Holy Cheese! Our First Swiss Tasting

Our first wheel of goat's milk Swiss cheese was ready for tasting last night. The three months it takes to age fell roughly around Christmas.

We toasted the occasion with a glass of Cranberry wine made from the orchard down the road. And a good chunk of crusty wheat bread, buttered with salt and pepper. 

The big drum-role was the first slice...would it have holes the way a proper Swiss should? (Side note: contrary to what the photo shows, Zach's hands are clean, and washed several times. This is what being a blacksmith will do to you.)

Yay for holy cheese! 

Overall I give out first go at a Swiss cheese a B-.

The success of the holes got extra points because we were so excited to see if it would work, and the flavor was just as we expected, a goat-y, Swiss flavor. But the texture was a bit dry. This has been a re-occurring problem with all our cheeses. They tend to be over rhined, except for the center, which stays more consistent to the goal cheese texture. You can see it in the photo how the center is creamier looking.

I'm thinking it might have to do with the humidity level in our cheese cave. "Cheese cave" might sounds fancy, but it's really just a mini fridge set to 52 degrees. We decreased the humidity because our Parmesan was molding a bit heavily. (Which sounds gross but is acceptable in cheese aging) We would wipe the wheel down with vinegar once a week to remove the mold, but it started spreading to other wheels, like the Cheddar and Swiss and on the walls of the cave.

The cheese is a constant work in progress. It's a slow process that practices lots of patients...a virtue I personally need to hone. We try to document in detail each batch so we can look back months later to see what we can improve on. Many times it feels more like a science experiment than a food item.