Ale Cheese

 Ale Cheese - soft and hard versions

Writer: Alex

Participants: Alex, Clare

Items: Milk, Flax as Linen, Honeycomb as honey, mead and beeswax

The Ale Cheese documentation written by Sister Waldetrudis von Metten (SCA Persona) cites Columella (70AD) as one of their references for this modern redaction. She specifically mentions that Columella talks about adding flavours to cheese "you can give the cheese any flavour you like by adding any seasoning which you choose." She also cites Two Fifteenth-century Cookery Books (1430) which has 'A Potage for Fysshday', which begins by "Make a stiff Posset of Milk and Ale; then take & draw the curds through a strainer".

In using this recipe for the Ale Cheese, the period source recipe stops at the soft cheese step. Waldetrudis has taken that a step beyond and also created a pressed hard version of the cheese. It is quite possible that there were versions of Ale Cheese which also had pressing stages but were easily not documented. Cheese recipes, and particularly those mentioning a pressing process, can be uncommon.

Equipment Large pot or water bath Slotted spoon Cheese thermometer Cheese press Fine muslin cheese cloth (or linen) Colander or curd strainer Cheese mat Cheese wax large bowl

Ingredients 6Lt pasteurised, unhomogenised cows milk 3/4 packet of Mesophilic starter culture 1.5 tablets of rennet (vegetarian in this case) 1/4 cup of unchlorinated spring water 3ml calcium chloride 750ml Ale 190ml Mead 250ml Honey 1tsp each of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg 1Tbsp cheese salt

Mead Please see Appendix A

Ale Please see Appendix B

Method

• slowly heat milk to 32^oC (around 30 minutes)
• add calcium chloride and gently stir for 1 minute
• add starter culture and stir slowly from top to bottom for 1 minute
• add 650ml of ale
• cover and leave to ripen for 60 minutes at 32^oC
• dilute the rennet in the spring water making sure it is thoroughly dispersed
• add rennet to milk and stir gently for 4 minutes
• cover and sit for 45mins (or until a clean break) at 32^oC
• cut the curd into 1/2 inch cubes and leave to rest for 5 minutes
• gently ladle into curd strainer and leave to drain overnight (16 hours)
• place curd into a large bowl and add remaining ale, mead, honey and spices
• cover and refrigerate for 24 hours

At this point the soft cheese version is finished and can be eaten now. However, a hard cheese can be made if you continue to follow the instructions below.

• line your cheese press with the muslin
• scoop the curd into the press using a slotted spoon
• cover with muslin and insert the follower
• press at 7kg for 15 minutes
• remove cheese from press, undress, flip, redress and return to the press
• repeat for 2h 45m (or a further 11 times)
• remove cheese from press, undress, flip, redress and return to the press
• press at 14kg for 30 minutes
• remove cheese from press, undress, flip, redress and return to the press
• press at 14kg for 30 minutes
• remove cheese from press, undress, flip, redress and return to the press
• press at 14kg for 12 hours
• remove the cheese from the press and undress
• place cheese on cheese mat and keep at 16^oC
• turn once a day for 2-4 days until rind forms
• once the rind is formed, wipe the surface with a piece of muslin dipped in some ale and honey mixed with a little salt
• turn once a day for 10-14 days
• wrap in waxed paper and seal after 14 days

Specific Photos

Adding the ale to the inoculated milk

 

 

Cat proofing for overnight draining and the morning after

            

 Assembling the ingredients and mixing them together

            

 Hard version                                         

 Soft version

Wrapping the cheese in the waxed-linen and sealing with wax

  

Final package.

Notes

• The milk and ale ripening smells awesome!
• The curd which set from this process has to have been the cleanest yet. It was amazing in keeping its size and texture.
• It was wonderful to be able to use the mead we had made earlier in the pentathlon.
• Ale was supplied by the wonderful Master Drakey. After I described what was needed he sent me Lady Hombley's Scotch Ale from Sir Kenelm Digby - 1669. Which is an unhopped ale and that's what the recipe called for, reference and recipe in Appendix B.
• Breaking up the cheese after it had drained overnight was very similar to the Bra, where it was quite hard and solid. It took some effort to break into pieces small enough to feel comfortable marinating. And that was from simply hanging draining, not pressing like with the Bra.
• After marinating the cheese had absorbed a lot of the liquid. It was very cottage cheese in texture, which is why the soft cheese version probably stops here.
• Tasted the cheese at the soft version point (just prior to pressing). Wow! You can really taste all the different flavours.
• The original amount of marinated cheese added to the press was at about 20cm high. At the end of pressing it was about 10cm high. This just demonstrates how much liquid can be absorbed and removed from a soft cheese. The round produced was a lot larger than other rounds that have been made, presumably this is because of the added liquids as well as the honey.
• Rather than use modern waxed paper, we chose to make a waxed linen cover for the cheese. Documentation and process for making these covers will be included in our final submission - Flax.
• When I do this recipe again there is one thing I would do differently.  The number of times the cheese is pressed at 7kg (11 times) is excessive. By the end of the 6th or 7th pressing no significant amounts of whey was expressed and the shape/feel/density of the round had not changed. So I think you can easily cut several of these pressings.

In further experiments I also want to try flavouring with apple cider, apple schnapps and cinnamon. Amongst other flavours.

Appendix A

From Sew & Swear submission 2: Honeycomb documentation

Syr Michael of York’s Mead

Participants – Clare, Alex, Fiona, Ashan, Georgia

Writer – Alex

Team items featured: honey; linen (flax).

Mead Day!

We had a group mead day were we produced both the Syr Michael of York mead and the Savelli mead. There may be some crossover of photos!

Original Recipe

This recipe was taken from Master Terafan Greydragon's website.

Syr Michael of York Mead

Boil one gallon of water with 2.5 lbs of honey. Add juice of one lemon and ½ tsp nutmeg. Boil, skimming foam, until it stops foaming. Let it cool to blood temperature, then pitch yeast. Let it work two weeks, bottle it and let it age two weeks. THEN PUT IT IN THE REFRIGERATOR, AS IT CAN BECOME EXPLOSIVE IF LEFT OUT AFTER THIS.

Redacted Recipe

4g of wine yeast

500g of honey (Coles brand)

1.5L of water

20ml of fresh lemon juice

1/2tsp of nutmeg

Steps Taken

1. We boiled the water on the stove top and then added the honey, lemon juice and nutmeg.

2. The mixture was skimmed until it produced no more scum. This took about a half hour.

3. We then let it cool to 'blood temperature'.

4. We pitched the yeast and bottled the mead.

On the left is Clare’s mead (Savelli) and on the right my mead, Syr Michael of York.

5. After leaving it for 4 weeks, the mead was then strained through a linen cloth and bottled. The bottles were then refrigerated.

Notes and Lessons Learnt:

• When skimming the honey, we quickly discovered that it was best to stir the mixture rapidly to form a whirlpool in the centre of the pot before skimming. This worked to gather all the foam in one location which made it easier to scoop out.

• The recipe says to ‘let it work 2 weeks’. Due to personal circumstances I 'let it work' for 4 weeks. I do not understand exactly how this may effect the brew, however it doesn’t seem to have affected the taste to my plebeian palate.

• Master Drakey advised that the mead would be adversely affected by exposure to sunlight. To this end my mead lived inside a blue cold shopping bag. This both kept it from sunlight and helped maintain a consistent temperature. Both were considered important for a positive outcome!

Bibliography

Greydragon, Master Rhys Terafan (2008), “Honeys and there affect of mead”, Greydragon Library http://www.greydragon.org/library/honey.html  accessed Jan 2013

Making Mead: The Art and the Science, The National Honey Board, USA, http://www.honey.com/images/downloads/makingmead.pdf (accessed May 2013)

Appendix B

Lady Hombley's Scotch Ale from Sir Kenelm Digby - 1669. p98-100

Provided by Master Drake

SCOTCH ALE FROM MY LADY HOLMBEY
The Excellent Scotch Ale is made thus. Heat Spring-water; it must not boil, but be ready to boil, which you will know by leaping up in bubbles. Then pour it to the Malt; but by little and little, stirring them strongly together all the while they are mingling. When all the water is in, it must be so proportioned that it be very thick. Then cover the vessel well with a thick Mat made on purpose with a hole for the stick, and that with Coverlets and Blankets to keep in all the heat. After three or four hours, let it run out by the stick (putting new heated water upon the Malt, if you please, for small Ale or Beer) into a Hogshead with the head out. There let it stand till it begin to blink, and grow long like thin Syrup. If you let it stay too long, and grow too thick, it will be sowre. Then put it again into the Caldron, and boil it an hour or an hour and a half. Then put it into a Woodden-vessel to cool, which will require near forty hours for a hogshead. Then pour it off gently from the settling. This quantity (of a hogshead) will require better then a quart of the best Ale-barm, which you must put to it thus. Put it to about three quarts of wort, and stir it, to make it work well. When the barm is risen quick scum it off to put to the rest of the wort by degrees. The remaining Liquor (that is the three quarts) will have drawn into it all the heavy dregs of the barm, and you may put it to the Ale of the second running, but not to this. Put the barm, you have scummed off (which will be at least a quart) to about two gallons of the wort, and stir it to make that rise and work. Then put two Gallons more to it. Doing thus at several times, till all be mingled, which will require a whole day to do. Cover it close, and let it work, till it be at it's height, and begin to fall, which may require ten or twelve hours, or more. Watch this well, least it sink too much, for then it will be dead. Then scum off the thickest part of the barm, and run your Ale into the hogshead, leaving all the bung open a day or two. Then lay a strong Paper upon it, to keep the clay from falling in, that you must then lay upon it, in which you must make a little hole to let it work out. You must have some of the same Liquor to fill it up, as it works over. When it hath done working, stop it up very close, and keep it in a very cold Cellar. It will be fit to broach after a year; and be very clear and sweet and pleasant, and will continue a year longer drawing; and the last glass full be as pure and as quick as the first. You begin to broach it high. Let your Cask have served for Sweet-wine.

Bibliography

Digby, K, The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened, accessed June 2013, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16441