The League of YEG Home Cheese Makers Meeting January 31, 2015

Sailor Rick ♦ February 1, 2015 ♦ 3 Comments

Well today was the first meeting of the year for the League of YEG Home Cheese Makers.  It has been quite awhile since we had met and we hoped some new members would attend.  It was nice to see everyone and try their cheeses.  For this meeting we decided to make fresh cheeses and of course we all brought along tidbits of other creations we had made.

Now for some cheese curdography:

 

Corinne’s Goat Cheeses

Corinne made a fresh goat cheese and then rolled the cheese in two different seasonings.  The upper one was rolled in Herbes de Provence from the San Juan Islands.  (this was the best tasting Herbes de Provence I have ever had).  The smaller balls were rolled in cardamum and pistachios (if my memory is correct).  Both very tasty.

Next up was Jonatan, our young transplant from Belgium who is on a quest for good cheese while living in the cheese wasteland known as Central Alberta.

This was Jonatan’s fresh cheese rolled in smoked paprika.

 

This was Jonatan’s ‘Something I had in the refridgerator’.

Jonatan’s fresh cheese rolled in smoked paprika was also a very tasty fresh cheese. His extra cheese was quite pungent and slightly bitter but very nice on a slice of his homemade baguette.

Next up was Janet, a new member who was a student of Ian’s.  She made an acid coagualted fresh cheese.

Janet’s Lemon Fresh Curd Cheese

Janet’s lemon cheese was nice and lemony fresh and perky in your mouth with a nice clean taste.

Next up we have Ian from Much To Do About Cheese.  Ian hosted today’s meeting and is one of the cofounders of both the League of YEG and Cheesepalooza.

 
Ian’s first cheese was a Formage Blanc rolled in Za’atar, a Middle Eastern spice mix.

 

Ian also did a Formage Blanc with Chil Flakes which gave the cheese a nice sizzle.

I have only ever had Za’atar on pita bread which I quite enjoy.  The cheese rolled in Za’atar was very nice with an exotic flavour twiast.

And of course Ian layed out a wonderful spread of his hard cheeses as well.

A one year old cloth bound cheddar!

You need a stout knife to slay a wild aged cheddar!

The hole in the right side of the top piece was caused by a

Trier; a tool used to sample hard cheeses as they age.

The cheddar was everything you hope for in a cloth bound cheddar, nutty, creamy in the mouth as it disolves on your tongue.  Excellent!!

Next up was an Appenzeller style cheese that Ian calls Joseph, after his Grandfather.

This is the second time Ian has made Joseph. 

The first was a decent cheese but with this one he’s hit the bulls-eye!  It has been aged about 10 months which would classify it as an ‘Extra’ if he had made it in Switzerland. 

Shhh!!! Don’t tell the Swiss but I think his may be better!

And finally yours truly brought some cheese as well.

My fresh cheese was a cheese made from home-made yoghurt; made using coffee cream (10%mf).  I drained the yoghurt for about 24 hrs and then mixed in some roasted smoked garlic (that I smoked using mesquite on my Traeger).  I then sprinkled it with paprika and smoked olive oil.

Unfortunately the olive oil picked up the colour of the paprika and turned an orangey colour.  Too bad as the original colour was a smoky light amber due to being smoked.  This cheese is somewhat sour as I let it age for three days in the yoghurt maker to reduce the level of milk sugars present.  This is the way we always make our yoghurt.

I also brought some cheeses from my cheese cave.

Cabra al Vin

The Cabra al Vin is almost 25 months old (the sign is misdated, I just checked my log book).  In my humble opinion it just keeps getting better; the fruity bouquet of the wine mixed with the goatiness of the cheese makes a wonderful aroma.  Unfortunately I didn’t write a blog post about this cheese when I made it.  I think I will make another in the near future which I will write about.

Next up were some Crottin.  Goat cheeses made in a French style.

 

You can read more about this particular cheese make here Crottin Ramblings or at my original post about Crottin called Goat Droppings.

My final contribution was a piece of 28 month old Caerphilly that I helped make at a now defunct local formagerie.  This was a special recipe that Ian helped them develop.

This was an amazing cheese which also keeps getting better.  The date on the sign is wrong, it was actually 2012.  It has notes of toffee and caramel, buttery; you just wanted to suck on a piece like candy.  

So there you have it a round up of the first meeting of 2015 for The League of Yeg Home Cheese Makers.

We will be meeting again in about 2 months where we will share surface ripened cheeses.  The plan is to meet every 2 months or so.  We also plan on making our own cloth bound cheddars to share at next January’s meeting.

Take care and make some cheese!!