[Sca-cooks] Digby Help Needed

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jun 11, 2005, at 3:03 PM, Mairi Ceilidh wrote:

> Thank You, Master Adamantuis!!!  What a wonderful article.  Do you  
> have any
> suggestions, other than "DON'T!" for making a large amount of  
> slipcote (say
> enough for 200+ servings)?
>
> Mairi Ceilidh

Well, I'd bear in mind that it's still a _fairly_ fresh cheese, and  
not very acidic, so the usual caveats about drainage, temperature and  
being easy to spoil would probably apply here. The last time I was  
part of an attempt to make a really large one (what, Brekke, about  
five pounds?) it went quite moldy and had to be thrown away before it  
could dry sufficiently on the outside to preserve the interior, so  
I'd be really careful about following Digby's instruction not to make  
it too thick! (I forget whether he says to make it no thicker than a  
finger, or a half-inch, or what.) IOW, maintain a surface-area-to- 
mass ratio that is known to work.

OTOH, the cheese that failed was being made and stored in a different  
location than the one in which the cheese the article is written  
about was (if that makes any sense), so there may have been issues  
with steam heat, air currents or the lack thereof, humidity, etc.

In re making it in large quantities, bear in mind that you'll  
probably be dealing with curds from maybe 13 gallons of milk (if my  
rough math is correct) to give everybody maybe an ounce of cheese.  
You're probably going to have problems with cheeses aging at  
different rates and qualities. You might pull it off if you have some  
kind of very clean, dedicated shelving (like a clean, steel utility  
shelf in a cool, dry garage, maybe with a fan to circulate air?) If I  
were mad enough to do such a thing (and age may have imparted wisdom  
in my case -- I'll let you know), I'd set aside a weekend and do it  
in at least four batches, with one mold/basket per cheese. That way  
you can start a second batch while the curds from the first batch are  
draining, and the finished cheeses will be no more than a day apart  
in age when you're all done.

You might find nice, inexpensive little baskets in a craft store for  
less than a dollar each, and you can scald them in boiling water ,  
line them with muslin, and use them to drain and shape your cheeses.  
Slightly larger plastic ones live at restaurant supply houses; they  
use them to serve bread in places like your local pizzeria; plastic  
ones may need to have a few extra holes punched in the bottom.

Buying a million little cheese kits from cheesemaker.com is probably  
not a good idea ;-). I'd definitely start with one small one and work  
my way up to large quantities slowly before buying all that  
unhomogenized milk with your group's cash.

Adamantius

>
>
>
>
>> On Jun 10, 2005, at 9:25 AM, Mairi Ceilidh wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Greetings to the list!
>>>
>>> I do not own a copy of Digby yet, and I need a recipe from it.
>>> What I need is Slipcote Cheese.  If anyone has this and could post
>>> it, I would be truely appreciative.
>>>
>>> Thank You!
>>>
>>
>> http://www.ostgardr.org/cooking/ppb.html#cheese
>>
>> Adamantius
>>
>>
>> "S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la
>> brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them
>> eat cake!"
>>      -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
>> "Confessions", 1782
>>
>> "Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
>>      -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry
>> Holt, 07/29/04
>>
>>
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>
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"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04