Baby Swiss
2-26-2016

I took a class last fall that featured a Trappist style cheese and other hard cheeses like Swiss and Gruyere.  Most of the cheese I eat would be considered semi-hard to hard.  This is just what I like, however most of those cheeses require a lot of waiting.  Waiting is not my favorite thing to do.

So, last week, when I ended up with 2 gallons of goat milk, 1 gallon of Cozy cow whole milk and 2 gallons of Safeway brand Lucerne whole milk; I decided to start the waiting  and made  a baby swiss and a trappist style cheese.

The Baby Swiss recipe  comes from cheesemaking.com however, it is not on their site. It is in a downloadable recipe book for giving out your email address. It calls for 4 gallons of milk(I actually used 3 ½ gallons), Mesophilic culture, Propionic shermanii, and rennet.

Baby Swiss Directions:

• 1 Gal Cozy Cow Whole, 1 Gal Lucerne Whole 1 ½ Gal Goat Milk
• Heat to 84°, add Calcium Chloride, I used 1/2 tsp (Ph was 6.67)
• 1/8 tsp MA4002, 1/8 tsp Propionic shermanii
• Re-hydrate for 2 min, stir for 1, let sit for 45mins.
• Add 1 tsp rennet to water, mix for 1 min, set set for 45-55mins.
• Cut curd to 3/8 carefully, stir as you cut don’t shatter curds
• Then rest the curd for 5 mins., stir for 5, set for another 5.
• Remove 1/3 of the whey
• Add 130° water a little at a time to bring temp up to 95° then stir for 5mins.
• Continue to  add water to bring temp up to 102° it should take 5-10 mins.
• Now at temp. stir for 30-40 mins (PH was 6.59)
• The curd will be done when it is firm and has a moderate resistance between fingers
• let curd settle and begin to ladle off the whey.
• When you have about an inch of whey consolidate the curd to one side of the pot
• take a dinner plate and set it into the whey and place 2.5 lbs on top of plate. I used the empty milk container with some water in it. Press for 15 mins.
• move the curd into butter muslin and into a press . Try to keep the curd at 75°-80°.
• Press 1 hour at 8-10 lbs. Flip and redress
• Press 1 hour at 25-30 lbs.  Flip and redress
• Press 1 hour at 25-30 lbs.  Flip and redress
• Press 1 hour at 25-30 lbs.  Flip and redress
• Press 1 hour at 25-30 lbs.  Flip and redress, total of 5 hours
• Unmold and let rest for 8-10 hours, I covered it with a bowl to keep safe.
• Brine for 8-10 hrs, flip halfway through, you can sprinkle salt on top as it floats. I generally put a ramekin on top to keep it under the brine.(brined 9 hrs)
• Dry for a couple hours and put it in your cheese cave at 50°-55° for  2-4 weeks (dried for 2)
• Next age cheese at 65°-70°  3-4 weeks at 80% humidity
• This whole time after the brine you should wipe the cheese with brine to keep away mold and excessive drying.
• Turn cheese often (daily)
• After the 3-4 weeks out of the frig it can be waxed or returned to the cheese cave for several months.

Additional Notes: This is most of the  directions and generally what I did with this recipe.  During the step where the cheese was covered by the plate the Ph was 6.46 and dropping.  After I begin to press a cheese I hate to mess up the look by pressing my Ph meter into the cheese,  so I usually stop taking readings at this point. I rested the cheese longer than it said because it was overnight and I was asleep.  In the Frig, I kept the cheese in a cheese box. Every few days I wiped the cheese with brine. It didn’t get any mold until the end of the second week.

Update: The wheel developed normally for 2 weeks, with periodic wipe downs with brine till March 11th. After the 2 weeks in the frig the cheese came out for the warm aging process. It molded pretty badly with in 2 days.  From there on out I had to wash the cheese every 36 hours or so. Often, I would wipe it down in the morning and then again the following evening. On March 26th, a little over 2 weeks of warm aging and I had to wax the cheese, since I was going out of town. A week later (April 3)I came back to find that the cheese had really swelled(See the photo).  It had gone from 2.5 inches tall to over 4 inches. For the next few days, I turned it twice a day to even out the bulge.  On April 6th, I decided it had had enough and put it back into the Cave for the rest of the aging. There is a cheese contest the first week in June, so we will cut into it then.

The wheel developed quickly once I waxed it and the bulge got pretty crazy. So, I cut into it tonight to find the picture on the left.  It tastes pretty nice, a nice light swiss flavor. It needs a lot more time but, Wow, the eyes came out great.