Chipotle Ploughman's Cheese

[LoydB]

Gavin recently did an episode on what he's calling a Cotschili cheese - a Cotswold ploughman-style cheese with chilis and other stuff. Mine included chives, chili de arbol & chipotles from the garden, plus dried onion flakes and garlic powder. It only needs around a month of aging, so it should be perfect by Thanksgiving. The little nubs are from the final pressing that was done without the cheesecloth, they'll flatten out under vacuum packing.

Started out with 3 gallons of raw milk.

Got all my additives together. I'm going conservative on the heat, as this is for family gatherings where not everyone goes hard...

So, every cheese I've had go bad (usually early blown) I can trace to using something (peppercorns, saffron threads, whatever) that had not been heated to pasteurization temps. I really didn't want it to happen on this one, so all the add-ins got vac sealed and then tossed in a 145 degree F sous vide batch for a couple of hours while I deal with the curds.

Using MA-11 meso culture, 12 drops of annato for coloration, and rennet to set.

No pictures of the 'mix in cultures, stir, let sit, mix in annato, mix in rennet, let sit. Once the curd has set, it was sliced into large chunks and stirred for nearly 90 minutes with the temp being raised slowly.

The initial curd size:

Final curd size

Cheese cloth on giant colander, dump it in, let curds drain a bit.

After draining, the curd mass is pretty solid, it's dumped back into the warm pot.

The curd mass gets broken up into chunks, and the additives are mixed in.

Into the press!

After the first press - 15 minutes @ 10 pounds.

Flip, press for another 15m at 20#

Flip, press 40# for 2 hours

Flip, overnight for ~ 12 hours @ 60# pressure. You can see where the cloth is leaving an uneven surface, I decided to do the last press without cheesecloth, directly in the mold.

Just the mold, 60# for another 12 hours

Here's the final cheese, top & bottom.

After drying 2 days at room temp with regular flipping (see the top pic), it gets vac sealed to age.

 

[mr_whipple]

That looks good. Just curious... how much does raw milk cost compared to the standard pasteurized milk?

 

[JLeonard]

Man that looks really good. Amazing at the process!

Jim

 

[LoydB]

That looks good. Just curious... how much does raw milk cost compared to the standard pasteurized milk?

Thanks! $14/gallon at the farmer's market, $12/gallon at the farm

Man that looks really good. Amazing at the process!

Thank you!

 

[02ebz06]

Amazing processing. Need a large vacuum sealer for a block that size.
Probably a stupid question, but why raw milk instead of pasteurized milk.

 

[cptnding]

Amazing processing. Need a large vacuum sealer for a block that size.
Probably a stupid question, but why raw milk instead of pasteurized milk.

I can't answer your question but I can tell you after going on cheese binges all over Wisconsin the raw milk cheese just tastes better. Several of the smaller dairies would sell raw and pasteurized cheese side by side. Didn't matter if it was cheddar, gouda, ect. The raw milk cheese was better. Had a better flavor, texture, and was far more "creamy" even with a cheese aged 2 or 3 years.
We were told a couple of times that if raw milk cheese is aged at least 6 months there is no risk of contamination from the raw milk. I remember one guy telling us that the US pasteurization laws were passed in the 1920's to protect the public and as you can imagine the milk production process has changed quite a bit since then.

 

[forktender]

WOW, that looks absolutely KILL'ER!!!!
This deserves a carousel ride for sure, awesome thread.
I sure wish I had the skills to tackle a project like this, this is way out of my comfort zone.

Dan.

 

[indaswamp]

Wow! You my friend ARE a Curd Nerd!!! LOL! I love it!! Great play by play on your process, thanks for posting!

Wish I could find raw milk locally....

 

[Fueling Around]

Simply WOW.
Is there a way to make lower sodium cheese?
My wife prefers raw milk cheese. Tillamook is the only commercial brand she has found that starts with raw milk.
I used to get raw milk for free. I only made yogurt in those days.
Farm to table is nice, but holy moly they are price gouging bottling a product they would sell at $1 a gallon to the local creamery

 

[Steve H]

Absolutely a masterpiece. I'd love to try that cheese!

 

[LoydB]

Amazing processing. Need a large vacuum sealer for a block that size.
Probably a stupid question, but why raw milk instead of pasteurized milk.

Raw milk contains a ton of enzymes that bring flavor to the party. They are killed off by pasteurization. And if the milk is high-temp pasteurized (99% of commercial milk), it destroys some of the calcium that turns into curd, so you need to add back calcium chloride.

Regardless of pasteurization methodology, you really want to avoid homogenized milk.

I can't answer your question but I can tell you after going on cheese binges all over Wisconsin the raw milk cheese just tastes better. Several of the smaller dairies would sell raw and pasteurized cheese side by side. Didn't matter if it was cheddar, gouda, ect. The raw milk cheese was better. Had a better flavor, texture, and was far more "creamy" even with a cheese aged 2 or 3 years.
We were told a couple of times that if raw milk cheese is aged at least 6 months there is no risk of contamination from the raw milk. I remember one guy telling us that the US pasteurization laws were passed in the 1920's to protect the public and as you can imagine the milk production process has changed quite a bit since then.

The figure the government uses is 60 days, not 6 months. Which I regularly ignore. And yes, it's way, way better.

WOW, that looks absolutely KILL'ER!!!!
This deserves a carousel ride for sure, awesome thread.
I sure wish I had the skills to tackle a project like this, this is way out of my comfort zone.

Thank you! Cheese doesn't make it to the front page very often, which doesn't surprise me given the name of the site...

Wow! You my friend ARE a Curd Nerd!!! LOL! I love it!! Great play by play on your process, thanks for posting!

Wish I could find raw milk locally....

If there are any farmer's markets within reach, you might find some there. Or use localharvest and see if they have anything.

Simply WOW.
Is there a way to make lower sodium cheese?

I have no idea about low sodium. I think if you go under 2%, you run the risk of not killing off stuff you want dead.

Steve H Thank you!

 

[indaswamp]

Regardless of pasteurization methodology, you really want to avoid homogenized milk.

I can get non homogenized milk from a dairy about 60 miles north of me.....

 

[mneeley490]

Thanks! $14/gallon at the farmer's market, $12/gallon at the farm

Yowza! And I thought smoking was an expensive hobby.

 

[chilerelleno]

Wow!
I'd be one to go hard with the spiciness.
Would love to savor the flavor of a cheese like that.

 

[Schwarzwald Metzger]

View attachment 677754

Gavin recently did an episode on what he's calling a Cotschili cheese - a Cotswold ploughman-style cheese with chilis and other stuff. Mine included chives, chili de arbol & chipotles from the garden, plus dried onion flakes and garlic powder. It only needs around a month of aging, so it should be perfect by Thanksgiving. The little nubs are from the final pressing that was done without the cheesecloth, they'll flatten out under vacuum packing.

Started out with 3 gallons of raw milk.

View attachment 677757

Got all my additives together. I'm going conservative on the heat, as this is for family gatherings where not everyone goes hard...

View attachment 677760

View attachment 677758

So, every cheese I've had go bad (usually early blown) I can trace to using something (peppercorns, saffron threads, whatever) that had not been heated to pasteurization temps. I really didn't want it to happen on this one, so all the add-ins got vac sealed and then tossed in a 145 degree F sous vide batch for a couple of hours while I deal with the curds.

View attachment 677759

Using MA-11 meso culture, 12 drops of annato for coloration, and rennet to set.
View attachment 677762

View attachment 677761

No pictures of the 'mix in cultures, stir, let sit, mix in annato, mix in rennet, let sit. Once the curd has set, it was sliced into large chunks and stirred for nearly 90 minutes with the temp being raised slowly.

The initial curd size:
View attachment 677763

Final curd size

View attachment 677764

Cheese cloth on giant colander, dump it in, let curds drain a bit.
View attachment 677765
View attachment 677766

After draining, the curd mass is pretty solid, it's dumped back into the warm pot.

View attachment 677767

The curd mass gets broken up into chunks, and the additives are mixed in.

View attachment 677768
View attachment 677769

Into the press!
View attachment 677770
View attachment 677775
After the first press - 15 minutes @ 10 pounds.

View attachment 677771

Flip, press for another 15m at 20#
View attachment 677772

Flip, press 40# for 2 hours

View attachment 677773

Flip, overnight for ~ 12 hours @ 60# pressure. You can see where the cloth is leaving an uneven surface, I decided to do the last press without cheesecloth, directly in the mold.

View attachment 677774

Just the mold, 60# for another 12 hours

View attachment 677776

Here's the final cheese, top & bottom.

View attachment 677777
View attachment 677778

After drying 2 days at room temp with regular flipping (see the top pic), it gets vac sealed to age.

View attachment 677779

Outstanding!

 

[LoydB]

Cut it open at 5 weeks. It is going to be amazing on burgers/tacos and such, but it's a bit too onion-y for me to enjoy standalone.