Trappist Style – Saint Paulin – February 26, 2016

Trappist Style Cheese is named for the Trappist Monks that originally made the cheese. They were each named for the particular monastery such as Port Salut, Saint-Paulin.

These cheeses have a distinctive orange color and a smelly locker room kind of a smell, but the taste is worth the smell.

The recipe calls for 2 cultures or a blend of Thermophilic and Mesophilic cultures. For this make I chose MA4002 which is a blend. I also chose a combination of milk 3/4 gallon goat and 1/2 gallon grocery store whole milk.

At this time I didn’t have any B. Linens so I just washed it with brine. I did this for about 6 weeks before I grew tired of washing it just waxed it.

I left it in wax for 2 months until I took an advanced cheese making class and the teachers were really down on wax.  So I came home from the class and un-waxed this wheel and decided to  wash it with beer (New Belgium 1554). Every couple days I would wipe it down with a wet paper towel of beer.  The bottle lasted about 3 weeks and I continued with regular brine for another couple weeks before it looked really good. Then I put it in a seal-a-meal bag and forgot about it.

Update: Here we are 8 months later and I have tasted it a couple times and it is awesome. The rind is a little funky and adds to the mystery of this 1 pound wheel.  I have done a triple batch of Trappist and have a lot more to say about this style, so see the next Trappist entry.