Making Cave Aged Cheese at Monforte Dairy

I was fortunate enough to be able to make some cheese at Ruth Klahsen’s Monforte dairy in Stratford Ontario. This was a project for the Cave Aged Cheese course at George Brown College’s Fromager certification program.

After sterilizing my hands and donning a hairnet, booties, and an apron we set about making some bloomy rind sheep cheese.

We took 100L of sheep’s milk that was at a PH of 6.3 and heated it to 95 degrees Celsius.

The first ingredient into the vat was 1.7kg of salt.

We added 28g of bacterial culture to the milk.

Then we added 20g of Calcium chloride. –

Adding Calcium Chloride to your milk brings the calcium content back into balance and will result in a firmer curd, that you will find much easier to cut and work with.

Lastly we added vegetarian rennet (microbial enzymes)

You check the milk as it begins to form into curd.

When the right consistency is achieved you use a harp to cut the curd into even cubes.Once the curd forms we scoop the curd into forms ready to allow the cheese to form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the forms are filled they need to be stacked capped and flipped to allow the whey to drain out and the curd to compress under it’s own weight.

 After we made the cheese it was coated in vegetal ash and kept in the white ageing room which is kept at 93% humidity and 12 degrees Celsius for 1 week.

Stay tuned for a time elapsed photo journal of the affinage!