Sunday, 29 May 2011
A visit to Comté: The King of Gruyères
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Sunday, 10 April 2011
Latic Goat's Cheeses
Two weeks ago, French dairy consultant Ivan Larcher came to the School of Artisan Food to teach us the art and science behind making lactic cheeses - a style of cheese popular in France. Think of the Loire Valley cheeses: St Maure, Valençay, Crottin, Pouligny St.-Pierre and all the different shaped Goat's cheeses which become available in Spring.
Ivan taught us the importance of measuring the acidity development during the ripening period of the milk and how to control it at different temperatures. He explained the acidity curve - a graph to display the correlation between time and acidity in milk maturation. The theroy of a lactic set cheese is that by deveolping lactic acid over a period of time, and with the aid of the smaller amount of rennet (to stabilize the coagulation) a fragile clot will form.
Each of us dairy cadets followed a slightly different recipe, with our milk being incubated at varying temperatures, % starter, and quantity of rennet.
I made cheeses with raw Goat's milk, geotrichum candidum, .5% starter, .8% rennet, and at 16°C. This took 24 hours to acidify to the correct level, pH4.6.
I ladle the curd directly into Crottin moulds. The curds firmed up over the next 24hours and were removed from the moulds and salted 48hours from ladling.
We matured our little Goat's cheeses for 14 days , by which time they had developed a wrinkly rind with a thin creamy breakdown.
Lovely little cheeses.
Ivan taught us the importance of measuring the acidity development during the ripening period of the milk and how to control it at different temperatures. He explained the acidity curve - a graph to display the correlation between time and acidity in milk maturation. The theroy of a lactic set cheese is that by deveolping lactic acid over a period of time, and with the aid of the smaller amount of rennet (to stabilize the coagulation) a fragile clot will form.
Each of us dairy cadets followed a slightly different recipe, with our milk being incubated at varying temperatures, % starter, and quantity of rennet.
I made cheeses with raw Goat's milk, geotrichum candidum, .5% starter, .8% rennet, and at 16°C. This took 24 hours to acidify to the correct level, pH4.6.
I ladle the curd directly into Crottin moulds. The curds firmed up over the next 24hours and were removed from the moulds and salted 48hours from ladling.
We matured our little Goat's cheeses for 14 days , by which time they had developed a wrinkly rind with a thin creamy breakdown.
Lovely little cheeses.
Cheese makers market, Old Beaconsfield
The most beautiful day of the year so far! Scoring sun, Daffodils, blossom, Swallows.
Rural Buckinghamshire was delightfully pretty, and it was the Cheese makers market in Old Beaconsfield (red brick cottages, village green, 15th century church...and white Range Rovers everywhere.).
Over 40 artisan cheese makers from all over the UK had been invited by Premier Cheese, La Cave à Fromage and The Real Food festival organisers to the event, as well as a noisey Frenchman with some very good Langres (Beaconsfield is twinned with the town of Langres).
Most of the cheeses were very good indeed, but the stars for me were:
A raw milk cheese made down the road from Tobermory Distillery on the Isle of Mull. The herd of Ayrshire, Brown Swiss and Friesian cattle are fed partly on Draff - spent grain husks from the distillery, giving the cheese a paler colour then Somerset Cheddars, and yeasty, fruity, acidic flavours to the cheese. We tried a few different ages of the Cheese, the best being a 12month cheese with an initial harsh, salty acidity, but developing into a sweeter, cured-meat aroma.
Made at Whalesborough farm, near Bude in Cornwall, using milk from the farm's own herd. This is a delicous cheese washed in cider, encouraging the development of a sticky, pale orange rind, with a smooth, creamy breakdown. Very fruity, with sweet and buttery layer beneath the pungent rind and a lighter, slightly acidic centre.
It was a great day, eating cheese, talking to cheese makers and drinking cider in the sunshine. There should be a cheese market at Welbeck. Or in Stratford.
Rural Buckinghamshire was delightfully pretty, and it was the Cheese makers market in Old Beaconsfield (red brick cottages, village green, 15th century church...and white Range Rovers everywhere.).
Over 40 artisan cheese makers from all over the UK had been invited by Premier Cheese, La Cave à Fromage and The Real Food festival organisers to the event, as well as a noisey Frenchman with some very good Langres (Beaconsfield is twinned with the town of Langres).
Most of the cheeses were very good indeed, but the stars for me were:
A raw milk cheese made down the road from Tobermory Distillery on the Isle of Mull. The herd of Ayrshire, Brown Swiss and Friesian cattle are fed partly on Draff - spent grain husks from the distillery, giving the cheese a paler colour then Somerset Cheddars, and yeasty, fruity, acidic flavours to the cheese. We tried a few different ages of the Cheese, the best being a 12month cheese with an initial harsh, salty acidity, but developing into a sweeter, cured-meat aroma.
Made at Whalesborough farm, near Bude in Cornwall, using milk from the farm's own herd. This is a delicous cheese washed in cider, encouraging the development of a sticky, pale orange rind, with a smooth, creamy breakdown. Very fruity, with sweet and buttery layer beneath the pungent rind and a lighter, slightly acidic centre.
- Cropwell Bishop's hand-ladled Stilton
It was a great day, eating cheese, talking to cheese makers and drinking cider in the sunshine. There should be a cheese market at Welbeck. Or in Stratford.
Making Sheep's Cheese
During February I spent a few weeks making cheese at Ram Hall Dairy, near Coventry. This was one of my chosen work experiance placements for the School of Artisan Food.
Some of Ram Hall's Friesland Sheep making their way to the milking parlour
Ram Hall Farm is part of the Berkswell estate, comprising of 600 acres of permanent pasture and arable land. The farm is tenanted by Peter and Shelia Fletcher and is now run by their son, Stephan who made the decision to stop farming dairy cows in the late 80s due to falling liquid milk prices. Stephan started to build up a flock of dairy sheep for liquid milk sales, whilst his mother, Sheila went on a cheese making course at Nantwich, where she learnt how to make Caerphilly. After a couple of years building up the milking flock, the Fletchers found themselves with a surplus of milk, causing the cheese production to expand. Until this point, Shelia had been making small batches of cheese, about 12 a day, in buckets in the farmhouse kitchen. Soon the family found they needed a full time cheese maker in order to give the required attention to the cheese. One of the relief milkers, Linda Dutch was interested and went of a cheese making course, and Berkswell cheese was born!
Berkswell Cheese at Neal's Yard Dairy
Almost 20 years later, and Berkswell has become know as one of the best Sheep's milk cheeses in the UK, a cheesey household name!
Whilst I was at Ram Hall, around 300 Sheep were being milked, giving enough milk to make around 300 cheeses a week, each weighing between 2-2.5kg.
Making Berkswell is hard work, but enormous fun! The curds are cut and scalded before being scooped out of the vats and squeezed, pressed and filled into the colanders. After a few days of turning the cheeses in the mould to allow for even drainage of whey and uniform shape, salt is rubbed on to each side of the cheese. The cheeses absorb the salt, over the next few days before being washed, and taken into a temperature and humidity controlled drying room for a week, and then into one of the cool maturing rooms, where the cheeses sit on wooded shelves for 4-6 months.
A few of the hundreds of Berkswell Cheeses maturing in the cheese store
In the maturing rooms, the cheeses grow wonderful rinds of multiple harmless moulds and yeasts, adding an indervidual character and unique aspect to every cheese.
No two batches of Berkswell taste the same, one of the exciting qualities which constantly draws me to artisan cheeses. I tried an 11 month old cheese, a cheese made in March the previous year when the sheep were on silage. It had an almost granular texture, like that of an aged Pecorino, but with extraordinarily complex and deep flavours: nutty, toasty, lanolin and savoury. In contrast I tried a cheese made in July when the sheep were grazing on ancient pastures surrounding the farm. A moister cheese, tasting of sweet hay and summer meadows but with a lively, fruity acidity. Both very different but equally wonderful cheeses.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Venison In A Day, with Ray Smith
Yesterday was spent with two hairy beasts and Ray Smith, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's butcher on River Cottage. I had joined one of the School's short courses. The deer, a white Fallow and a Roe buck hung from a steel frame in the butchery downstairs as Ray introduced himself. Seven of us eagerly watched in anticipation as Ray flayed the soft, white hide, and began to break down the carcass of the larger deceased deer.
The haunches were carefully jointed into silverside and topside, using an almost forgotten technique know as seam butchery. Almost forgotten in the UK but actually still common place on the Continent, seam butchery follows the lines of silverskin in meat which separate each muscle of the animal and gives smaller cuts of meat with far more superior cooking qualities. For lunch the topside was wrapped in Pancetta and roasted, and the Striploin seared, giving an almost burnt outside, with a deep ruby centre. Easily the very best Vension I've eaten.
During the afternoon the pluck (lungs, liver, heart and spleen) was blended with oatmeal, stock and spices, stuffed into casings and poached to create an aromatic haggis.
That was the Fallow deer seen to, but now the little Roe buck needed skinning. I took Rays knife and under his instruction started working the knife between the hide and the leg muscles. Between the seven of us the deer was eventually skinned, and revealed a much leaner animal than the Fallow.
I cycled home with the hide from the Roe buck and a bag full of sausages for supper.
My plan is to salt and dry the skin. I think I need some chemicals to stop the hairs falling out, although I'm not too sure. Prehistoric people dried animal skins without chemicals. But they probably also smelt pretty awful.
The haunches were carefully jointed into silverside and topside, using an almost forgotten technique know as seam butchery. Almost forgotten in the UK but actually still common place on the Continent, seam butchery follows the lines of silverskin in meat which separate each muscle of the animal and gives smaller cuts of meat with far more superior cooking qualities. For lunch the topside was wrapped in Pancetta and roasted, and the Striploin seared, giving an almost burnt outside, with a deep ruby centre. Easily the very best Vension I've eaten.
During the afternoon the pluck (lungs, liver, heart and spleen) was blended with oatmeal, stock and spices, stuffed into casings and poached to create an aromatic haggis.
That was the Fallow deer seen to, but now the little Roe buck needed skinning. I took Rays knife and under his instruction started working the knife between the hide and the leg muscles. Between the seven of us the deer was eventually skinned, and revealed a much leaner animal than the Fallow.
I cycled home with the hide from the Roe buck and a bag full of sausages for supper.
My plan is to salt and dry the skin. I think I need some chemicals to stop the hairs falling out, although I'm not too sure. Prehistoric people dried animal skins without chemicals. But they probably also smelt pretty awful.
Wild Yeast, fermenting doughs and Hokey Pokey
Eighteen loaves of bread are sitting in my kitchen looking glorious with charred crusts dusted with flour. Long, airy Ciabattas, Rye, Spelt, and Wholemeal Sourdoughs, and small tin loaves. We have been baking this week under guidance from Emmanuel Hadjiandreou, head baker from Judges bakery in Hastings. Emmanuel baked at Daylesford, the Savoy and Flour Power, practicing the art of slow fermented doughs and wild yeast breads. That is breads made with little or no added yeast, relying on natural organisms from both the atmosphere and the flour to create fermentation.
To start a wild yeast bread, a teaspoon of organic rye flour is mixed with a little water and left overnight. this is then fed equal parts water and flour for a week until tiny bubbles are produced, little bubbles of Carbon dioxide suspended in the mix. These are being given off by the microorganisms in the mix as they go about there business. It is alive, you have nurtured life. This is the rising agent for your bread. look after it, feed it and keep it warm and it will stay alive and give you fantastically complex and interesting breads.
To start a wild yeast bread, a teaspoon of organic rye flour is mixed with a little water and left overnight. this is then fed equal parts water and flour for a week until tiny bubbles are produced, little bubbles of Carbon dioxide suspended in the mix. These are being given off by the microorganisms in the mix as they go about there business. It is alive, you have nurtured life. This is the rising agent for your bread. look after it, feed it and keep it warm and it will stay alive and give you fantastically complex and interesting breads.
Fruits of labour; Malthouse sourdoughs.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
A very nice salad using one of my favourite English Goats cheeses
Ingredients:
1 Tymsboro Goats cheese, crumbled
4 handfuls Lambs lettuce
Handful Almonds, toasted
1 small Acorn or Butternut squash
1 clove garlic, crushed
Small sprig thyme
Chuck of Sourdough, torn into small pieces
Olive oil
Honey
Sherry vinegar
Ÿ Peel the squash and cut into smallish chunks, about 2cm square.
Ÿ Heat about a small amount of olive oil and butter in a pan, add the squash, garlic and thyme and cook slowly until the flesh in caramelized and soft inside. Stir in a tablespoon of honey and remove from the heat.
Ÿ In another pan, heat a small amount of oil and briefly fry the pieces of sourdough. They don’t have to be full on crunchy, like croutons, a bit of chewyness is nice.
- Dress the lambs lettuce with a glug of olive oil and a little sherry vinegar before adding the almonds, squash, sourdough and the crumbled Tymsboro.
The very first blog. Sixs weeks into term, and i have discovered a new life focused around food, food production, and eating. every moment is filled with thoughts about food, or simply eating.
Evenings have spent plucking Partridges and Pheasants with a few glasses of wine. Cider has been made in the cobbled courtyard of the school. Wild mushrooms have been foraged from the estate; basketfuls of Cepes, Parasols, Shaggy inkcaps and Deseivers. I've made sloe infused gin and rosehip syrup, churned butter, seperated cream, turned 120 lites of fresh, unpasteurised milk into Cheddar and Coulommiers, and then eaten masses of cheese and debated food politics late into the night.
Evenings have spent plucking Partridges and Pheasants with a few glasses of wine. Cider has been made in the cobbled courtyard of the school. Wild mushrooms have been foraged from the estate; basketfuls of Cepes, Parasols, Shaggy inkcaps and Deseivers. I've made sloe infused gin and rosehip syrup, churned butter, seperated cream, turned 120 lites of fresh, unpasteurised milk into Cheddar and Coulommiers, and then eaten masses of cheese and debated food politics late into the night.
The coffee roasters at Monmouth Coffee, based under the railway arches in Southwark, had the pleasure of our company as we smelt, tasted and roasted our way through every coffee producing country in the world.
The autumn colours lit in thin, watery sunshine have been glorious, but frost and wind this week have changed the landscape to a much colder scene of blues and greys, with a mist hanging over the lake I pass early each morning. I have been eating light salads with a few bitter leaves, salty goats cheese, toasted nuts and a few slices of pear, but this week I plan to cook something richer and more warming; braised venison maybe. or a creamy chicken pie.
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