If Cheese Could Talk

My success rate for homemade cheese is about 20-30%.  For every good one I manage to make (and age, since that seems to be my downfall), there's another 3-4 bad ones.  The trouble is, often it's not until you've aged the cheese for many weeks or even months that you find out it's all gone horribly wrong.  And even then, the cheese stays silent as to what went wrong in the process.

Was it something I did while I was making you? Too much culture?  Too little heat?  Or was I neglectful when you were ageing?  Too dry or too humid?  Put me out of my misery and just say something!!

The good news is, there are some good self-help guides I can go to on the web that often shed some light on the most likely reasons for the inedible results.  And while some cheeses that have fallen to the waste bin will remain forever a mystery, others have helped me along on my cheese-making adventures to hopefully do better on the next ones.

So here's to all my failures (many more not pictured):

Top Left: Dill Havarti - texture was drier than it should be and it was way too salty.  Kind family and friends still ate it.  I love them.

What I Learned: Don't overdo it on the brine solution or leave the cheese brining for too long.

Top Right: Rosemary Cheddar (Bandaged at this stage) - super dry.  I think I didn't age long enough and didn't give it enough humidity.  The bandaging still is a puzzle to me - lots of black mold was growing on the outside which freaked me out so I just pulled it all off and cracked into early, for fear the mold was growing on the inside (it wasn't).

Learning: I guess the bandaging was working and I should have trusted it - but more humidity next time, so keep it in its own ageing box (these cheeses are sure high maintenance!!)

Bottom Left: Gouda - the texture was more like parmesan when we cracked into early (maybe a little over 2 months old). Taste was far too mild for an aged gouda.

Learning: More humidity so it's not so dry too early.

Bottom Right: Trappist Cheese - this one was actually quite tasty. Texture and taste were everyone's favourite.  BUT, the recipe had coriander seeds in the middle section of the cheese and this caused blue mold because the seeds left air pockets.
Learning: Next time, leave the seeds out.

Given the Trappist Cheese was the winner, I decided a nice confidence boost was in order.  Go with one you KNOW will work.. So I made it again, sans coriander seeds.  From the picture (right), it actually looks quite nice.  Then you taste it and it was DIS.GUST.ING.  What went wrong on this one still remains unsolved.

Awhhh. And Alas, R.I.P first-attempt at blue cheese.  Was looking good after a few weeks... Smelled like blue, looked like some nice blue veins.  But I think I left about 2 weeks too long ageing and in too humid conditions. What results is a stinky (not in a good way) cheese with greyish veins running through.
Learning: Don't go away on holiday assuming these cheeses will happily age themselves gracefully.  Contrary to popular belief, this is not the case.


**All my recipes came from Artisan Cheese Making at Home by Mary Karlin.  I've really enjoyed a lot of her recipes and she explains things very simply.  (Despite their simplicity, it seems there's still plenty of room for error!)