Emmental - the right way

Last year I tried to make Emmental but got the pressing times and weights mixed up when a page turned in my recipe book without me realising. The resulting Gremmental (Gruyere/Emmental) was actually really good but I thought I would try doing it the  proper way. I had to buy some more Proprioni shermani culture as my last year's batch had solidified so it has taken me some time to get around to doing it. This time I followed the pressing times perfectly and now my cheese is sitting in a brine bath for the next 12 hours. It then goes to the cheese fridge for a week to be washed in brine every day and then sits out in a warm spot for a couple of weeks for the holes to develop. Let's hope in a few months' time it is a winner!

The Pantry's almost full

Yesterday I made a big batch of tomato relish as I am running out of preserving bottles to do any more tomato paste or puree. When I tried to fit all 9 jars in the preserves cupboard, I had a bit of trouble finding space!

There is so much to do at this time of year I don't have much time to write this blog. The vege garden needs cleaning up and planting for winter, there is pruning to be done in the orchard and then there is all the harvest produce to do something with. I try to make sourdough bread once a week and make some cheese every couple of weeks too!

Here is the relish on the boil........

..........and the finished product.

When Camembert goes wrong - what does it become?

After the success of my January batch of Camembert, I decided to have another go a couple of weekends ago. I followed exactly the same recipe. I don't know if it was that the weather was quite humid that day and so didn't allow for enough drainage but something went radically wrong this time. First of all there was no mould growth after a few days and secondly the initially 3cm or more thick rounds collapsed. Eventually I gave up on expecting the mould growth and tried spraying some penicillium culture on mixed with a little water, using an atomiser bottle. This is the result. A bit of mould growth but the cheese is starting to ooze. Actually it sort of tastes ok - at least the people who came to my book discussion group the other night seemed to think so. They wolfed it down! I had a store-bought King Island brie on the plate as well - what a bland flavour after the super ripeness of my January batch. And the nice thing was - my cheese was all eaten and there was brie left over.....so whose did they prefer?