This is a way of preserving cheese, and altering its flavours. I personally like strong cheddars, well aged , and salty. Esp hiking and for cooking. Take your mason jar, sterilize it with hot water and bleach, rinse well and add 2 CUPS of NON iodized sea salt and clean non chlorinated water. Shake well and make a brine. Set jar(s) and brine aside and cut 4 slabs of aged cheddar to fit into the jar. put the 4 slabs into the brine, make sure they are covered with brine solution and tighten up the seal and band. Place in fridge or cool root cellar. Leave for a month or more. after a few months.,.......you can remove the cheese, pat dry, cold smoke it with applewood, or wrap in salt brine soaked linen and hang to dry until very hard. you will have to adjust your salt intake when you eat these.......FYI......but on a hike on a hot day, just drink more water. A good hard salted cheese, with a salami or tin of sardines, is heaven.
I should add that unless you add a bit of Calcluim Chloride (any cheesemaker supply place) to the brine mix, the outside of the cheese can turn soft and slick. Not a big deal to me........after brining for a while I remove it, pat dry , suspend in fine netting and cold smoke (alder or apple) it, or roll it in herbs and wrap in cheesepaper
when you describe cold smoking the cheese, I can picture it in my mind...and it makes me want peppered salami and smoked cheese...and lots of ICE COLD REEBS
My friend ordered me 2 of these and I just picked them up tonight. They are soooo freaking good. I have some Colby Jack cheese so I might try them together for a snack.
I also dry packed a chunk of cheddar in sea salt. This experiment is kinda neat......the salt draws out moisture and oils in the cheese and its getting drier and harder. I change the salt once a week. I think i prefer this method to brining...........
Lets do something fancy , BEER INFUSED CHEESE..... soak hard cheddar in dark stout..........this imparts a very dark rind color and a very rich unique flavor. Once soaked for awhile......its then cold smoked. start with aged cheddar, buy the stuff on sale. cut into small rectangles with the Libertariat place into sterilized mason jar and crack open a bottle of the darkest, strongest Stout you can find. I use PotHole Filler by local brewery HOWE SOUND. This stuff is so dark a flashlight will not shine thru it. It makes Guinness look like a clear light lager! Pour it in until the jar is filled. Cap it and place in fridge for a couple weeks. and now we wait for several weeks... lets ramp this up a notch with some of the brined cheddar I started on Jan 3rd. This will turn the very salty brined cheddar into a two flavor power punch. (and there is still cold smoking on top of this) remove the salt brined cheddar and place into a new sterilized masonjar fill with dark strong 9% stout , cap and place in fridge for several weeks. see you in a few weeks!
7 days later..... damn that is strong...............very strong powerful black stout flavour..........a little much for eating sliced.......would be good in a grilled cheese or baked mac and cheese. oh and the stout that was used can be saved for making meat stew. Very good stock base. Or use it for spuds! http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/potatoes-in-stout-491555#activity-feed
I like cheese. Not all cheese, but in the apocalypse I will miss cheese if I can't make my own. One that I really like is the old gouda, the stuff that is aged and kind of hard. Stronger flavor. Bushy, are you familiar with this type of cheese and how do you think it would hold up to your brine process? Also, what about cheese wax? Anyone ever use this for long term cool temperature storage?
ok my salt brine........preserves the cheese....BUT...it is pretty inedible,,,,,,,,unless you soak it in water for a few.... the beer soak gives LOTS of flavour...sometimes STRONG.... the DRY SALT cure makes a solid brick of solid cheese............. best crumbled or grated
Update: - sampled one of my salt brined batches from 2 months ago. Cheese is in great shape, although its lost its pale yellow color. Taste wise....you cannot eat the salt brined cheese by itself ...it needs to be used in cooking, and you NEED to omit any other salt from the recipe. It was particularly good crumbled on roasted spicy spuds and broiled in the oven. - the black stout infused (you can also use very strong orange pekoe tea) cheese was also a bit strong to eat by itself, but was HEAVENLY as a grilled cheese sammich with onions and mustard on sourdough. The next night i used the rest on top of mac and cheese, baked in the oven. hope this helps. I don't want anyone salt brining hard cheddar and then chomping into a big chunk.....LMAO!!! SURPRISE! edit: re cheese wax - have not gone that route yet.
