Jack Schmidling Productions, Inc.
BAKER'S CHEESE..... As the name implies, this cheese is used for baking cheesecake and sweet roll fillings.
BRIE..... The soft mold ripened cheese that is the favorite of yuppies.
CHEDDAR..... The cheese Kraft would like to make but can't afford to do it right.
CREAM CHEESE..... Another one Kraft would like to make but can't afford to do it right.
GOUDA..... This is the nutty round cheese of Holland in the red wax coating.
MOZZARELLA..... The cheese of Pizza.
STILTON ..... A triditional English Blue Cheese.... goes great with Port wine.
Following this recipe for the cheese is my recipe for "Milwaukee Cheesecake" along with some background on how I got into this cheese.
Baker's cheese is made from skimed milk so it is a natural for
powdered milk. This is the procedure for about a pound of cheese
from a gallon of milk.
1. Mix up a gallon of milk from powder. I used one gallon of water and 388
gr powdered milk. Alternatively, use a gallon of 1% milk.
2. Heat to 90F and add 1/8 tsp EZAL culture or whatever you use as
equivalent.
3. A few drops of rennet in 1/4 cup water is added to milk.
4. Let sit for 8 hrs if you can keep the temp at about 90F or overnight at
room temp. Actual target is pH of 4.5 if you have a way to measure it.
5. Pour curds and whey into cheesecloth lined colander and then hang up to
drain for 15 minutes.
6. Press bag lightly between boards and drain until "moist but not wet".
This take about 2 hrs.
The cheese can then be refrigerated till needed. It is also, one of the few
cheeses that freezes well.
I grew up on what we called "Milwaukee
Cheesecake" and developed an intense dislike for the gooy sweet, cream
cheese cakes that Americans have come to consider cheesecake.
Until about 10 years ago we could still drive up to Milwaukee and get it but
they all stopped making it because no one wants it anymore. As it is no
longer available anywhere I know of, I have made a career of trying to
duplicate it from memory.
The cheese used is basic "baker's cheese" which can easily be made from
powdered milk and my latest iteration
of the cheesecake recipe and it is about as close to my recollection as I
can get now without tasting the real thing again.
The base is fairly heavy cake dough about midway between piecrust and sponge
cake. The filling is similar to the cheese fillings still found in some
sweet rolls. Moist but not creamy and a bit of an acid tang balanced against
the sugar and texture of a very heavy custard. They were typically made in
a large baking sheet and sold as squares of any size.
As a point of interest, I went through about 20 cookbooks and found only
one recipe for cheese cake that was not based on cream cheese. This indeed
is the problem. First of all, cream cheese is neither cheese nor made from
cream (not even Philly) these days. It is a chemical concoction that has
little to do, even with cows.
The key to real cheesecake is "baker's cheese" and this just is not
available in supermarkets. If you can find it, then all you need is a
recipe for real cheesecake.
Flour.......................... 1 cup
Blend all till smooth and pour into greased 8 x 8 baking pan. We use a 9" round springform pan.
Cheese Filling............
Baker's Cheese.............. 1/2 lb
Blend it all together and pour over crust. Bake at 350F for about 45 mins.
Bon appetit ...
js
This one gallon batch will make two, 4" cheeses about 1.5" thick when ripe. The recipe is for the cultures I use but you can substitute whatever mesophylic starter you normally use and you need at least one of the camembert cultures.
1 Gallon Homo Milk
Heat to 90F then add:
1/8 tsp of EZAL Meso culture
Ripen for one hour, then add:
1/8 tsp rennet then rest for 2 hrs.
Cut gently and dip the curds into perforated molds about 4" diameter and 8" high, resting on a small plate. A one gallon batch will fill two such molds.
Every few hours, put another plate on top and flip the moulds. In time, they will shrink down to less than 2" thick. By the next day, they should slide freely in the mold and retain their shape when the mold is lifted off.
Measure out 1/4 cup of salt onto a small plate and set a cheese in the salt. Turn the cheese over and put the clean side in the salt. Roll the edges in the salt and then wipe off excess salt and set the cheese on a draining matt and do the same to the other cheese. Handle the cheese gently at this point or it will fall apart and you have a mess. Continue this procedure until most of the salt has been rubbed into the two cheeses.
You now put the cheeses on a plastic or bamboo draining matt cut to fit into a plastic shoebox. Put the lid on the box and leave about a half inch opening and keep in a cool place. Ideally, around 55F and 85% humidity. The shoebox will maintain the humidity as described.
In a week or so they will start to grow the surface mold and after about 10 days will look like white furry hockey pucks. At this point you remove them from this environment and wrap them in foil and put in the fridge for about 20 more days. From here on, you can taste the cheese as it ripens to determine the best time schedule for your taste. By 60 days it will be a shell with white soupe inside so you have to sample it every week or so until you find what works best for you.
I will describe the process for two types of Cheddar here. The standard Cheddar is a hard cheese that needs at least 6 months to ripen and is best just eaten by itself. For sandwiches, slicing and melting, a softer version is preferred and this is a "washed cheddar". The process is the same except for the washing step just before pressing.
The following is for a 4 gallon batch. Cut everything in half for two gallons.
3.5 gallons water
1. Heat water to 170F, mix in the powder and after all the lumps are out, add the cream.
2. Adjust milk to 86F, then add:
2 tsp calcium chloride
3. Ripen for 45 minutes at 86F or until pH drops a measureable amount (.02 units)
4. Adjust temp for 86F then add 2 tsp liquid rennet or equivalent tablets. Stir thoroughly for no more than two minutes. Cover kettle and allow curd to set for 30 to 60 minutes until firm enough to cut.
5. Cut curd with whisk and let rest for 10 minutes.
6. Add heat very slowly to heat curd to 101F over about 30 minutes. Stir very gently and break up big lumps.
7. Maintain 101F for 75 minutes or pH 6.10, stirring regularly. This point is called wheyoff and is an important benchmark in the process.
8. Let curd rest without stirring for about 5 minutes, the carefully pour off the whey. When most of the whey is off, set the kettle on its side to drain into the sink till runoff stops. Then stand the kettle in the sink with warm water (120F) for about 15 minutes to form a firm curd matt.
9. Lay the matt on a clean surface and cut it into slabs about 1-1/2 inch thick. Lay these on the bottom of the kettle and put the kettle back into the sink of warm water. About every 15 minutes, re-arrange them by flipping and stacking them so the get presses by their own weight to about half the original thickness. Continue this for 90 minutes or pH 5.3.
10. The next step is known as milling and represents another benchmark in the cheese process. The slabs are broken up into small pieces (walnut sized) and salted which drastically slows the acid production and essentially ends the make.
11. If the softer cheddar is desired, cover the milled curds for cold tap water for 15 minutes, then drain again.
12. In either case, we now weigh the cheese and add 2.5% by weight of salt. It usually works out to about 60 to 70 grams (3-4 tablespoons) for a 4 gallon batch. Mix the salt into the curds thoroughly for several minutes.
13. Pack curds into the cheese press and press lightly for an hour. Flip the cheese and continue pressing and flipping, gradually increasing the pressure with each flip.
14. After about 5 hours, remove the cheese from the press and wrap in a cheese cloth bandage that is just a bit longer than the circumference of the cheese and wide enough to cover the ends. Return the cheese to the press and press at 50 lbs overnight.
15. Flip the cheese and press for another hour and do this until the surface of the cheese is smooth and devoid of pits and cracks.
16. Remove cheese cloth and air dry till the surface is dry to the touch then wax or rub with olive oil and age at 50F for at least 60 days for the the washed cheddar and 6 months for the hard.
The procedure is basically that described in Cheesemaking Made Easy with a few
variations that suite my style.
The following is for a 4 gallon batch. Cut everything in half for two gallons
with the exception of the wash water in step #5.
1. Heat milk to 90F, add 1 cup meso starter, stir well; add 2 tsp liquid renet,
stir for one min.
2. Hold at 90F for 75 minutes
3. Cut curd and rest for 10 min.
4. Raise temp slowly to 100F, taking about 30 min to get there.
5. While doing #4, heat 6 quarts of water in a separate kettle to 100F.
6. Ladle off 2 qts of whey and add 2 qts of the 100F water. Repeat two more
times at 10 minute intervals. Total time at 100F should be about 60 min.
7. Pour off the whey and carefully lay kettle on it's side over the edge of the
sink and let it drain for about ten minutes or untill it just drips.
8. Break curd into mold sized chunks and pack into a cheesecloth lined mold.
9. Press at about 20 lbs for 30 min, flip and repeat.
10. Remove cheese from mold, remove cheesecloth and dress cheese with bandage
per instructions above.
11. Press at about 40 lbs for 3 hrs, flipping several times during the
interval.
12. Because of the nature of the beast, you will end up with a log of cheese
which does not look much like a classical Gouda. At this point I cut the log
into two or three Gouda sized pieces and if they are rough looking, I press
them between plates or cheese boards for an hour or so just to clean up the
ends. No weight is needed if you stack them up as the cheese above will provide
ample weight.
13. Disolve 1.25 lbs of salt in 2 quarts of water in a stainless or plastic pan
and float the cheeses in this brine for 3 hrs.
14. Remove from brine and air dry at 50F for three weeks.
You can then eat them or red wax them for that Gouda look".
1 Gallon reconstituted powdered skim milk
Heat milk, cream and calcium chloride to 90F.
The proper stretch can only be achieved at a pH of between 5.3 and 5.1. If you have no way of measuring it, assume it is near enough at 4.5 hrs from the time the culture was added. At this point, break up the curd mass into walnut sized pieces, put them in a plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, heat up enough water to cover the curds to about 170F and place the curds in this water. If all goes well, the curds will soften up so they can be stirred and kneaded into a dough-like consistancy. Use a pair of large spoons to press individual pieces together to build up one mass from all the pieces. This lump of cheese can be pulled and stretched like taffy and once it takes on a sheen, form into a ball and place in a pan of cold water. The trick is to keep the curds around 135F as this is the actual temperature that proper stretching
When the ball is cool, mix one cup of salt with one quart of water and float the cheese in this for about 8 hours. As an alternate you can add 1% salt by weight to the cheese toward the end of the kneading process.
The cheese is then stored in the fridge after air drying for a few hours.
The following recipe/procedure for making Stilton cheese presumes you have read and understand the basics of cheesemaking as described on the Cheese Making Page.
It should be noted that it is one of the few cheeses that does not suffer from the use of homo milk.
Ingredients Required:
2 gallons homo milk
Heat milk and cream to 88F then add cultures and rennet and hold at 88F for 90 minutes.
Cut curd with French whisk very gently and let rest for 30 minutes.
Pour off whey till just over curd and let rest for 30 minutes.
Dip or pour curds into cheese cloth lined collander or tub. Form cheese cloth into a bag and hang to drain for 15 minutes.
Press bag of curds between boards with 10 lb weight for 2 hrs.
Return the curds to the kettle and break up into walnut sized pieces. Add 2 tbs salt and mix thoroughly.
Put curds into 4" mold and set aside to drain and compress by its own weight. Invert the mold several times a day for several days until the cheese slides out and retains it shape.
To ripen the cheese, it should be in a cool and humid environment. A plastic shoe box with the lid on will maintian about 95% humidity with the cheese inside. For the first month or so, it wants to be around 60F.
After surface blueing is obvious, pierce the cheese from both ends about 20 times with a long needle.
It is delicious at 60 days but just keeps getting better with time.
18016 Church Road ~ Marengo IL 60152
If you have never made cheese before, please read and understand the Cheese Making page before attempting these cheeses.
YOGURT ..... Not really cheese but this is "The World's Greatest Yogurt" MILWAUKEE CHEESECAKE
Crust........
Butter........................ 3 TBS
Baking Powder.......... 1 tsp
Egg ................... 1
Half and Half............ 6 TBS
Flour ................... 1 TBS
Half and Half ............ 1/2 cup
Vanilla........................... 1/2 tsp
Egg ..................... one
Sugar............................ 1/4 cup
Salt............................... pinch
The difference between Brie and Camembert as found in typical American cheese shops is mainly a matter of shape and size. Brie is a large wheel and Camembert is 3-4 inches. Traditionally, Brie would also have a red smear coating of B. linnens but it is strictly an option here.
1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride
1/8 tsp of P. camembert
1/8 tsp of G. camembert
One drop of B. linnensMILK
1810 grams (one box) powdered skim milk
4 pints whipping cream
I usually do this the night before and just let it sit on the stove and cool over night. A fan helps in hot weather.
1/4 tsp color (optional)
1/2 tsp EZAL M101 lactic culture or 1/2 cup prepared cultureIngredients:
1 Pint whipping cream
1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride
1/8 tsp S. thermophylus
1/8 tsp L. lactis
1/2 tsp liquid rennet
1 cup salt
Add cultures and ripen for one hour.
Add 1/2 tsp rennet dilluted with 1/4 cup water to milk and stir for no more than 2 minutes.
Let curd set for one hour undisturbed.
Cut curd and rest for 15 minutes, then heat slowly to 100F stirring very gently only to distrubute heat.
Rest at 100F for 15 minutes then drain off whey and set kettle in sink with warm (100F) water.
Use a turkey baster to remove whey as it forms and once the curd has matted together, flip it about every 30 minutes and remove whey and maintain water bath at 100F.
1 pint whipping cream
1 tsp calcium chloride
1/4 cup mesophilic starter culture
1/8 tsp P. roqueforte
1 tsp rennet
2 tbs salt
jack@schmidling.com