Home Made Cheese 6: Alpine

Cheese making is the art of separating curds from whey. There are a million ways to do that, which is why there are a million types of cheese.

Have you ever found something that you enjoyed so much that you dived deep and got really good at it?

One of my first alpine cheeses.

In the earlier posts in this series on cheese making, I emphasized that YOU CAN MAKE CHEESE. Good cheese. You don't have to have lots of fancy equipment or skill to turn out some really good, simple cheeses.

There are some cheeses, though, that are worth investing time and equipment in.

Alpine cheese is one of those. My alpine cheese is sweet and nutty. I love to eat it with apple slices and cured ham.

Technically, "alpine" is not a specific type of cheese. It's a family of cheeses. This family includes Swiss, gruyere, paramsan, comte, and more. I have been developing a particular alpine style cheese for several years now. I haven't named it, I just call it alpine. It is fairly close to gruyere.

Other families of cheeses are:

• pasta filata (stretched curd cheeses like mozzarella, scamorza, and provolone)

• cheddars (cheddared curd cheeses like cheddar (duh!), leicester, and derby)

• washed curd (gouda, colby)

• blue (stilton, roquefort)

• bloomy rind (brie, camembert, Humbolt fog)

• fresh cheeses (paneer, cottage cheese, ricotta)

• washed rind (muenster, limburger)

The sheer number of cheeses in this world is astounding. Each and every little step of separating whey from curds can be tweaked one way or another, and the path that these steps takes you leads to cheeses that vary widely.

The path that makes alpine cheese is:

1. The milk is inoculated with thermophilic bacteria and allowed to ripen.

2. Rennet is added.

3. When the rennet has set, the curd is cut fine with a whisk.

4. You stir it and heat it for a long time to get most of the whey out.

5. Press it to consolidate the dry curds into a wheel.

6. Salt the wheel.

7. Let it age to perfection.

Cheese Press

For alpine cheese you need a cheese press and a place to age the cheese (a "cave"). There are options for less expensive presses, and it is possible to use your cool basement or your fridge as a cave.

My Dutch style cheese press with my bucket-mold, a cheese cloth, and the tub to catch whey. What this does not show is the 1 gallon bucket that I fill with water and hang from the arm to act as a weight.

I really love my Dutch style press. What makes Dutch presses great is that they utilize the physics of leverage to multiply a smaller weight to create the effect of a much heavier weight. It's nice, if you make a cheese that requires 50 pounds of weight, to not need 50 pounds of dumb bells or rocks. You take, for instance, a jug or bucket of water which weighs around 8 pounds, and depending on how far out on the arm you put it, its weight is multiplied 3, 4, 5 or 6 times the actual weight of the jug.

My advice is to stay away from a press that utilizes pressure from screws. Once the cheese has lost a bit of whey from the pressure initially applied by the screws, it is no longer the same volume and therefore there is no longer as much pressure on it.

There is a style of press that uses spring loaded pressure. It's a very clever style of press because it does not need weights at all. I have no experience with this type, but I think it would work well.

You can buy or make a press that utilizes weights sitting directly on top of your cheese. Use caution if you try to make your own, because as the curds consolidate, the shape of the curds under the weight changes. This can lead to the forming cheese becoming lopsided on top, which can cause a heavy weight to fall if the weight was balanced on initially level curds. That actually happened to me with a home made "press" I had cobbled together. It cracked the enamel on my sink.

An inexpensive home made option, that won't crack your sink, is to buy plans for an Off the Wall Cheese Press at New England Cheese Making Supply. The plans cost about $5, and give detailed instructions for building your own Dutch style press that attaches to a wall.

You may wonder if the same type of double bucket press described in the Queso Fresco blog would work. Maybe? I am concerned that it would not have enough weight to consolidate alpine curds, which are drier than queso fresco curds. If you didn't make your curds quite as dry as the recipe here describes, it might work. Don't leave them too moist, though, or the cheese will develop a sour flavor as it ages.

Cheese Cave

We would all love to have an old world style cheese cave with arched brick ceilings to age our cheeses in. But when American home cheese makers talk about cheese caves, that is not what we have in mind. A cave is any cool and safe place to age your cheese.

The easiest way to age your cheese is to vacuum seal it and stick it in the fridge. The down side of this method is that in the oxygen free environment of the plastic casing, it does not develop a moldy rind (which gets brushed off before eating, it is not like the bloomy rind of brie). The ecology of a natural, moldy rind contributes many complex flavors that make your cheese taste like true artisan cheese. Lacking this ecology on its surface, your cheese will taste more like typical store bought cheese. It's good, and it's mild. Kids will like it. It will not taste like the expensive cheese you buy in gourmet food stores. On the plus side, cheese aged this way melts like a dream.

Another option many dedicated cheese makers choose is to buy a wine cooler which can be set to 55F and 80% humidity. This is the perfect environment to age a cheese with a natural rind. Cheese aged in a wine fridge will taste amazing, and is kept safe from rodents and crawlies.

The way I age my cheese is in plastic tubs in my basement. The tubs have holes drilled for ventilation, and the lids have holes too. It is not a precision controlled environment. It is warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter. I notice that cheeses age faster in the warmer months and slower in the winter months. Likewise, the humidity is higher in the summer and lower in the winter. If moisture condenses on the sides of the tub in the summer, I partly open the lid for more ventilation. If the cheeses feel bone dry in the winter, I put a little water in with them to prevent them from drying out. Thankfully, my house does not have mice that would eat my cheeses. However, there are always a few wheels during the summer that get little bugs crawling on them. I have to inspect them every week or two. If I find one with something crawling on it, I bring the wheel upstairs, vacuum off the surface mold (which is what I always do before eating a wheel), then wrap it in plastic wrap and let it finish aging in my fridge. This always works. I think it kills whatever bugs were there. When I set that cheese on my counter during the couple of weeks that it's being eaten, I never see more signs of bugs, and the inside is untouched by them. I know that this would turn some people off. I guess I'm just crunchy enough that I roll with it!

A plastic bin with holes drilled in it and its lid, sitting on a shelf in my cool basement, safely aging my cheese.

If you vacuum seal your cheese and age it in your fridge, you don't have to do any more to it until you pull it out to be eaten. But if you age your cheese in a wine cooler or in your cool basement, and mold grows on it, you will need to turn it every other week or so. You want to prevent moisture from condensing under the wheel and causing it to rot. And of course, take the opportunity to check for bugs, if that is a problem for you, during the summer!

I used to worry about mold growing on my cheese rinds. I would brush them every time I turned them. This is time consuming and dirty. Then I took a cheese class where the teacher said that she used to do that too, until she went on vacation and left a cheese untended for a few weeks. When she got back, it was completely covered in wild and crazy mold. She despaired, but decided to taste it anyway. After she vacuumed off the surface and cut into it, she found that it was the most delicious cheese she had ever eaten! She no longer worries about mold growth. Neither do I. Let it grow, then brush it (outside) or vacuum it off before you cut into it.

Various types of mold colonize the surface of a natural rind cheese.

Waxing a cheese prevents it from drying out, developing mold, and getting bugs on it. I used to try to wax cheeses, but they always got moisture build up inside of the wax which ruined the cheese. I was not happy with it and went with the way described above to age my cheese instead. You are welcome to wax it it if you like, but be aware that waxing presents its own set of difficulties and I do not have the knowledge to tell you how to do it right.

Another obvious idea is to vacuum seal cheese being aged in a wine cooler or basement, but this is actually a bad idea. Ammonia builds up inside of the plastic and makes the cheese both sour and wet. I only recommend vacuum sealing cheese that will be aged in a cold refrigerator.

Alpine Cheese Recipe

I highly recommend that you make this cheese in a double boiler.

I am going to give directions here assuming you are not using a double boiler. Just remember that if you really want to perfect your method, that will take you to a new level!

In a double boiler, you don't have the intense heat of the stove surface directly under your milk which allows you to heat it faster (better for controling how acidic it becomes by limiting bacteria growth during a slow warm up), and the protein doesn't stick to your pot. Secure the inner pot to the outer pot by zip tying the handles together. If you use a double boiler, you may heat it directly on your stove top, or use water from instant tea pots, or a sous vide. Hot or cold water can be added or taken away as needed. The water in the outer pot can be emptied by siphoning it out with a long tube.

Equipment:

5 gallon pot ("cheese vat")

slotted stainless steel spoon

spoon rest

large whisk

measuring spoons

cheese press

cheese cloth or sock

4 lb cheese mold (you can make one from a gallon bucket)

thermometer

empty quart sized yogurt container

Ingredients:

4 gallons raw milk

thermophilic culture according to directions, or 3/16 tsp

1/2 tsp liquid rennet

1/8 cup non idodized salt (in this case, himalayan salt is fine because it will not mix in the curds to make them gritty)

If you have any doubts about the cleanliness of your equipment, sterilize it by placing anything that will come in contact with the milk or curds in the cheese vat with an inch of water, with the lid on, and boil for 10 minutes.

Pouring my raw cow's milk in my cheese vat. Notice that I have a double boiler set up.

Pour the milk into the cheese vat. Heat it as quickly as possible to 90F without scorching the bottom. Stir as needed.

While it is heating, add the culture. Let the culture powder rehydrate on the surface for a few minutes before stirring it in the milk.

Let it sit at 90F to ripen for 30 minutes with the lid on the pot.

Add the rennet and stir it in thoroughly for about 30 seconds.

In 15 minutes, check the consistency. What you are looking for is a "soft break" (not a clean break like many recipes call for). You want it to be firm enough that the curd can be cut, but not so firm that it cuts with clean edges and bright yellow whey. You want to catch it before it reaches that stage. It should be like firm pudding, but not like jello. Most likely it will not have reached that stage yet at 15 minutes, so come back every 5 minutes until it does. Usually it take 20 or 25 minutes for me, but sometimes as much as 45 minutes.

When it has reached a soft break, set your timer for 10 minutes and start whisking the curd into as small of curds as you can. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom corners of your vat with the whisk to get it all. Continue stirring with the whisk for the entire 10 minutes.

Now set the whisk aside and resume stirring with your slotted spoon. Set the timer for a half hour, and turn the heat on medium low. Your goal is for the temperature to reach 100F or so by the end of the half hour. Stir the curds this whole time. It's a great time to listen to an audio book or your favorite podcast. You can bribe your kids to help you stir to give your arm a break! I like to sit on my stove top so I'm not standing the whole time.

At the end of the half hour, set the timer for another 20 minutes. Keep stirring. Increase the heat to medium or medium high so that by the end of the 20 minutes, the temperature of the whey is somewhere between 114 - 118F. Break up any large curds that got missed by the whisk. (If you had done this during the previous half hour, curds would mat into clumps while you stopped stirring to do this.)

By the end of this time, the curds should be done or almost done. The goal is for the curds to have the texture of a soft rubber eraser. If they are wet and squishy still, they are not ready yet. It's ok if a few have that squishy texture, but the majority should be firm.

If they aren't quite there yet, it's ok to now take a break from stirring for 10 minutes. Come back and check them. If they need more time, stir for 5 minutes, then take another 10 minute break.

Raw milk varies in its composition and how the curds respond to cooking. Different stages of lactation and the food the cows are eating make a difference. Usually the curds are ready after the first hour of stirring. Sometimes it takes up to another 45 minutes or so.

(A big advantage of using a double boiler is that because there is no direct heat under your vat, it does not need to be stirred constantly after the first half hour. The gentle hot water bath will not cause curds to mat and stick like direct heat does.)

Once the curds are firm, let them settle in the vat for a few minutes. Get your cheese press ready with the cloth lining the mold.

Then take a clean yogurt container and begin dipping off whey into a bucket. (You may choose to make this into ricotta, as described in my queso fresco blog.) Remove the whey down to the level of the curds. Be careful to not remove any curds with the whey!

Now consolidate the curds by pushing down on them with your slotted spoon. Try to form them into one large mat. Occasionally the curds are dry enough that this does not work, but normally I am able to get them into one mass by pressing them under the whey.

Lift out the curds in one mass, if possible, or by the spoonful if necessary, into your lined mold. Once they are all in there, push them down to compact them as much as possible.

Pull up on the cheese cloth around the sides of the mold to pull out any spots where it may be folded between curds. Then fold one end of the cloth as flat as possible over the top of the curds. Put the follower over the cloth, then place the packed and ready mold in the press.

The cheese after its first pressing has a lot of rough edges.

Begin by pressing at about 24 pounds for a half hour.

Remove the cheese from the press and from the mold. Unwrap the cloth. It will have many imperfections, but you will see as you turn it a few times that it will consolidate into a beautiful round wheel. Turn the cheese upside down from how it had been and rewrap it. Put it back in the mold at about 32 pounds of pressure for an hour.

Centering the cheese in its mold under the arm of the cheese press.

Flip it and rewrap it again. See how much nicer it looks this time? Now press it at 40 pounds for two hours.

This time when you take it out, unwrap it but do not rewrap it. It is done pressing. It needs to remain in the mold so that it doesn't sag overnight--it is still very soft. Put it back in the mold with no cloth. place it upside down from the last time it was pressed so that the ridge around what had been the top is now getting flattened by its own weight underneath it. Put the follower on top so it doesn't dry out overnight.

The next day, at around the same time you began making cheese the day before, take the wheel out of the mold to salt it. Have it in a tray that will catch the whey that seeps out. Rub salt onto all surfaces and leave it on your counter.

The next day, flip it over so that the salt on the top gets absorbed by being underneath where it is wet.

After salting, the cheese sits on the counter while it forms a rind.

Give it a couple of days to absorb almost all of the salt.

Rinse off any stubborn remaining salt with cool water, then place the wheel on a clean towl on your counter to dry. Flip it every day for a few days, until it has formed a nice dry rind.

Now it is ready to age in your fridge, a wine cooler, or your basement. Be sure to label it with the day that you started it so you know when it will be ready. It can be eaten in as little as 6 weeks, or as long as several months after you made it.

I'm not gunna lie, there's a lot that can go wrong with making hard aged cheeses. It's disappointing when you put so much milk and effort and aging time into something only to have it flop. That's why I teach classes on alpine cheese. It is well worth it to get you started on the right foot making aged cheese. It saves you a lot of money in the long run!