had dried nicely and totally sealed in the desired moisture. And the flavors were young, but correct (and no off flavors). Im very excied, because this was the first ‘good’ wheel that I opened… I was still getting my bearings on the new location/ equiptment, and larger scale on the first two- which were edible, but nothing I was proud of. The Kadova mold makes a huge impact because it gives such a smooth rind, so the rind dries quickly and evenly, sealing in the moisture. Also, we decided on a secondary culture, which was a group decision because it will begin to inoculate our cave over time, but has been a savior in keeping all the undesirable molds/ yeasts/ bacterias at bay.
The New Cheese Cave
How serendipitous is the new home? It had a fresh built cheese cave… ready for me to fill with goat cheese!! Oh my, I still cant believe it!
I started making the full size wheels about a month ago. They require a minimum of 2 months aging- to meet hypothetical ‘raw milk’ laws* . They vary in size- I work full time, and on the ranch, so I can usually manage a day a week to make cheese. The decision to make hard or soft cheeses is highly subjective, as hard cheese require a block of time (5-6 hours usually) initially, but once unmolded, very little maintenance. Soft cheeses (lactic body), on the other hand, require very little time up front, but lots of steps over a few days, and then more rind maintenance as they age. And to be honest, the cleanup is much easier for hard cheeses… the whey is much ‘cleaner’ and very little is left on the equipment.
*we are only able to make enough cheese to feed ourselves (immediate family), but still follow clean artesianal traditions.
The New Homestead
Its been ages. I have not had a functional computer, or internet, and lived without electricity for many months. And now… Im back in civilization… still a long ways from the nearest town, but re-settled. And hopefully blogging consistently again!
My relocation involved integrating with another herd/family/cheesemakers. So Happy! it was a match made in heaven- they had been specializing in soft chevre for many years, and I had spent my hours perfecting hard cheese. And there was a cheese cave, empty, ready to use! so we had the conversation about what to indirectly inoculate the cave with. We settled on an inadvertent b.linens, because I have found that without washing, it can be a latent secondary culture that keeps the ‘unintentionals’ at bay. It also gives a nice flavor to the cheese.
The most exciting part is that I now get to do FULL SIZE WHEELS!!!!! Weeeeeee! It has been a long year++ of research, intuitive learning, and development of my cheesemaking skills on small batches. And now? 6-10 lb wheels! Luckily we eat a lot of cheese on this ranch!
The timing is perfect, I have full faith in the large wheels of cheese, faith in my skills that I didn’t have in the beginning. There are a few in the new cave… the oldest ones are about a month old, and they will be aged for at least 2 months for the smaller wheels, probably 3 or 4 for the largest.
And thanks to my sweet mother, who got me a large, beautiful mold for my birthday! The Kadova molds have made aging the hard cheeses MUCH easier, because they give a very smooth surface to the cheese, so you don’t have runaway mold escaping to the interior of the cheese.
Rinds: The Next Stage in Experimentation!
I’ve beat the horse to death regarding the variables for the “90 degree” series. I have yet to taste these cheeses so I cannot yet confirm the qualities. I cannot yet glean the intuitive knowledge from the different variables… but soon! And I will write in depth about the differences each step altered. My next series of investigations will be on natural rinds of harder cheeses. I will be using the ‘base’ recipe that I have been skirting, and will play only (yeah, right) with the different rinds. The first ones I am looking forward to doing are yeast rinds. Yeast eats sugar, and there is a minimal amount of sugar in milk/cheese. The cheeses that use yeast to help ‘grow’ a natural rind show that the yeast does not digest the cheese as much as a bacteria or mold, which is essential for an aged cheese to stay hard.
The rinds I would like to work with in this round are those that protect the cheese, but do not suffocate it. I will be working with yeast, which produces a white powdery dust on the surface, and can sometimes add a fishiness to the rind. I will also be working on those using fats: I want to try rendered duck fat (some blues and some Manchego use lard to protect the rind), and to also try olive oil (a la Parmigiano-Reggiano and some Pecorino).
Valle d'Aspe- a goat cheese made in the Pyrenees of France. It is hard, with a natural rind, dusty with yeast.
The yeast rind cheeses I am referencing are Valle d’Aspe, Caprielle, and Ossau-Iratty (though a little wax is used on this one, I do not know what stage in the aging that the wax is applied). The information available on yeast as an addition to natural rinds is skimpy, to say the least. I have been looking into types of yeast used for other foods, like beer and bread, and am planning on trying out different strains of yeast that are used for food.
For my first yeast-rind experiment, I have added some bread yeast to water, and am letting that culture at room temp for a few days. The quantity I guessed; I used 1/8 tsp per pint of water. I need to add something else to the solution as well to lower the PH of the solution, as the PH of any wash should generally match the PH of the cheese. This will also require an estimate, as I do not have a functional PH meter (I have 2 that were given to me, but neither works…at all). I guess this needs to be my next big purchase, it is hard to be accurate with something quantitative like PH if you don’t have the tools to test it!
Lessons Learned
Some of my harder cheeses are reaching their desired (minimum) age of 2 months, and are thus ready for tasting and critique. What makes this a big deal (for myself, at least) is that I have ‘created’ about 20 different recipes for this series, and have not been able to taste them yet.
I cheated, tasted one early, and found 2 flaws which I have since been correcting. I was under salting the cheese, and there was a faint bitterness (which was not present at the time I of molding). On researching the bitterness aspect, I found that there are 2 reasons why a cheese may taste bitter: One it was simply tasted at an unusual stage in its maturation, so the bitterness may not be lasting. Two- the probable reason- is the over-use of rennet. I decided to go with option 2, for the simple reason that I can alter the rennet quantity. I was previously using 1/8 tsp of rennet for about 2 gallons of milk, so I have now cut down to 5 drops. The rennet does not affect the goat milk as well as others, so to counteract this I added ¼ tsp of calcium chloride (CaCl2) to assist the rennet. The renneting time also increased a bit- from about 1 hour to 1.5+ hrs. So, in 2 months we will see the results of this variable.
I’m Smokin’!
- Applewood Smoked Goat Cheese – Sweet Teats Creamery
I’m smokin’ cheese, that is.
As of late, I am inspired by the approach of salmon season here in the Monterey Bay. It has been a non-event the past few years, and I miss more than anything the home-smoked salmon that my father usually makes from just-caught salmon. The aroma of the smoke arises memories of the season, of fishing, and of hot summer days- the kind where you can smell the heat of the sun on the yellow grass.
Regarding the decline in the salmon population (which has caused the cancelation of the salmon fishing season in the Monterey Bay for the last two years), it was first thought that overfishing had produced the lull in the salmon population. But now global warming and pesticide runoff are being considered as factors effecting the wild salmon population. No matter what the cause, I figure that I need to get my ‘smoked food fix’ from something other than seasonal smoked salmon.
So thus begins my R&D phase of tinkering with recipes for Smoked Goat cheese. I have completed 3 cheeses at the moment, with variables in the recipe and smoking. Many of the variables I have used before: Temperature, how much whey is forced off in the cheesemaking process, and pressure applied to the molded curd. To these I am adding the variables of smoking time and type of wood used to smoke the cheese.
For these three cheeses I have used applewood for the smoke. I chose this type of wood after doing some quick research on the flavors/qualities produced by different woods used for smoke. Here: http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/Woods.htm is a good chart with descriptions for different types of wood.
Smoked Cheese # 1:
The first cheese of this series will have more moisture. The cut curd was ladled into the baskets, and they baskets lightly weighted each other for a light pressing. After smoking for an hour, they began to droop a little, so I put them back in their baskets to hold the shape. I now have dedicated ‘smoked cheese’ baskets, as they have retained the smoke aroma. The ‘droop’ made me consider two things: A.) that my smoker does not qualify as a cold smoker, as it brings the temperature up to 80 or 90 degrees. B.) That the cheese would be less effected physically if it began this process as a harder cheese (i.e. less moisture). So this led me to the second version of this cheese.
Smoked Cheese # 2:
This cheese followed the same techniques as smoked cheese #1, with the variant of forcing off more whey before molding the cheese by pressing the cheese (no heat was applied after renneting to cheese # 1 or 2 to force off whey). After draining the curd, I cut it into ¾” cubes and then molded them into their form. They were pressed under their own weight- one on top of the other. This cheese had a nice stiff shape after draining, and did not seem to shrink as it was smoked.
Smoked Cheese # 3:
Same techniques as cheese # 2, with the addition of a small amount of heat applied (by way of the cheese vat) to 90 degrees after renneting. This step causes the curd to tighten, and force off a tiny bit more whey than in cheese # 2. Same (referential cheddaring) technique of cheddaring & milling was used to achieve a dryer, harder cheese body.
All of the above cheeses were smoked for approximately 8 hours. They had a lovely smoked aroma (akin to smoked fish!). The smoking is considered to create an anti-microbial barrier on the cheese, but I decided to wax them, in hopes that the aroma/flavor of the smoke would penetrate the cheese if it is in the closed environment of the wax.
I am in the process of making the 4th cheese, it will be smoked tonight, with either Hickory wood or Cherry wood. I am leaning towards the cherry, because it is a fruit wood, and therefore more subtle, and because it is said to produce a very dark coloring and “a slight pinkish color on light flesh fish and poultry” according to the smoking chart I mentioned.
Smoked Cheese # 4:
Same techniques as above, with variance after renneting. After renneting, I used a step that is done in Gouda-making. To do this, I drained off about 1/3 of the whey, and slowly added very hot water to the remaining curd/whey to bring the temperature up to 100 degrees. This achieves two things: it tightens the curd, forcing off more whey, and elevating the PH of the cheese (and therefore lowering the noticeable acidity in the final product). I also pre-drained the curd, cutting it into 3/8″ cubes before molding it into the baskets, and pressed the baskets under about a pint of water (a little over 1 lb). This created a really nice, hard cheese body… I am almost considering not using the molding baskets during smoking, as I don’t think the cheese will deform.
I am looking forward to sampling these cheeses… it will still be a little over a month for the first ones, as I am planning on aging these for a minimum of 60 days (raw milk cheese regulation).
Penicillium Roqueforti
Aka: the blue mold in blue cheeses. In case you happen to be allergic to Penicillin, not to worry-this is different. Penicillium is a mold that has a preservative effect on foods- essentially protecting the food from going bad by overpopulating it with “good” mold spores. Cheeses and salamis utilize these molds, creating a ‘competitive environment’ for bacteria and molds, allowing these products to be safely stored at room temperature. (Of course the Blue mold also imparts a distinct flavor and aroma.)
The origin of the mold can be proven: it is derived from oranges. When your oranges begin to ‘go bad’ they develop white & blue Penicillium on the rinds. Technically, the oranges are not actually going bad… the molds are safe to eat, though they may not compliment the flavor of an orange. Like cheese, the Penicillium molds digest the food itself. This is where the concept of ‘going bad’ comes into play- though at no point in the process is the fruit/mold unsafe to eat- if you continue to watch the process, the orange will eventually be fully digested by the mold.
The origin of the use of this mold in cheese is speculation- a fabricated origin story. Steve Jenkins, in his book Cheese Primer, recounts the tale of a young shepard who takes a break to eat his lunch in a cool cave. The boy forgets his cheese sandwich in the cave, and upon returning to the cave many days later, he finds the cheese moldy & blue-ish. Hungry, the boy decides to eat the remainder of the sandwich… and it tastes good! …Such claims have been made to the origins of Roquefort- a name controlled French blue cheese made from sheeps’ milk and aged in Limestone caves.
I have never had the opportunity to try a goat blue cheese, so I decided it was necessary to make one.
- My recent blue-goat cheese
I loosely followed a Stilton recipe – and by loosely, I mean that I used a single technique. Stilton recipes drain the curd after renneting, and then press it overnight. The next morning, the now-solid curd is hand crumbled into ½ pieces, and molded. As I often do, I used the cheeses to weight each other- stacking one on top of the other, and switching them every so often, and flipping the cheese in the basket to get an even (though gentle) pressing. I chose this step in attempt to manually add more air pockets in the cheese, and got them! The problem I didn’t foresee was the permeability of the outside edge of the cheese. When actually making a stilton recipe, you use 10% of your milk quantity in cream. I don’t have any cream because I use goat milk (goat milk is naturally homogenized, so it doesn’t separate without fancy equipment).
Omitting the cream gave me a stiffer formed curd. I had planned for this to be okay, as I had planned to wax the cheese. Unfortunately I didn’t plan for this permeable edge- I could not wax the cheese because the melted wax would flood the caverns around the edge. So it is a little dry, I suspect. We will find out, when it is ready to be tasted.
An Interesting Outcome
About 2 months back, I did a series of harder cheeses, with a brevibacterium linens wash. I intended these cheeses to be hard/ aged cheeses with the more subtle effect of the b.linens bacteria on the rind (as opposed to a soft-ripened/washed rind, where the b. linens bacteria digests the cheese- ripening it in both flavor and texture.) We are talking about them now, because they just finished ripening, and were analyzed a few nights ago (accompanied by celebratory wine, no doubt!)
The variations on recipe I executed did have the intended effects on the cheese. For example:
B.linens cheese # 1: used an MA starter culture (followed some of my now ‘standard’ techniques for the 90 degree series I’m working on)… when the time came to mold the cheese, I basically ‘cheddared the cheese, thus densifying it/ expelling whey. I brined this cheese for about an hour.
Specific Results:
A.) MA culture produced a little more acidity than I would have liked.
B.) Wasn’t brined long enough- the rind wasn’t sufficiently ‘dried’ by the brine.
C.) I’m having a hard time controlling/setting the humidity in my aging room, so controlling the constant growth of the b.linens was challenging (other molds- specifically white & blue Penicillium) began growing before the b.linens. The result of this was that the combination of the 2 molds and one bacteria ripened the cheese more quickly than just the bacteria alone… I think.
B.linens cheese # 2: Used an MM starter culture, followed by standards of this recipe… accidently used ½ the amount of rennet that I usually use, so it took more than twice as long to rennet. Again ‘chedared’ the curd to expel as much whey as possible. Brined for about 4-5 hours
Specific Results:
A.) MM culture produced less noticeable acidity, but…
B.) Long renneting time offset this, and thus the noticeable acidity in the final cheese was only slightly lower than cheese # 1.
C.) Brining for longer produced a more sturdy rind/ slowed mold growth during the aging process.
D.) Still having a hard time with humidity control during aging… I need to formalize my aging room and design a way to control the humidity.
B.linens cheese # 3: Used an MM starter culture. In addition to the b.linens, I also used Geo15 as a secondary culture. Used the ‘normal’ amount of rennet. When the time came to cut the curd, I cut to about 5/8”, and scooped these directly into the mold without any intermediate steps. Brined for approximately 8 hours.
Specific Results:
A.) MM culture successfully showed lower acidity in the final cheese! more complexity observable in final cheese due to this lower acidity.
B.) Body of cheese was noticeably less firmer at time of molding, and had higher moisture content.
C.) During aging this higher moisture enabled the cheese to ripen more quickly.
D.) Longer brining created a sturdy rind, but wasn’t physically different from the 4-5 hour brining.
E.) Geo15 had expected results (lowered acidity of rind): this was noticeable in the quicker growth of the b.linens culture (which may have also contributed to this cheese ripening more quickly than the others.)
Cheese #1 in back; Cheese # 2 on the right; Cheese # 3 in the foreground.
Final product, All cheeses:
- the cheeses all suffered a bit from limited maintenance during ripening (I had no days off for this period of 2 months, so I only attended to the cheeses when I had time- less often than they should have been washed or cleaned
- because of the limited attention, the molds/ bacteria grew more quickly, and in addition to the b.linens bacteria, the white Penicillium mold was also visible on the final cheese.
- The rinds were safe to eat, but a bit gnarly looking… not something that could eventually be sold. I have to resolve this.
- The cheeses were different than intended. I had intended to create a cheese like this one:
but ended up with soft ripened cheeses, physically more akin to an Alsatian Munster- with a somewhat stiff unripened interior, and a liquidly-ripe perimeter.
I hope to figure out through future experiments how to produce a hard, un-ripened cheese like the ‘Sunlight’ shown above. The challenge, as I see it, is how to age the cheese for long enough to establish the b.linens growth while NOT allowing the bacteria to act on the cheese
Haystack Mountain Goat Cheese- "Sunlight". An aged, hard goat cheese with a b.linens washed rind.
Conclusion:
Though these cheeses resulted in a different product than I had planned to make, they were still delicious examples of soft-ripened cheeses. I was surprised to find that a cheese produced to be rather hard (with minimum whey left in the cheesemaking process) could ripen as elegantly as a softer-made cheese. There were no noticeable flaws in the body/flavor/ aroma of the cheese. I was also surprised to find that the use of goats’ milk did not overpower the lovely characteristics of the b.linens… it was well incorporated, and as in any use of b.linens- other aspects of the cheese can exaggerate specific flavors and aromas producible by the b.linens culture. (For example a Vacherin Mont d’Or- being wrapped in spruce bark with exaggerate the smoky, earthy capacity of the b.linens.).
Vacherin Mont D'or: notice the spruce bark casing, and the precence of both b.linens (orange) and white penicillium on the rind
Influenced by Abbeys
Lets talk about some of the traditional cheesemakers: monks. I love them, because they used my favorite bacteria: Brevibacterium Linens. I can not be so simple-minded as to have a favorite cheese, but I will readily admit to my rosy feelings towards this bacteria. It is used on a genre of cheese called washed-rined cheese. These cheeses get this name because my love, the orange bacteria, needs a liquid vehicle to be applied to the cheese. The liquid chosen for these cheeses is usually an alcohol, because of its sterility. And because monks have long been makers of alcoholic beverages, it was natural that they would be those with all the components at their disposal.
Alsatian Munster
The Alcohols used on washed rind cheeses are usually distilled, though sometimes a beer is used, as in the case of Chimay cheese (uses the beer of the same name.) Epoisse uses Marc de Bourgone, which is akin to grappa- it is distilled from the stems/ seeds/ skins of burgundy grapes.
Epoisse- a cows' milk, washed rind cheese
Many other cheesemakers use this technique nowadays. Most washed rind cheeses are done with cows’ milk, as it is a more neutral canvas for the B. linens. Occasionally goats’ milk is used. A stellar example is “Gravestien Gold” which is made at Redwood hill farms in Northern California. Unfortunately my local cheeseshop in Carmel does not carry this cheese- something about the cheese-rep being unpleasant to work with. Anyway, this is one of the loveliest examples of a washed-rind + goat cheese I have encountered. They have an excess of Gravestien apples, because they are not a fashionable variety right now, and they make a brandy from the apples. They use the brandy as a vehicle for the B. linens, and the fruitiness of the alcohol exaggerates the fruity qualities which can be drawn out in the b. linens bacteria. So I’m not going to try to compete with this recipe… it is a great cheese. I just wish I could get me some.
Cowgirl Creamery's Red Hawk cheese. Cows' milk
I will though, return to my series of subtly flavored cheeses; this time with alcohol in hand. I have been making a tincture of peppercorns… I had been infatuated with pink peppercorns (which aren’t actually pepper, but they are fruity and spicy and delicate), and had thought that this would make the best tincture. I also make a tincture of black peppercorns. Surprisingly, the black peppercorn tincture won the taste test… the pink tincture was a bit vegetal, and the black tincture was very unusual- the removal of texture from the experience of intense pepper flavor was intriguing. I plan to use this tincture to do a series (variants) of washed rind cheeses, as well as a soaked cheese. It could be a disaster, but it has the potential to be surprisingly good.
The Sage is Blooming!
Its been a great season for sage! (I bet the bees are happy too!)
Though I usually poo-poo the idea of cheese that has junk in it, I admit that I am currently doing cheeses that are just that. Maybe/ hopefully not as banal as havarti with dill (cheese for those with a low pallet IQ)… the cheeses I am working on try to incorporate extraneous elements into traditional steps in the cheesemaking process. The ‘Cappuccino’ cheese is an example of this… using a step used in gouda making, but not to achieve the same end goal.
This next cheese is of the same trajectory. It is a “Sage Bud” cheese. I got the idea from a cheese-with-junk-in-it recipe from the “Home Cheese Making” book… probably the first cheesemaking book that most people buy. I was perusing the recipes, and there was a recipe for Sage Cheddar. I don’t happen to like cheddar, or at least not respect it that much, but the idea caught my attention because we do have an abundance of sage around here, including an unusual wild sage that physically resembles dill.
So the recipe in this book suggests boiling sage and adding the flavored water directly to the milk, and the leaves later to the curd. Yuck! Our sage is a bit bitter… which can be nice in certain recipes, but often has to be mediated by other elements. Still, a nice jumping off point.
This morning, after milking I picked sage buds. We have had a very rainy season, and the sage is budding quite well. I figured that the bud would have less bitterness than the leaves I usually use for cooking. So I did followed the extraction technique described by the book- boiling, and then strained the buds out. I then used this liquid in the gouda-influenced step as described in the cappuccino cheese… I replaced whey with this flavored liquid, rather than add it in as described in the book. Also, I am adding only a single bud to each cheese, merely as a reference to the origin of the flavor. I added the bud offset from the center of the cheese, so that hopefully it will be visible when the cheese is opened by cutting in half.
I am expecting this cheese to have a subtle influence of sage. Again, we will find out when the cheese is opened in a few months.
Sweet Teats Creamery 