Last night was cheese night!!! I have to admit I was nervous to try out my little dairy children...The Cheddars were all 3 months old and the Camembert was made in November.
All seemed normal, except my Cam turned into a creamy gooey mess!
Although it was a DELICIOUS mess!! I need to find some room in the budget to get some cheese making books soon. I've been following online recipes and it's hard for me to figure out the reasons the cheeses turn out like they do. Like, why did my first two Cams turn out perfectly and these Cams are so soft and runny? The mysteries of cheese making!!! :)
Let's hear the bad news first. The Newcastle infused Cheddar? Not so good! Maybe the beer didn't mix well with the bacterial culture...who knows, but it had hardly any flavour with an odd after taste. But my head is high...it's the only one that didn't turn out!
The regular Cheddar was nice! All of the Cheddars had a great texture. This one was very tangy - Alex loved it but it was slightly too tangy for me. Again, I have to research how to make it a little more mild. Tweaking here and there and more experimentation is needed!
MY favourite! The red wine infused Cheddar. It turned out nice and mild and look at that marbled effect! Oddly enough, this is the only of the three that grew a hard rind too. More mysteries!!
I made some bread to go with the cheese. Check out my lonely little slab of paté!!
Conclusion: I WILL make more Cheddars for sure. Now that I know they have good to improvable flavours, there is no stopping me! I will also make more Camemberts. I want to try some new cheeses in 2018 as well. I will keep making some of the cream cheese, the Boursins, Ricotta and Mozzarellas (traditional and Bocconcini style).
I still have the Dry Jack in the cheese cave as well as the experimental Baby Swiss...we'll try both of those in the spring!
I do have to acquire better equipment though. Better shaped cheese molds and maybe some newer bacterial cultures. My Rainy Day Cheese Making blog should be more active in 2018, so keep an eye out!
Thanks for all of your support this year on my cheese making my friends, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster!
Enjoy your evening and Happy New Year to everyone! :)