#44 - Blue Mistake by Crescent Dairy Goats

Back in March when I was on my way home from the NZ Champions of Cheese Awards, I called in at Crescent Dairy Goats near Kumeu just north-west of Auckland. I have already written a little about Crescent Dairy Goats in a previous post here.

Jan Walter kindly allowed me to taste through most of her 14 cheeses, which ranged from fresh cheese, to farmhouse hard ripened cheese at multiple ages, mould ripened styles and a washed rind.  But the one that caught my imagination was called "Blue Mistake". As Jan explained, some of their "farmhouse" hard style cheeses had a little openness in the curd and started growing some blue mould whilst they were maturing.  Rather than give up on the cheese like many large manufacturers would have done, Jan kept aging the cheese, and eventually when it was quite mature it was vacuum packed.  There were only a few pieces left, so rather then asking Jan to open one up for me to taste, I purchased one to take home and try out later on.  I definitely did not regret that decision.

The Blue Mistake had a great looking rind, all dark and blotchy with mixed moulds.  The aroma of the cheese was earthy, slightly "blue" but not strong, and lacking the strong lipase/fatty acid aroma many strong blues have (think Danish blues).  It was a lower moisture cheese so the blue enzymes hadn't run rampant over the rest of the cheese flavour development.

The texture of the Blue Mistake was actually more moist and less firm than expected. The flavour was salty and earthy.  There were some free fatty acids from the blue mould, but these were nicely in balance.  It had quite a subtle but complex flavour - made me think of some cheeses I have tried from Europe where the animals have been fed on a mixed pasture rather than a straight grass pasture. The blue was mostly around the outer 1/3rd of the cheese - although in this case that can't be considered a defect as the blue wasn't originally intended to be part of the cheese!

What I really like about this cheese was that the cheese itself was delicious and complex on it's own, with the blue mould adding an extra aspect to appreciate.

Washed rind cheese experiment

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was given a cheese on my visit to Lonely Goat to see how it went when I looked after it at home.  As best I can determine, Rae from Lonely Goat had washed some of her medium style cheeses (about 1.2kg rounds) once or twice with a solution containing B.linens, and had then vacuum sealed the cheeses.  The cheeses had been made in mid august 2013, so by the time I was given mine in December I estimate it would have spent 3 months sealed up and refrigerated at 4°C, with no further rind development.  So I was interested to see whether I could re-establish the rind flora at home and what sort of rind would develop.

 

First I had to find myself a spare fridge I could operate as a small ripening cave.  Thanks to Trade Me, I found a cheap fridge and also a temperature controller (the type used for controlling cool rooms) so that I could select a specific ripening temperature and have reasonable control rather relying on the fridge thermostat.  Finding and purchasing these, and then giving the fridge a really good clean took me a while, so by the time I was ready to get the cheese out of its sealed bag and into my new ‘cave’ it was already 7 months old.

So in the middle of March 2014, I removed the cheese from its bag, wiped it down, and put it on a rack in my fridge/cave.  I started by washing the rind every few days with a weak brine solution (about 3% salt in a cup of boiling water, then cooled).  i didn't have any B.linens culture to add to the brine, so had to hope there was still something left on the cheese surface (and in the "environment") to get a decent rind culture to develop.

The cheese on day 0 after the first wash.  At this point it was already 7 months old but looks quite young, almost like it was recently made.

Initially I started with a temperature of 10°C.  A day after the first wash, the rind was just tacky, I thought it was too dry.  So I put an ice cream container of water in the fridge next to the cheese to help add moisture and keep the humidity up.

Three days later, with another wash in between, I thought the rind was still a bit dry, so I increased the temperature to 12°C to try and reduce the amount of moisture condensing through refrigeration, and I also placed a plastic cake container over the cheese to help create a high moisture environment.

Ten days after starting, there was an obvious pink/creamy coloured culture forming on the rind.  It was what I had been hoping for - slightly tacky to the touch, but not wet.

The fridge cave environment.

After 10 days, a culture is developing on the rind.

A week later, I removed the cake container as I didn't want the cheese getting too moist, but I gave it a few more brine washes.

After a month in the fridge/cave, I stopped washing with brine, and instead just used a damp cloth to clean up the rind and just keep it moist.  At this stage, the rind had large areas of lighter colour which were dry, and I assumed these to be some sort of combined growth of bacteria and mould.  For the remaining few weeks, I didn't quite give the cheese the care I should have, what with travelling for Easter etc.  A weekly wipe was all it got. 

After 3 weeks.

When we cut the cheese open to taste, it was nearly 9 months old, and had spent approximately 7 weeks in my fridge cave. The rind was dry with flaky, powdery areas which we assumed to be minerals drawn to the rind due to the pH rising on the surface as the rind flora grew.  These powdery patches could easily be scraped off with a knife to improve the appearance of the cheese.

Cheese was cut 7 weeks after we first removed it from the vacuum bag and put it in the fridge.  

The cheese was reasonably crumbly inside, so I suspect it had lost a reasonable amount of moisture, but also the texture suggested to me that the cheese was probably reasonably low in pH originally.  However the texture was pleasant, with a moist mouthfeel.  Unfortunately I don’t know what the cheese tasted like when I received it, so I can’t really compare it to that.  But I can describe what it was like when we had finished ripening it.  The flavour was slightly goaty but not in an unpleasant billy goat way, and with a little contribution from lipase activity. There was a slight bitterness.  The rind tasted slightly earthy but not “smelly”.  

It was a tasty cheese, but it didn't quite all balance together as a cheese to eat on its own – however it has been an experiment so that is to be expected.  It was very nice on a cracker with some of our home made crabapple jelly, and was also great in a frittata and salad.  

Lonely Goat, Wanganui, NZ

Back in December I visited Rae and Brian Doughty at Lonely Goat, near Wanganui.

 

Rae and Brian make small batches of goats milk cheese from their 40 milking does, predominantly Saanen, with a few British Alpine and Anglo Nubians thrown in the mix.  Before setting up their little factory, they had milked goats to supply a large New Zealand goat milk company, and became interested in cheese making.  Originally self taught from books, after attending the New Zealand Cheese School they won two silver medals in 2010 at the NZ Champions of Cheese Awards.  The attention to detail shows is shown by the cleanliness and tidiness of their cheese making room.  Rae makes a variety of cheeses including feta, halloumi, small amounts of camembert, and a fresh cream cheese style, while Brian looks after the rest of the farm.  This is a retirement project, so batches are small and hand made, and generally only available in the local region.  Rae and Brian have a stall at the Wanganui Farmers Market, and the cheese is available at a few delicatessens in the surrounding region.  I will feature a couple of Lonely Goat Fetas in an upcoming post. 

Rae and Brian in their cheese room overlooking the garden and farm.  Courtesy of Lonely Goat.

 Rae also likes to experiment with recipes, flavours and coatings. While I was visiting, Rae showed me some cheeses that she had been encouraged to make by Calum Hodgson, a cheesemonger from Auckland.  Calum had urged Rae to try a washed rind version of her gouda style cheese, and Rae had washed a few with a solution of B.linens but then decided not to continue washing them and had vacuum sealed them.  It turns out Rae doesn’t like washed rind cheeses all that much.  But she gave me one to take home and see what I could do with it.  This sounded like a good challenge, and a good excuse to get myself set up with a spare fridge for ripening cheeses which I was always saying I “would do sometime”.  In my next post, I will talk in more detail about my little experiment with ripening the cheese that Rae gave me.