formaggio fatto in casa: Caerphilly / homemade cheese: Caerphilly

(pronunciation from this site) In my pressed homemade cheeses I lose one of the defining characteristics of a cheese: its particular shape (forma). This is because I only have one press (of which you can see a photo in this post), so all the cheeses I make that require pressing have the same shape (some are taller, some are shorter, depending on the weight applied to them and on how long they are pressed). Hence, I hope you'll forgive me if in my photos, you keep seeing cylindrical cheeses, whole or sliced.

I had wanted to make Caerphilly for a while, but I had to get a special culture to do so. Once the culture arrived, I immediately proceeded to follow the recipe in the book 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes by Debra Amrein-Boyes. The procedure gives two options for aging the cheese: with a natural rind or with a waxed one. I went with the latter, because in the absence of a cheese cave, it is easier for me to handle waxed-rind cheese. I let my Caerphilly age for two months.

Cutting the first slice from a cheese is always an emotional moment for me. Months of waiting patiently culminate in the blade diving into the heart of the cheese. After the blade, it is time for eyes and nose to do their inspection. In this case, both senses were pleased. The mouth, then, confirmed the positive report: This is a good cheese. And it is also a good-looking cheese. Before you look closely at my rendition of this traditional cheese from Wales, you may want to go to this page and see an example of the real thing, and also read the interesting story of this cheese. I did not use raw milk (latte crudo) to make the cheese, but organic pasteurized milk, as usual.

The description ends thus: "Caerphilly's moist paste is straw-colored with a distinctive strip of snowy white in its center." The photo on the left shows a slice of my Caerphilly: you can see the straw-colored paste with a strip of snowy white in the center.

This article by Janet Fletcher also describes the characteristics of this lovely cheese: "At the center it will be pale, slightly crumbly and lemony on the palate. Toward the rind, the paste will be creamier, darker and earthier in flavor."

This page has additional information on Caerphilly, including something about the way it ages.

And if you like castles, you may want to take a look at Caerphilly Castle.

We have been enjoying this cheese by itself, with some of my homemade bread and crackers. It's a treat to have small bites of it on a cheese board and take one to your mouth every now and then. I have also crumbled some of the white part of the cheese and add it to my zuppa di zucca e pere arrosto, a variation, in a sense, on the theme of formaggio con le pere.

I am submitting this post to the year long Cheesepalooza project, organized by Valerie of A Canadian Foodie . Caerphilly is one of the cheeses that the group has made in December 2012, so I am contributing my adventures to the effort. This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

formaggio fatto in casa: Caerphilly

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Comments

[Paz]

i love the butterfly-shaped crackers next to the cheese. delicious together, i'm sure!

Paz xoxo

[Ivy]

Another wonderful cheese!! I have never heard of this before.

[andrea]

per quanto riguarda la crosta ti consiglio quella naturale
quella cerata lascia un odoro che nasconde il profumo.

[Rachel @ The Crispy Cook]

You are such a cheesemaking inspiration. I love all your posts about your homemade cheeses. Have a lovely Thanksgiving holiday.

[Milen@]

La pazienza di aspettare tanto, vien premiata al momento dell'assaggio ....
deliziosi i crackers farfalla :D

[deeba]

I love cheese making at home, though have only ventured as far as soft cheeses. This looks outstanding!
I was here to thank you for hosting this months DB challenge. I really enjoyed it. Incidentally, I used quark, a fresh curd cheese, in the filling.

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Paz. Indeed, the cheese went nicely with the butterfly crackers. I hope I am not the only one using cookie cutters to shape crackers.

Ciao Ivy. I hadn't either, until I read about it in my cheese books.

Ciao Andrea. E' vero che la crosta cerata nasconde il profumo. Il mio problema e' mantenere la giusta umidita' nello spazio ristretto del frigorifero che uso per stagionare i formaggi. Ti faccio sapere se provo a fare lo stesso formaggio senza cerata.

Thanks, Rachel. I hope you and your family had a nice Thanksgiving.

Ciao Milena. E' vero! Mi diverto ad usare i miei stampini per biscotti quando faccio i cracker: il risultato e' divertente.

Hi Deeba and thanks! When you visited, it was still Friday November 26 in my corner of the world. I also started with soft cheese and often make some kind of that again. It takes less time and the result is available quickly for eating or cooking. I know you made a special crostata and will stop by your blog shortly to take a closer look.

[christopher franko]

that cheese looks really really tasty. i bet alone it was just as good.

[christine @ wannafoodie]

A beauty! Did you also make those lovely crackers?

[Simona Carini]

Thank you, Christine! Indeed, I did. Both the crackers and the bread are recipes from the book The Handmade Loaf by Dan Lepard, which I reviewed a while ago for the Daring Kitchen site. It's one of my favorite bread-baking cookbooks. The crackers are made using mashed beans in the dough.