Posts from — February 2008

I know it’s been a while. Let’s just say that the New Year brought a wrath of mechanical failures with it. Maybe some of you know that our pasteurizer was down for a while and while not having to make Green Hill for a week or so was a nice change of pace, it made me very nervous and anxious. I’ll be honest for a moment and tell you that I loathe pasteurized cheese. For cheese heads, it’s all about raw milk. I am no exception but seeing as how this blog could easily expand into a tirade on the government’s zealous regulation on the dairy industry, I will save this for another time. I will say that I do depend on Green Hill to make a living and people’s willingness to consume semi-ripened double cream cheeses in unheard numbers allows me to experiment with cheeses I hold in higher regard. For example- the often overlooked washed rind cheese. I’m not sure how you could overlook it, you can smell it from a mile away. Known somewhat affectionately in France as “les pieds de dieu” or “feet of God,” washed rind cheeses such as Epoisses, Taleggio, and Limburger are more bark than bite in reality. I once saw a sign in a Monroe, Wisconsin bar during their bi-annual Cheese Days Festival that surmised: “Limburger- for your mouth, not your nose.” Very true. I finally got my opportunity to experiment with this style the other day and I have included a little photo gallery of the process.

I will lament that it appears that my experiment has blown up though.

Good news though is that the size and shape of the holes indicate they are gas holes and not coliform holes (bacteriophage) which means I need to tweak the culture a little. I will reattempt this on Thursday, so stay tuned…