Cotswold: Onion and Chives Cheese

It's a work in progress.

Cotswold is British pub cheese (it's actually what's referred to as a Double Gloucester with onions and chives). It's a pressed cheese, and it's got onions and chives, and it's delicious. If you haven't had it, get some. I bet you won't be putting any of it back in the fridge. Addicting to say the least.

This 4.5# monster just came out of the press. I might cut it in half and make two wheels out if it. If you get near it you can smell the herbs. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Pics:
Curds are set, got a clean break.
Cooking curds, broken up into pea-sized parts
Curds, after draining
After pressing for about 18 hrs.

The cheese is sitting under cheesecloth now, developing a protective rind. After 4 or 5 days, I'll vac it in a vac bag and store it for a month to develop some funky flavors.

That does look excellent. There's another similar cheese that's made with chopped pickled onions in it, which is also good - you could do that with a double Gloucester or a Cheddar. But you'd have to find a source of quantities of malt vinegar and pickle your small onions (boiler size should be OK) for about 6 months before making the cheese.

Pickled onions are the food stuff of the gods (according to me), and the perfect accompaniment to very mature cheddars. Allegedly they were my first solid food. But my wife can't stand the things.

dyqik said:

That does look excellent. There's another similar cheese that's made with chopped pickled onions in it, which is also good - you could do that with a double Gloucester or a Cheddar. But you'd have to find a source of quantities of malt vinegar and pickle your small onions (boiler size should be OK) for about 6 months before making the cheese.

Pickled onions are the food stuff of the gods (according to me), and the perfect accompaniment to very mature cheddars. Allegedly they were my first solid food. But my wife can't stand the things.

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I'll put that idea in my thoughtbox for now. I'm making cheese weekly, trying to amass a bunch of it for aging. Thanks.

Your cheese looks great! I've so far only been making fresh cheeses but I am getting excited to try aged cheeses. What do you use for pressing? Where do you aged your cheeses? I've been thinking about getting a wine fridge to convert into a cheese cave but not sure if I need to right away.

pamelam07 said:

Your cheese looks great! I've so far only been making fresh cheeses but I am getting excited to try aged cheeses. What do you use for pressing? Where do you aged your cheeses? I've been thinking about getting a wine fridge to convert into a cheese cave but not sure if I need to right away.

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Thanks!. I just flipped this one (it's drying on my counter this week). Smells awesome.

Wine fridge is perfect. Note that fridges can be very dry environments, and if the humidity is low you can have rinds cracking (not a problem if you vacuum pack like I do). If you intend on aging with natural rind, you might want to invest in a humidity meter. They are VERY cheap on amazon. Some people keep a bowl of water in there to maintain the humidity.

You should be able to get a used wine fridge on craigslist for about $75 (more for bigger ones).

I keep my cheese in my fermentation fridge. 50-60F is perfect for aging cheeses, and I'm pretty close to that.

I use a press I bought off Amazon (this one). It's worked great, but if you become an obsessed enthusiast, you'll find that you really want one that you can precisely control the pressing pressure. Many of the books and web sites explicity state pressing pressures, and the screw-type like I have don't allow that kind of control.

Here's a picture of a dutch cheese press. They have a lever arm that you hang a weight from. Thus you can control the pressure by changing the weight at the end of the arm.

Thanks for the information. Controlling the pressure applied with the press is what keeps me confused about what cheese press to buy. I worry about the above style as I have two dogs and think hanging weights off it for hours may not be the best idea in my house. I'm finding all of them where you can measure this are pretty expensive.

Anyone find a good worker press under $100 where I can do aged cheeses with 2 gallons of milk?

pamelam07 said:

Thanks for the information. Controlling the pressure applied with the press is what keeps me confused about what cheese press to buy. I worry about the above style as I have two dogs and think hanging weights off it for hours may not be the best idea in my house. I'm finding all of them where you can measure this are pretty expensive.

Anyone find a good worker press under $100 where I can do aged cheeses with 2 gallons of milk?

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http://sturdypress.com/ $99

The guy that makes these is an avid cheesemaker and posts a lot on the cheeseforum I frequent. It's a proven design.

You need to provide the mould and follower though. These are just the cylinder and the round piece that pushed down on the cheese, slightly less in diameter than the cylinder. That might seem like a hassle, but in reality it's better because these moulds are really inexpensive, and with a set of them you can make any size cheese you want. My press only allows me to make 2 sizes.

I do like my press though, and if you decide to pursue the cheesemaking hobby, and if you end up with a screw press like mine, you will make cheese just fine, no worries there.

@passedpawn you've got me sold on making cotswold. It may be the beer, but i'm not seeing cotswold, glouster, or double gloucester in "home cheese making" (not that you said it's there, but that's my go-to.)

Is the recipe you used online?

My dog ate the cheese. Arg. She pulled it off the bar in my kitchen while I was on a bike ride. She ate about 2/3 of it, and thrashed the rest; it's gone.

I used a recipe from www.cheeseforum.org. Here's the recipe, which is out of Tim Smith's book Artisan Cheesemaking at Home. The recipe does NOT include the onions and chives. See the video for that.

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,12634.msg97943.html#msg97943

Thanks! I'm going to give it a shot!