Here is a bit of history about Caerphilly from Wikipedia;
Caerphilly cheese is a hard, white cheese that originates in the area around the town of Caerphilly in Wales, although it is now also made in England, particularly in the South West and on the English border with Wales. It was not originally made in Caerphilly, but was sold at the market there, hence taking the town’s name.
Caerphilly is a light-coloured (almost white), crumbly cheese made from cow’s milk, and generally has a fat content of around 48%. It has a mild taste, with its most noticeable feature being a not unpleasant slightly sour tang.
It is rumoured that the cheese was developed over time to provide the coal miners of the area with a convenient way of replenishing the salt lost through hard work over ten-hour shifts underground and so was a staple of the diet of the coal miners.
So here is my method for making it. I used the recipe out of Making Artisan Cheese by Tim Smith and modified it a little.
Caerphilly Cheese
- 7.6 litres whole milk (2 gallons)
- 1/4th teaspoon (about 2 ml) mesophilic culture
- 1/8th teaspoon (about 1 ml) calcium chloride diluted in 60ml cool unchlorinated water
- 5/8th teaspoon (about 3 ml) liquid rennet diluted in 60ml cool unchlorinated water
- 2 tablespoons non-iodized salt
Heat milk to 32°C user double boiler (I use a smaller saucepan under the large pot).
Add the calcium chloride if you are using homogenised milk. Stir for a minute. Then add the starter culture and stir for another minute. Cover and let rest for thirty minutes at target temperature.
Maintaining the temp of 32°C (90°F), add the rennet to the milk, stir for two minutes, then cover. Let mixture sit for forty minutes at the target temperature, or until you get a clean break.
Cut the curds into 6mm (¼ inch) cubes, keeping the size as uniform as possible.
Slowly raise the temp to 33°C (92°F); this should take about ten minutes. Hold the curd at the target temp for forty minutes and be sure to stir frequently to keep the curds from matting. Let rest at target temp for five minutes.
Drain the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander, and let whey drain for a 5 minutes. Cut the curds into 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick slabs, and stack on top of one another. Turn the stack over, top to bottom, two times in ten minutes. This will assist in draining a lot of whey from the curd.
Using your clean hands, break the curds into thumbnail-sized pieces, and blend with salt.
Fill a cheesecloth-lined 1kg cheese mould with the salted curds.
Cover the curd with one corner of the cheese cloth, lay the follower on top, and press at 5kg (10 pounds) for ten minutes.
Remove the cheese from the press, take it out of the mould, and unwrap the cheesecloth. Turn the cheese, and rub a layer of salt on both top and bottom before rewrapping with cheese cloth. Press at 5kg (10 pounds) for ten minutes. Repeat the same procedure (salt), pressing at 7.5 kg (15 pounds) for twenty minutes. Repeat the same procedure, pressing at 7.5 kg (15 pounds) for sixteen hours. I finished this stage at 6 pm on Saturday evening, so I had to wait until 10 am Sunday morning for the next part.
Take the cheese out of the cheese mould, and let it air dry on a cheese mat and cheese board for about 3-4 days. Make sure you turn the cheese several times a day to ensure even drying and fat distribution.
When the cheese is dry to touch, it is ready to be ripened. Place in your cheese cave at 13ºC (55ºF) at 80-85% humidity for three weeks, turning several times a week. No need to wax this cheese. It will form a rind, and if any mould develops, simply rub the cheese with cloth dipped in some brine. The salt in this cheese retards mould growth anyway.
At this time of the year in Australia, you could find a cold cupboard to ripen your cheese in if you don’t have a fridge that you can get warm enough.
This cheese has been profiled on Cheesemaking Help, which is the blog of Ricki Carroll’s New England Cheesemaking Co. I was very pleased when they asked my permission to repost my recipe!
I have been making this cheese every two months for the past two years, and it never fails to please family and friends. Any easy, quick, and tasty cheese to make at home.
Thanks for picking that up. There have been a little too much rennet for this, so I adjusted it slightly to 5/8th tsp which does equal 3 ml. It is a really firm curd, so does need quite a bit of rennet.
Omg what a mess! I have the same question!
Thanks for picking that up. There have been a little too much rennet for this, so I adjusted it slightly to 5/8th tsp which does equal 3 ml. It is a really firm curd, so does need quite a bit of rennet.
Gavin, is the rennet amount in this recipe correct? It says “1 teaspoon”, so I cut the amount in half (a 1/2 teaspoon) so as to use my double-strength rennet. However, the resulting curd was very thick, and I noticed that my bottle of double-strength rennet says that 1/4 tsp sets 2 gallons in 45 minutes.
Hi Gavin .I am new to cheese making and so far only followed your tutorials.I must say the results are fantastic.I have a question about caerphilly and its 3 week maturing.I have brought myself a small wine chilly as a cheese cave but not a lot of room for the ripening boxes.so my question is could I wax this cheese instead of putting it in a ripening box to save space in the cave.Keep uip the good work and many thanks.John.
Oh dear, I’m in the middle of making this cheese and just noticed the imperial:metric conversions appear to be off and now I’m not sure how much culture and rennet to add (I’m using raw milk so I skip the calcium chloride). 1 tsp is approx 5 ml not 3, and 1/4 tsp would be about 1.25 ml. I’m going to go ahead and use the imperial measures as they seem the most appropriate to my inexperienced cheesemakers eye, but perhaps you could clarify the correct measurements when you have a sec? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a successful result this time!
Hi Jean Michel. Wipe the outside of the Caerphilly with a bit of cheese cloth dipped in brine to inhibit mould growth. Do this once every couple of days until maturity.
As you have been making so much Stilton, you may have to wipe out your cheese cave with white vinegar. I probably has lots of blue mould in it.
Hi Gavin,
my caerphilly dried 4 days at room temps , not problem, then I put it in my cheese cave where a stilton is maturing in a plastic box … result: bleu moud grows on the caerphilly … it smells like roquefort … I think it is a pencilium moult … not tottally sure , what would you do in the case Dr Cheese ((((-:
cheers jean mi : your french fan (((-:
Beautifully made cheese.
Hi Gavin
I made this cheese, but I wouldn't describe mine as crumbly. It is more the smooth soft texture of something like processed cheese! I had trouble getting the rind to dry. I suspect it wasn't pressed quite enough.It still tastes OK though. But I suspect mine is nothing like real caerphilly!
Ros
Gavin – hey this is Ross an Australian in Atlanta, USA and would be cheesemaker. I followed your recipe and at 27 days had an excellent Caerphilly. Appreciate you blog.
Ross
longwheytogo.blogspot.com
Hi Narelle,
I did not make the press, I bought it from Green Living Australia. It came with a 50lb spring, which means that when it is fully closed you are applying 50lb of pressure. I guess the rest, so half closed 25lb, and you get the basic idea.
It would be quite simple to make, I believe, but I have had no issues with their product.
Gavin, I need to ask, I love your press that you made…but how do you tell what weight you are pressing at..my cheese press is very simple but not very stable, as I stack bricks and tins of food….all weighed for each pressing….I want to improve on this though and have sourced good thick chopping boards to use as a base..any help would be great…especially on how to measure the weight when pressing with your type of press.
Hi Melinda,
I will post a video to help answer your questions later on today.
Gav x
Hi Gavin, could you clarify a couple of things for me please?
How do you "Let mixture sit for forty minutes at the target temperature" Is that a constant reheating to keep it at that temp? If this is the case, that would mean that the mix is constantly dropping a couple of degrees, then being warmed up agian. Or is there an easy way to do this? I'm assuming that you can't just walk away from the cheesemaking while it's resting?
"until you get a clean break" What is a clean break? Would you be able to show this in a photo or video please?