I attempted to make a Jarlsburg cheese this weekend that turned out so differently than the swiss I attempted. My swiss is aging and pretty much looks the same as it came out of the mold, but my Jarlsburg is puffing up like a hotwheel. I found a different recipe that tells you that, after pressing, to put the cheese in a warm (80-85degree) place for 4 hours then 60-70degree for 8 hours before brining. I did this (dehydrator lowest setting is 80degrees for 4 hours and in the cooler set on 65 degrees overnight before brining) and the thing started swelling, I put it in the brine and it was still puffing up so much that you can see the indention from the bowel I set on top of it to hold it under the bring ( i turned it but the dent is only on one side) after brine I left at room temp for 2 1/2 days and that leads to this morning. Every day that it has been at room temp there has been some liquid accumulation, doesnt smell bad just strong milk smell, yesterday it was less than sunday and this morning less than yesterday, however there is an approximately 1 inch crack in the top of the cheese, it is not dry enough to be over dried rind so I can only assume that it is the CO2 that wanted to escape from the cheese (I can see a bubble on the side of the cheese about half the size of a dime) It doesn’t smell bad, just like cheese. I put some pickling salt on it and decided to stop air drying at 2 1/2 days vs three days because I dont want it to split in half. Has anyone heard of this, is it normal?
thanks
Christie
Hey Christie,
I haven’t made a Jarlsberg myself (I don’t have much luck with Swiss type cheeses), so I don’t know if this is normal or not. It does, however, sound as if it’s gassing up more quickly than normal. I think you should be happy with the expansion. Most people have trouble getting proper hole development; but it seems like you have that problem licked. Since there is no off odor, I wouldn’t worry about it. Let it age. I’m guessing you’ll be very happy with it.
On a side note, my dairy lady’s prime cow has now calved, and I should be back into cheese making by Friday of this week. It’s been a couple of very dry months!
from what I have read on line, I had secondary fermentation, and it happens, wont know how deflated my cheese is until I open it. However on a positive note we cracked open a 4week old Havarti and it was better than expected, had holes and a very nice flavor, much stronger than I was expecting, almost a fontina, I think I can probably use a little less culture next time. I tried to post the picture but I am told that the size of my attachment is too large
Christie
There’s a free program called Gimp 2, that you can use to resize your pics.
The holes in your Havarti would be mechanical holes, unless you make your’s differently from what I make. You can minimize the mechanical holes by packing your mold more forcefully.
I really like the Havarti. It’s a great, albeit mild, flavor. If you’re using raw milk, you should really let it age for at least 2 months, for bacteriological reasons. BTW, how much culture do you use?
I used Flora danica to get the kind of lacy pattern Havarti has, I didn’t really mean holes like swiss holes. It looks like the Havarti from the cheese shop, but it is stronger tasting than what we buy(in a good way), it was supposed to be mild after only 4 weeks of aging, but since I am using raw milk I probably will cut down the amount of culture I use next time, I used 1/4 tsp for 2 gallons of raw milk.
I cant use the gimp because I use my work computer, wish I could though, I took a great picture and was really proud of how the Havarti turned out.
Christie
It did cut very well, and the cheese tastes really good just strong like fontina, probably going to invest in those tiny spoons that say pinch, dash and smidgen. I used the recipe from cultures for health, but substituted flora danica instead of mm100 (I have a cheese book that says to use flora danica because it emits co2). I just got some new cultures in the mail that I want to try out. Aroma b and thermo b, and thermo c also real animal rennet vs the microbial one I have been using. I have made some parmesean with the “direct set thermophilic” (wont get to break it open til next year in august)but I want to start trying some different cultures and compare between the two for taste. From what I could tell Flora danica and aroma b look to have the same culture so I was wondering if they had the same flavor profile. Same with my direct set thermophilic and thermo b. The rennet I originally bought was just a mistake, it had a picture of a cow on it so I assumed it was real rennet, but it is actually vegetarian rennet, so I bought some of the real stuff.
Christie
I like to hear of all the experimentation. That’s how new cheeses are developed. I’m thinking you’re going to be very popular among your friends; because you’ll have a lot of cheese to share.
Now that I’m back with my regular milk supply, I’m going to be busy filling orders. Made a Colby last Friday. It will be Colby with jalapeño tomorrow. After that will be a Montasio and then Gouda.
May have to take a stab at it, when I started making cheese we decided we would make the cheese we eat the most, swiss, parm, havarti, fontina and cheddar. The whole “cheddaring the curd” sounded like it might be more involved so I started with the other cheeses first, but my husband has been asking when I would try to make a cheddar cheese, he likes colby, and cheddar while I lean toward swiss and italian cheese, but he did just make me a nice cheese press so I should probably do one for him.
Christie
I’ve been working on the “perfect” cheddar for several years. I’m not there yet. The flavor is great, but the big problem with my cheddar is that it is very dry and crumbly. I’ve altered the cheddar recipe quite a bit; and I don’t do the traditional cheddaring. If you’re interested, I’ll share the process with you. Colby, on the other hand, is quite easy to make with great results. So you can get the cheddar type flavor with much more moisture. Temperatures are the key with that one.
sounds good, i hope my temperature anxiety is gone, I just bought a sous vide gadget that seems to work just like it says it is supposed to, just haven’t had a chance to so a big cheese with it yet.
Christie
Most of the time, I aim for just being close on temp, and it works just fine that way. With Colby, the moisture content of the finished cheese is dependent upon the temperature of the cold water exchange after cooking the curd. I use a higher than normal cook temp (104 F.), and cool to 80 F. in the water exchange. It always comes out with a great texture and moisture content.
