Jarlsberg, Parmesan, and Brie Oh MY!!!

My Jarlsberg after 2 months

So I have been busy with making several cheeses and can now start blogging about them.  The following three cheeses were made from recipes (with some small changes)  from a great book called "Artisan Cheese Making at Home" and also from recipes on New England Cheesemaking website.

Parmesan

First lets start with the Parmesan. It is going to take 9 months to age before we can eat it.
The ingredients I used are as follows:

• 2 gallons milk (Whole, 2%)
• A packet of Thermophilic starter
• 1/2 tsp calcium chloride in 1/4 cup cool water
• 1/2 tsp liquid rennet in 1/4 cool water

Instructions:

• Heat milk over low heat (double boiler) to 94ºF
• Sprinkle thermo B over milk and mix well with whisk
• add calcium chloride and rennet, gently whisk for 1 minute
• let set for 45 minutes at 94ºF (until a clean break)

• Now whisk curds gently to cut curds into pea size pieces
• let set for 10 minutes
• slowly raise temp to 124ºF over 1 hour
• Let set at 124ºF for 10 minutes

looks like cottage cheese after the curds are drained

• Drain curds in muslin cloth for 5 minutes
• Put into mold and let drain another 5 minutes
• Apply 10 lbs for 30 minutes then flip
• Apply 10 lbs for 1 hour then flip
• Apply 20 lbs for 12 hours  

Using my press for the very first time

• I then prepared a salt brine and soaked the cheese at 52ºF for 12 hours (the cheese weighed 1 lb and 12 ounces before brinning)

• After brinning I dried the cheese with a cheesecloth and let air dry for 3 days

Now it is aging in my cheese cave at 50º, where I first flipped it every day for about two weeks and am now just flipping it every week or so.  I have also rubbed olive oil on it now to help keep the cheese from drying out.  This cheese has been hard trying to keep the mold off, I think one reason is because I do not have very much air flow, so I should get a fan.  Also I was aging the brie (which will be discussed lower down).

My cheese after brinning

my cheese right now after being aged and rubbed with olive oil

Jarlsberg

Jarlsberg cheese is a Norwegian cheese that is part of the Emmental Swiss family, so you can expect the cheese to have the trademark eyelets that make it "wholly cheese".

The ingredients are as follows:

• 2 Gallons Milk
• 1.2 tsp Thermophilic C
• 1/8 tsp propionic bacteria
• 1/2 tsp calcium chloride in 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp rennet diluted in 1/4 cup water

The process I followed was:

• Heat milk to 92ºF in a warm water bath
• Mix in the propionic then let set for 45 minutes
• Add calcium chloride and rennet using a whisk gently
• let set at 92ºF for 45 minutes (until a clean break) 

• Cut curds into 1/4 inch cubes and stir for 20 minutes
• Heat 3 cups of water to 140ºF
• Ladle out enough whey to expose the tops of the curds
• Add the heated water to bring the temperature of the curds to 100ºF
• Over low heat raise the temperature to 108ºF over 30 minutes while gently stirring
• after reaching 108ºF let curds settle and sit for 20 minutes 

•  Drain curds in a cheesecloth

•  Press curds in a mold
• 10 lbs for 30 minutes and flip
• 15 lbs for 8 hours
• Brine in a salt water bath for 12 hours at 50ºF to 55ºF
• Air dry for two days
• Coat in cheese wax
• Age at 50ºF for 2 weeks flipping daily
• Then age at 65ºF for 4-6 more weeks

I have enjoyed eating this cheese, though it does not quite taste like the Jarlsberg I have bought in the store.  It is almost gone, but before it is I need to make sure and make a Jarlsberg Grilled Cheese Sandwich.  When I do, I will have to tell you how it tastes.

American Style Brie

Now Brie is the most advanced cheese I have made to date.  It made me really nervous to make a cheese where you actually want to encourage mold growth.  Usually when you see mold you just wipe it off, but with Brie you want the white mold to grow, in face if you have ever had Brie and have eaten the somewhat hard bitter brine, that is the mold.  So I guess we will have to wait till around Christmas to see if I was successful on my first Brie.

Ingredients:

• 2 gallon whole milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• pinch of mesophillic direct set starter
• 1/4 tsp thermophilic starter
• 1/8 tsp Penicillium candidum
• 1/8 tsp Geotrichum candidum
• 1/4 tsp calcium chloride in 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 tsp rennet in 1/4 cup water

the powder is the mold

What I did:

• Heat milk to 90ºF
• Mix in both starters (meso and thermo) and both of the white molds (penicillium and geotrichum)
• raise temperature to 96ºF
• turn off heat and let set for 90 minutes
• mix in the calcium chloride and rennet then whisk gently
• let set for 30 minutes or until a clean break
• Cut curds into 3/4 inch cubes
• stir curds gently for 10-150 minutes
• let set for 5 minutes then ladle out whey to expose curds

•  Gently ladle the curds into a mold (I have my wooden cutting board underneath to assist in flipping the cheese because you have to be careful not to break the cheese as you flip it.
• Let curds drain for 1 hour
• flip and drain for 1 more hour
• leave brie at room temperature for 8 hours

I had so much curds I used both my molds, so I have one big brie and one mini brie aging right now

after 1 flip

before aging in cheese cave

•  Salt each side of the cheese lightly
• Age at 54ºF at 80% humidity for 12 days, flipping once halfway
• I have the cheese in some Tupperware containers that I can close. I have put some damp paper towels in the boxes to keep the humidity high
• They are now sitting in my refrigerator at 38ºF
• Let age for 5-6 weeks

cheese before aging

you can start seeing the mold growth on the side

I am excited to see how the Brie turns out.  We will try to eat around Christmas.  Hopefully it does not kill us because I plan to take the small brie into work for my coworkers to try.  I will keep you posted in the progress of the brie. 

Also I plan to make cheese curds soon, hopefully this coming weekend.