I think a lot of USA citizens are used to the commercial plastic sealed version which I love and identify as cheddar best. However, living in California I was able to see and taste artisanal UK Authentic aged cheddar and it's a different cheese. It was more dry and crumbly and dare I say waxy like but the taste was good if your not expecting what we are used too but understand that cheese is different and unique based on milk, cultures , salts, and the caves they age in and for how long they age. Those air borne organisms also change the flavor profile.
Yes, we always compare new foods to what we are used to, which is why we often say "our mother's cooking is the best." The 8 judges in the video are from all over the world: French-Canadian, Bulgarian, German (etc.). It really is wonderful to travel the world and try fine cheeses to get a fuller exposure to different foods, tastes and cheese qualities. Making cheese in Canada from my kitchen, I will never be able to make cheddar that tastes like UK cheddar. Impossible.
Ha. I am so glad to hear this. I decided to vacuum pack my cheddat because I was working away for two weeks at a time and couldn't regularly turn a cloth banded cheddar. I found out commercial makers vacuum pack to age so I decided that would be "good enough". I have been very happy with the results.
I can't wait to get to this part. My first cheddar is still air drying and it is very white, but it's developed a buttery yellow tint on the outside as it has dried over the last few days. I hope it gets sharper and more colorful as the months go by. I plan to vacuum seal it.
@@maryannefarah4367 Yeah, my concern is that it's a pretty tall wheel. I made it from a pound of curd that I pressed into a medium sized soup can. It still feels moist on the inside. I don't know how much of that moisture is safe to keep before sealing it. Cause, can't it collapse while it's vacuum sealed?
@@robertlombardo8437 Don't vac seal a cheese that is not dry to the touch. Let it dry for a week or more if needed. (Why would it collapse if vac sealed? Is there air inside? Is the texture spongy? If air is trapped inside the cheese it could be a sign of contamination.)
This was very helpful for me so thanks. First thing tomorrow, I'm unwrapping my cloth bound cheddar that I've been aging for almost 6 months and vacc pac it for another 6 months
Hello Catherina, I wouldn't do that if I were you at this late stage of the game UNLESS your intention is to eat some of the cheese, cut it into smaller pieces and vacuum pack those smaller pieces for storage to eat later.
@@GiveCheeseaChance Well I'm curious as to how it tastes as I only started cheese making this year so haven't tried one of my own aged cheeses yet but I was hoping to age it a full year. The mould on it now is only light which I wasn't expecting considering my cave contains quite a variety of cheeses using either white, blue or reddish moulds in their making so I expected a luna landscape of moulds to have happened by now but otherwise, the cheese feels good... firm as it should be yet enough give to let me know the rind hasn't dried out. I banded it on the recommendation of another cheesemaker who did her own taste comparison between cloth-bound and vacc packed and she preferred the cloth-bound. I guess that is the point, what really matters is personal preference. So I'm curious, which was your preferred cheddar?
@@catherina2611 Truthfully, I didn't participate in the cheddar taste comparison! I was too busy setting everything up, running the experiment with the guests and filming! It was a lost opportunity for me. Sounds like you have some amazing cheeses aging in your cave!
@@GiveCheeseaChance I've binned 2 disasters (blues) but think I've figured out where I've gone wrong... not enough air circulation so will raise the drainage mat and air daily. I think 2 will only be mediocre (red windsor and a sage derby) because the curds didn't knit well (hoping that's where vacc packing will help). Raclette and fresh cheeses were good, Leiden cheese and jarlsberg were very good and the camembert was OMG good... making a batch today so it will be ready for xmas.. Thanks for your time.
@@catherina2611 Sounds like you are learning a lot! Sometimes when the curds don't knit together, the reason could be the curds are not warm enough, or there was not enough pressure applied during pressing. Good luck!
Consider this another vote for this general style -- making a cheese with one step changed and then comparing the results. One of my favorite food channels is all about doing experiments with taste tests at the end. With cheese making, I think there is a much wider area to experiment with. I'm new to cheese making and I find it interesting how recipes between different cheese types are extremely similar with only one or two steps changed: different temperatures, how the whey is drained, when and how the salt is added, the amount of weight used at pressing time, etc. Understanding the whys of each step -- and the results of changing a single step -- would be fascinating. Thanks for a very interesting channel.
Thanks for your comment, Adam. The results blew my mind actually. Why should I spend all that time and energy on traditional affinage treatments when vac packing works so well?!
Loved this video, both how informative it was about different affinage techniques and how serious everyone took their assessments of the different cheddars, particularly Rye and Ruth. Rye would've fought an army of baboons with only a screwdriver to give his review, if he needed to. Nothing was gonna stop that man, F yeas! You should gather together the same group of people to review LSD, Sunchips, and the newest Ford EV sedan..in that order.
Love the creativity ! What a great experience! Thanks for this fun video! Wonder, though, if most people just prefer a milder cheese. I feel like I would love the cloth bound. It looked so artisanal. Beautiful!
@@tcmac1999 I’m in Ontario, Canada. We’ve had bagged milk here for decades, although I still remember having milk in hard plastic jugs when I was younger.
@@tcmac1999 I can’t even tell you! I didn’t include myself in the cheddar comparison because I was too busy organizing everything. What a missed opportunity for me, right?
This was fantastic. I do not know much of anything about the making of cheese nor am I lover of Cheese although I do like it for the most part. In saying that, I have made Yogurt, cream cheese, ricotta, and mozzarella a few times now. I am really wanting to make cheddar and a few others. I watched when you made your last Cheddar, thus why I search for this video and I found it fascinating that I assumed #2 would be the winner hands down and it was #1 . I sure was not expecting that !
Thank you. I don't agree that vac packing sucks out the liquid or flavor as the vacuum applies to the entire wheel which is under the same decreased pressure. I'm going with vacuum packing after drying and your demonstration and test results is the reason. The best and the easiest way!
Hi Mary Anne, such an interesting comparison, I too, thought the cloth-bound cheddar would be the most flavourful, and there most favoured, but no, the big surprise! I too live in Canada, and I am wondering if you would recommend regular Canadian grocery store milk (whole milk I mean) for making cheddar? I live in New Brunswick and don't have access to un-homogenized milk anywhere.
You won't get a very good product using homogenized milk. It won't melt properly like a cheddar should. Call around especially to some "organic" stores and ask for unhomogenized milk, you may be surprised!
@@GiveCheeseaChance Thanks, I will do so. However I know it will be very expensive. Maybe I'll stick with a simpler cheese, since we have little choice in Canada for milks.
Sadly, there is nobody in New Brunswick that will sell un-homogenized milk, if you can believe it, I checked the brand you use, and it is in Kincardine Ontario which, sadly is out of the question for me. I feel a bit lost, not sure what to do. Maybe just use store bought whole milk and add in a half litre of heavy cream? who knows, it might work.
Love your chanel Mary Anne and this video was very interesting and like others have said, I found the results surprising. I keep goats and when I made a cheddar type cheese I would wax it, but I found I could taste the wax in the cheese, like a mothball flavour, really unpleasant. When I start milking again later next year I'm going to focus on natural rinds, which to me is the way my ancestors would have made cheese - but there isn't much info about natural rinds and I would really appreciate you making a short video perhaps on how you went about doing it - the natural rind cheddar looked amazing! Also I have spoiled a lot of cheese because I swapped a cows milk recipe for my goats milk only to discover down the line that it hadn't worked - it was you saying to another commenter that goat milk needs different quantities of culture and rennet - I'd never heard that before, so I am very grateful to you for that. Thank you for sharing your wisdom 😇
Hello Iwona. Thanks for writing. What a great idea to do a video about taking care of a natural rind specifically. I should remember that for 2023! Until then, I have 2 videos about affinage you may want to watch where rind care is discussed. Here is the first one: th-cam.com/video/1T-YGPF2vFc/w-d-xo.html and here is the second: th-cam.com/video/Ii3WjiaZrzk/w-d-xo.html . I also want to let you know that you can make it easier on yourself but using a product called "Cheese Wax Clear Coating"--which is not at all like the red wax you melt to put on an edam or gouda. You can put a small amount on a hard cheese and it makes cheese care easier. Professional cheese makers use it a lot. Here's a link to this product: glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca/collections/wax-and-coating/products/csk-cheese-coating-cct5k-clear-5-kg
Thank you for that info and tips Mary Anne - I have read about the Clear Coat and I think I can buy it in the UK. I watched the first Affinage video before and have just watched the second that you linked. Love your videos and I'll be reminding you next year for a Natural Rind tut!😄@@GiveCheeseaChance
Brandon, I am so glad you are enjoying the videos. You are going to love cheesemaking, and your friends will always be ready to taste test with you--what fun! Don't be discouraged if something doesn't work out perfectly every time; you learn by doing and finessing each time.
@@GiveCheeseaChance trust me every time I try something new it starts off as a disaster,so I'm not one to be intimidated lol. Thank you again and I'm exited to start this journey.
Great video. I think the American palette is just too accustomed to the vacuum packaging. Regarding aging - my local farmer’s market had 4 year aged cheddar. It had crystallization and the mouthfeel and nutty umami of a long-aged parmigiano reggiano. The most delicious cheddar i ever had. And the most I’ve spent on a cheddar, but well worth it (they let me taste test before purchasing - knocked my socks off). Have you ever aged your homemade cheddar to the point of getting crystallization? I also wonder what a taste test of different affinages would yield with a European set of judges and with cheeses aged much longer.
If I had more time, money and resources, I would try to test out your question. I do love those crystals and have not made a cheese where they have been found yet, but I have not aged a cheddar for longer than 10 months at home. I am always just too hungry.
Most definitely very interesting results. Thanks for the video. I am actually quite pleased with the result since it is the easiest option for cheesemakers to take when making cheese. I will be attempting a cheddar one of these days and had been wondering which option to take, now I know. I might have missed it in the video, but what was your own first choice?
The taste testing results for your 4, relatively young cheddar cheeses are both interesting as well as illuminating. I kinda thought that the results might turn out to be as you reported. Because most Americans simply haven't ever experienced the vastly different mouth feels and taste bud experiences of older cheddar cheeses. And, especially cheddar cheeses that are traditionally made, as in Great Britain. I know for a fact that when I first tasted *"REAL"* cheddar cheeses, I had to train myself to re-orient my brain into accepting that what I thought that cheddar cheese was supposed to taste like, bore little to no resemblance to how people in England viewed what cheddar cheeses are supposed to taste like. I worked at a restaurant/soup bar/artisan bakery, where, for a short while, the owner sold cheeses with a full-time cheese enthusiast working the cheese display. My favorite cheeses were St. Marcellin that was as gooey, liquidy, and stinky as possible, most blue cheeses, and *ANY* cheddar more than 3 years old. *ALL* of the older, mostly American-made, cheddars were to die for and it was a true revelation to taste cheddars that were, 1-year, 18-months, 2-years, 3-years, 4-years, 5-years, 7-years, 9-years, 11-years, 13-years, and 15-years old. The older the cheddar was, the more expensive in dollars per pound it was priced, with the 7-years old, and older cheddars increasing in cost exponentially over a cheddar just 1-2 years younger. I spent close to $50.00 in the early-2000's purchasing tiny samples of every cheddar that we sold during those 6-8 months when the boss toyed with selling cheese. I consider that money some of the wisest monies that I ever spent on what most people would have considered an unnecessary indulgence. Until one experiences *REALLY* good, well-aged cheeses; $75.00 per ounce balsamic vinegar that's 25 years old; the best quality Jamon Iberico Spanish ham; or the best quality Prosciutto de Parma Italian ham; then it's really difficult to understand what all the fuss is about. The closest thing we have in the United States are our older cheddar cheeses and the boutique Southern country ham producers; which are quite good.
It was good reading your comment. Thank you! TIME is a critical “ingredient” with cheeses (like cheddar). It is when the flavour is developed. But it is so hard to wait years in my kitchen, especially when I’m hungry and the fridge is empty, and that aged wheel of cheese is sitting there, peacefully eyeing me, saying, “Why don’t you take a taste of me now?”
As I’ve watched several videos on Cheese making I’m not a professional. But the cloth bound Cheese was supposed to be scraped of the mold before you start cutting the wheel therefore it could have flavored the cheese differently even though you kinda cut it off after you cut into it
OK, I can try that next time. Scraping off the mold, or brushing it off though? I don't think scraping with a knife would have done much. I would have been scraping on the fabric.
I also live in Halton! There are no local places that you can drive to, unfortunately. However, I have been able to order online from a Canadian cheese supply place (in Lancaster, Ontario) and they deliver pretty fast. Look up GlenGarry Cheese Supply. I also order sometimes from a U.S. retailer called New England Cheese Supply. They sell different stuff with some overlap, so you have to check both places.
@@cindyturner7240 I buy both liquid calf rennet and pill/tablet form calf rennet. They are just a few dollars, so I recommend for a beginner, get small amounts of both. That way, if a recipe calls for the liquid form, you don't have to figure out the conversion if you only have the tablets. The advantage to the tablet rennets though is they last for 15 years in the freezer! The liquid form lasts a year or two in your fridge.
Very impressed with your test. You did real work. I encourage you to continue with your channel and do more tests. Just try to do more different cheese from Latin America or any other places around the world
Thanks, Danny. I love making cheese. I am limited by how much free time I have. I will get to making videos about latin american cheeses eventually. I think I might make a blue cheese video next. Do you like blue cheeses?
@@GiveCheeseaChance Yes, it is one of my favorite. My goal is to make some Blue Cheese (Gorgonzola) for the next months. But before that, I need to get some ingredients.
hi,I prepare gauda cheese and I wrap it with plastic wrap and I put it in the fridge but after 10 days I see blue mushroom, I don't understand why, I wrap it well to isolate the cheese against the air, but I find the mushroom, you can help me understand and thank you
Hello hen zoo. When you make a hard cheese like gouda, you want it to air dry for several days on all surfaces because it needs air flow during the maturing stage to create a proper rind. Even if it grows spots of mold on the outside, you can brine wash it and/or use a brush to wipe the mold away. I don't know why you would wrap a freshly made cheese in plastic. The only time I would wrap a cheese in plastic would be after it is fully mature, I have cut into it and sectioned pieces and I want to keep it from drying out in my fridge.
@@GiveCheeseaChance Thanks for the advice, i dried the cheese for six days and because i saw that gauda cheese should be wrapped and i do not have wax or vacuum packed to wrap the cheese, i used packaging folm.Is the purpose of wrapping the cheese with wax or vacuum packed to prevent air from reaching the cheese and so it will not grow fungi?
@@henzoo5210 Hi, plastic film wrapping is not air tight like vacuum sealing, so it just won't work--you will get fungal growth. I suggest you buy a vacuum sealer machine, they are not as expensive as you might think. They are a good investment because you also get to use them after you have cut into the wheels of cheese to make slices once fully mature. You can vacuum seal the small triangles of cheese so they are ready to eat/serve months later without worrying about them getting mold on the individual slices (or drying out). So what to do about your mold-covered cheese right now? Get some very salty water (brine) and pour it onto a very clean (thread-bare) cloth, and rub the cheese until the mold is gone. Then dry the cheese again for a few days at room temperature before putting it back into a cooler environment/box for maturation. You can try aging the cheese with a natural rind if you can mentally accept growing natural mold on your cheese.
Mary Anne, why don,t you try salt or "gofio" or a mixture of both. Traditional home made cheese un the Cannary Island use this ingredients " to cure" the cheese (made from goat milk). God bless you!💐
I vacuum pack almost all my cheeses and have had the same results but prefer the taste of natural rind with vacuum pack second i hate the texture of cheeses that have been waxed they are always creamy and moist and I dont like it.
I am going to tell you honestly that I did not participate in the tasting comparison. I was too busy that day setting everything up, dealing with people coming and going, tallying the results, etc. I have since eaten all the cheeses though, just not as a taste comparison. They were all good!
If I am understanding your rating chart the 0-25 rating has skewed the results. So they rated there favorite from best to worst 1-4 and then they gave a arbitrary rating of 0-25 to each cheese is that correct? Rating the cheese from best to worst 1-4 is very reliable way to judge your cheeses, my taste buds tell me this is the best tasting cheese and this is the worst. However without extensive training as a group and agreeing on each attribute that cheese offers and a number assigned to that characteristic of the cheese that number is meaning less. For example 4 out of your 8 testers rated your 4th place cheese better than your 2nd place cheese and a 5th tester tied the 2 cheeses. Both Rye and Anita rated the #2 cheese as there favorite but the chat does not indicate that. Just my opinion. Thanks so much for sharing this video and the making of your cheddar cheese video I will be making it very soon. Thanks again.
You should know that each judge judged each cheese's aroma, texture, appearance, and flavour, etc. They did not just give an arbitrary ranking out of 25 for each cheese. However, I put summaries in the video for viewers to see.
@@GiveCheeseaChance Ya I know my comment sounded harsh but I really didn't mean it that way. Its just the 0-25 test is very subjective and prone to error as your chart indicates. The cheeses did not line up in both tests. I am a very analytical person and I saw the test scores are skewed. I thought the best to worst 1-4 test is very good you cant argue what people like or don't like they just do. However some of the testers changed there minds on the second test 0-25 so the results were a little confusing. You can test anyway you want to, I was just pointing out the flip flop results so you can modify your procedures if you choose. Didn't mean to offend, sorry you took it that way.
@@tazblink Oh I wasn't really offended. It really was a small sample size -- and not a proper scientific experiment. I did say it was "mostly for fun". However, I learned a lot considering I thought almost everyone would prefer the cloth-bandaged cheese, and they didn't. To me, that was the big take-away from the whole day.
IT would have been nice if you added a side note informing viewers that though most cheddar is yellow in colour, cheddar is actually WHITE in colour and a food colouring( annatto seed) is added to give that yellowish colour
Thanks for your comment. I do say that in the video where I explain how to make cheddar (that annatto is optional and just used for coloring): th-cam.com/video/cRNIb4NWu_Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=h34S0_xeeRuMXdeC
That is possible. It also could be a bias of us wanting the traditional method to be the one that makes the best tasting cheese because we often think traditional is best. In previous centuries, they didn't have vacuum packing, so cloth bandaging and a natural rind were the only options. If they had access to vac packing, maybe they would have done that too. All just hypothesizing, of course.
The only thing is that everyone’s idea of a true cheddar is skewed because for the last number of years everyone’s idea of a cheddar would be a vacuum sealed aged cheddar from the big name cheddar producers. As if you were to visit homesteads the Amish and European they would say the natural & cloth bound are more cheddary.
I don't know how much "Real" Cheddar gets too the USA but maybe the Tasters views were slanted to the taste that they were familiar with? We all have in-built bias and maybe they associate a cheese that is close to an American version is what it should taste like? Ps. Have you tried Stinking Bishop yet?
You seem surprised! I was too (shown in the video). We are in Canada, by the way. I can assure you that ALL the people in the video are from places around the world and travel frequently, so they are not limited to American tastes. We also have access to fine UK-made cheddar in Canada. I am not saying that all vacuum-sealed cheddar tastes better around the world, but on this day, in my kitchen, with my recipe, with these judges, with my affinage skills... these were the findings, and they were surprising because I had a bias that cloth-bound would ALWAYS taste best, and it wasn't true.
No I haven't tried stinking bishop yet, but it looks amazing and is getting a lot of publicity. What do you think of it? Bring some over and let's film us eating it! 🙂
If our taste buds weren't destroyed by chemicals in our environment and sugar prevalence, I wonder if it would change the results. In my book, Natural 🏆 for ease and vacupak for ease of storage.
It could be the cheese’s rind still had a lot of moisture. The rind should be dry because otherwise, when you wax, you are trapping moisture between the cheese and the wax, so mould will grow. I suggest to dry the cheese at least a week before waxing.
Maybe the judges were not really cheese lovers or experts so they went for the "flattest" experience, considering the clothed Cheddar (that was probably a more complex sensorial experience due to a different organoleptic composition) something unusual and strange. Just sayin'... Great comparison, anyway. Thanks for the video.
@@GiveCheeseaChance Well, for sure they are cheese enthusiasts, but usually I tend to trust the judgement of the person who made the cheese, in this case you. And it was on the clothed cheese.
@@GiveCheeseaChance I know. We produce cheese as well and when we have tasting sessions in our office I am the last who talks ;-). But now I am curious about your opinion...
@@ottimacheese4041 You won't believe it but I was just so busy setting everything up and recording everything that I didn't judge the cheddars, although I took a sample here and there while cutting them--I just didn't sit down and compare. A missed opportunity, I know. I'd love to hear about the cheeses you make! Tell me!
Great video but there was a lot of age between them so it wasn’t fully accurate. Be interesting to know in which order you made them. Love your videos.
They were all approximately the same age actually. It wasn't a fully scientific test, and I admit that. But still, the fact that everyone didn't vote for the cloth bound cheese surprised me.
@@GiveCheeseaChance me too. I was certain the cloth wrap was going to take it. My biggest surprise was a vac packed cheese won but you gave some great information which I think made the difference as big as it was and that was the extra dry time before vacuum packing. Be interesting to take that further and do 3 cheddar all vacuum packed with different dry times. I wish you lived next door to me. I’d be rather fat tho. 😂😂😂😂❤️
Very helpful. I was rooting for the vac pack because it is SO much more convenient than the other methods.
I hear you. Vacuum making is so easy, and I was afraid it would make the cheese taste worse, but that didn't happen!
I think a lot of USA citizens are used to the commercial plastic sealed version which I love and identify as cheddar best. However, living in California I was able to see and taste artisanal UK
Authentic aged cheddar and it's a different cheese.
It was more dry and crumbly and dare I say waxy like but the taste was good if your not expecting what we are used too but understand that cheese is different and unique based on milk, cultures , salts, and the caves they age in and for how long they age. Those air borne organisms also change the flavor profile.
Yes, we always compare new foods to what we are used to, which is why we often say "our mother's cooking is the best." The 8 judges in the video are from all over the world: French-Canadian, Bulgarian, German (etc.). It really is wonderful to travel the world and try fine cheeses to get a fuller exposure to different foods, tastes and cheese qualities. Making cheese in Canada from my kitchen, I will never be able to make cheddar that tastes like UK cheddar. Impossible.
Ha. I am so glad to hear this. I decided to vacuum pack my cheddat because I was working away for two weeks at a time and couldn't regularly turn a cloth banded cheddar. I found out commercial makers vacuum pack to age so I decided that would be "good enough". I have been very happy with the results.
It definitely seems a good way to go!
What a masterclass! I shared the same expectations with you and was very surprise about the final result. Many thanks for showing this to us!
Thanks, Alex, I truly was surprised with what the judges found.
I can't wait to get to this part. My first cheddar is still air drying and it is very white, but it's developed a buttery yellow tint on the outside as it has dried over the last few days.
I hope it gets sharper and more colorful as the months go by. I plan to vacuum seal it.
That’s exciting! I have also noticed that rinds change colour as they dry. It’s normal.
@@maryannefarah4367
Yeah, my concern is that it's a pretty tall wheel. I made it from a pound of curd that I pressed into a medium sized soup can. It still feels moist on the inside. I don't know how much of that moisture is safe to keep before sealing it. Cause, can't it collapse while it's vacuum sealed?
@@robertlombardo8437 Don't vac seal a cheese that is not dry to the touch. Let it dry for a week or more if needed. (Why would it collapse if vac sealed? Is there air inside? Is the texture spongy? If air is trapped inside the cheese it could be a sign of contamination.)
This was very helpful for me so thanks. First thing tomorrow, I'm unwrapping my cloth bound cheddar that I've been aging for almost 6 months and vacc pac it for another 6 months
Hello Catherina, I wouldn't do that if I were you at this late stage of the game UNLESS your intention is to eat some of the cheese, cut it into smaller pieces and vacuum pack those smaller pieces for storage to eat later.
@@GiveCheeseaChance Well I'm curious as to how it tastes as I only started cheese making this year so haven't tried one of my own aged cheeses yet but I was hoping to age it a full year. The mould on it now is only light which I wasn't expecting considering my cave contains quite a variety of cheeses using either white, blue or reddish moulds in their making so I expected a luna landscape of moulds to have happened by now but otherwise, the cheese feels good... firm as it should be yet enough give to let me know the rind hasn't dried out. I banded it on the recommendation of another cheesemaker who did her own taste comparison between cloth-bound and vacc packed and she preferred the cloth-bound. I guess that is the point, what really matters is personal preference. So I'm curious, which was your preferred cheddar?
@@catherina2611 Truthfully, I didn't participate in the cheddar taste comparison! I was too busy setting everything up, running the experiment with the guests and filming! It was a lost opportunity for me. Sounds like you have some amazing cheeses aging in your cave!
@@GiveCheeseaChance I've binned 2 disasters (blues) but think I've figured out where I've gone wrong... not enough air circulation so will raise the drainage mat and air daily. I think 2 will only be mediocre (red windsor and a sage derby) because the curds didn't knit well (hoping that's where vacc packing will help). Raclette and fresh cheeses were good, Leiden cheese and jarlsberg were very good and the camembert was OMG good... making a batch today so it will be ready for xmas.. Thanks for your time.
@@catherina2611 Sounds like you are learning a lot! Sometimes when the curds don't knit together, the reason could be the curds are not warm enough, or there was not enough pressure applied during pressing. Good luck!
Consider this another vote for this general style -- making a cheese with one step changed and then comparing the results. One of my favorite food channels is all about doing experiments with taste tests at the end. With cheese making, I think there is a much wider area to experiment with. I'm new to cheese making and I find it interesting how recipes between different cheese types are extremely similar with only one or two steps changed: different temperatures, how the whey is drained, when and how the salt is added, the amount of weight used at pressing time, etc.
Understanding the whys of each step -- and the results of changing a single step -- would be fascinating.
Thanks for a very interesting channel.
Thank you so much for your comment! That makes 2 of us--we both enjoy the science of food!
@@GiveCheeseaChance And you get to eat your mistakes!
@@papasmurf9146 totally agree! What a bonus.
This is fantastic, thank so much for making this! Also the exact opposite results I would have expected.
Loved the affinages comparisons!
This was COOL!!! THANKS!😊
That's fantastic. I used the different methods of aging but never in a head to head comparison... I love it!
Thanks for your comment, Adam. The results blew my mind actually. Why should I spend all that time and energy on traditional affinage treatments when vac packing works so well?!
That´s amazing! Please do more videos like this for another types of cheese! I have a cheddar vac pack right now, waiting 5 months to be tasted.
Hi Guilherme, thanks for your feedback! Isn't waiting just the hardest part? It's hard not to dig in too soon. Good luck with your cheddar!
Loved this video, both how informative it was about different affinage techniques and how serious everyone took their assessments of the different cheddars, particularly Rye and Ruth. Rye would've fought an army of baboons with only a screwdriver to give his review, if he needed to. Nothing was gonna stop that man, F yeas! You should gather together the same group of people to review LSD, Sunchips, and the newest Ford EV sedan..in that order.
LOL!
Great work - really cool project
Thank you! I am now doing the same comparison with different emmenthal recipes!
I love your video content Mary Anne. It's easy and fun to watch. We're cheese happy in house, but we've not yet ventured into making our own.
I'm so glad you are enjoying the videos! Why not start with making the easiest cheese of them all... ricotta?
Love the creativity ! What a great experience! Thanks for this fun video! Wonder, though, if most people just prefer a milder cheese. I feel like I would love the cloth bound. It looked so artisanal. Beautiful!
If I could give you samples to try, I would! :-)
😁…curious how you would describe it compared to the others? (And where are you located ? I’ve never seen bagged milk !)
@@tcmac1999 I’m in Ontario, Canada. We’ve had bagged milk here for decades, although I still remember having milk in hard plastic jugs when I was younger.
@@tcmac1999 I can’t even tell you! I didn’t include myself in the cheddar comparison because I was too busy organizing everything. What a missed opportunity for me, right?
Great video - thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for - which is the best aging treatment. And I love taste tests too.
It is interesting that people have different preferences about what tastes best for them!
This was fantastic. I do not know much of anything about the making of cheese nor am I lover of Cheese although I do like it for the most part. In saying that, I have made Yogurt, cream cheese, ricotta, and mozzarella a few times now. I am really wanting to make cheddar and a few others. I watched when you made your last Cheddar, thus why I search for this video and I found it fascinating that I assumed #2 would be the winner hands down and it was #1 . I sure was not expecting that !
Me too--I was surprised!
This video is so greatly appreciated!!!!
Thank you!!!!
Thank you. I don't agree that vac packing sucks out the liquid or flavor as the vacuum applies to the entire wheel which is under the same decreased pressure. I'm going with vacuum packing after drying and your demonstration and test results is the reason. The best and the easiest way!
Thanks for your reply, Earl. Appreciated!
Hi Mary Anne, such an interesting comparison, I too, thought the cloth-bound cheddar would be the most flavourful, and there most favoured, but no, the big surprise! I too live in Canada, and I am wondering if you would recommend regular Canadian grocery store milk (whole milk I mean) for making cheddar? I live in New Brunswick and don't have access to un-homogenized milk anywhere.
You won't get a very good product using homogenized milk. It won't melt properly like a cheddar should. Call around especially to some "organic" stores and ask for unhomogenized milk, you may be surprised!
@@GiveCheeseaChance Thanks, I will do so. However I know it will be very expensive. Maybe I'll stick with a simpler cheese, since we have little choice in Canada for milks.
Sadly, there is nobody in New Brunswick that will sell un-homogenized milk, if you can believe it, I checked the brand you use, and it is in Kincardine Ontario which, sadly is out of the question for me. I feel a bit lost, not sure what to do. Maybe just use store bought whole milk and add in a half litre of heavy cream? who knows, it might work.
Love your chanel Mary Anne and this video was very interesting and like others have said, I found the results surprising. I keep goats and when I made a cheddar type cheese I would wax it, but I found I could taste the wax in the cheese, like a mothball flavour, really unpleasant. When I start milking again later next year I'm going to focus on natural rinds, which to me is the way my ancestors would have made cheese - but there isn't much info about natural rinds and I would really appreciate you making a short video perhaps on how you went about doing it - the natural rind cheddar looked amazing!
Also I have spoiled a lot of cheese because I swapped a cows milk recipe for my goats milk only to discover down the line that it hadn't worked - it was you saying to another commenter that goat milk needs different quantities of culture and rennet - I'd never heard that before, so I am very grateful to you for that. Thank you for sharing your wisdom 😇
Hello Iwona. Thanks for writing. What a great idea to do a video about taking care of a natural rind specifically. I should remember that for 2023! Until then, I have 2 videos about affinage you may want to watch where rind care is discussed. Here is the first one: th-cam.com/video/1T-YGPF2vFc/w-d-xo.html and here is the second: th-cam.com/video/Ii3WjiaZrzk/w-d-xo.html . I also want to let you know that you can make it easier on yourself but using a product called "Cheese Wax Clear Coating"--which is not at all like the red wax you melt to put on an edam or gouda. You can put a small amount on a hard cheese and it makes cheese care easier. Professional cheese makers use it a lot. Here's a link to this product: glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca/collections/wax-and-coating/products/csk-cheese-coating-cct5k-clear-5-kg
Thank you for that info and tips Mary Anne - I have read about the Clear Coat and I think I can buy it in the UK. I watched the first Affinage video before and have just watched the second that you linked. Love your videos and I'll be reminding you next year for a Natural Rind tut!😄@@GiveCheeseaChance
@@iwonacharleson7071 OK, great! 🙂
Another great video! I loved the judging and wonder if my tastes would have been different.
You would have been a great judge. I guess I could have had many more judges but I might not have had any cheese left over. :-D
Did not expect the results. Great video!
I was surprised too!
great video about the different aging methods. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your kind feedback!
Thank you very much for creating this channel. This has been a huge help into a new hobby I would like to pursue.
Brandon, I am so glad you are enjoying the videos. You are going to love cheesemaking, and your friends will always be ready to taste test with you--what fun! Don't be discouraged if something doesn't work out perfectly every time; you learn by doing and finessing each time.
@@GiveCheeseaChance trust me every time I try something new it starts off as a disaster,so I'm not one to be intimidated lol. Thank you again and I'm exited to start this journey.
@@brandonhellmer4778 That's so funny! I love your determination!
Wow MaryAnn unbelievable video!!
Awww, thanks Jessica!
Wow Mary! You made another great video and some beautiful cheese. xo
Thanks, Giselle!
Awesome video. Thanks for taking the time to set this up. Makes me feel ok to go ahead and vac pack!!!
Thank you this was great, fun and informative
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! :-)
Thanks, a very interesting video, I wonder if we have got used to mass produced cheddar, hence the vac pack was the favourite.
What a great video! Thank you so much for making this!!
Thanks for your feedback! 🙂
To be frank, I think our taste buds are compromised by too many additions these days. In old times food tasted pure and natural.
This is one of the reasons I like making cheese myself; I know exactly what is in it, and the process too.
Great video. I think the American palette is just too accustomed to the vacuum packaging. Regarding aging - my local farmer’s market had 4 year aged cheddar. It had crystallization and the mouthfeel and nutty umami of a long-aged parmigiano reggiano. The most delicious cheddar i ever had. And the most I’ve spent on a cheddar, but well worth it (they let me taste test before purchasing - knocked my socks off). Have you ever aged your homemade cheddar to the point of getting crystallization? I also wonder what a taste test of different affinages would yield with a European set of judges and with cheeses aged much longer.
If I had more time, money and resources, I would try to test out your question. I do love those crystals and have not made a cheese where they have been found yet, but I have not aged a cheddar for longer than 10 months at home. I am always just too hungry.
Very impressive 👏 Thanks you so very much for sharing! 🧀🦋
Glad you liked it!
Most definitely very interesting results. Thanks for the video. I am actually quite pleased with the result since it is the easiest option for cheesemakers to take when making cheese. I will be attempting a cheddar one of these days and had been wondering which option to take, now I know. I might have missed it in the video, but what was your own first choice?
Even though I tasted all the cheeses as I cut into the wheels, I was too busy to compare them! That was a lost opportunity for me.
Loved this video!!! Thank you for sharing :D
Thanks, very interesting.
The taste testing results for your 4, relatively young cheddar cheeses are both interesting as well as illuminating. I kinda thought that the results might turn out to be as you reported.
Because most Americans simply haven't ever experienced the vastly different mouth feels and taste bud experiences of older cheddar cheeses. And, especially cheddar cheeses that are traditionally made, as in Great Britain.
I know for a fact that when I first tasted *"REAL"* cheddar cheeses, I had to train myself to re-orient my brain into accepting that what I thought that cheddar cheese was supposed to taste like, bore little to no resemblance to how people in England viewed what cheddar cheeses are supposed to taste like.
I worked at a restaurant/soup bar/artisan bakery, where, for a short while, the owner sold cheeses with a full-time cheese enthusiast working the cheese display.
My favorite cheeses were St. Marcellin that was as gooey, liquidy, and stinky as possible, most blue cheeses, and *ANY* cheddar more than 3 years old.
*ALL* of the older, mostly American-made, cheddars were to die for and it was a true revelation to taste cheddars that were, 1-year, 18-months, 2-years, 3-years, 4-years, 5-years, 7-years, 9-years, 11-years, 13-years, and 15-years old. The older the cheddar was, the more expensive in dollars per pound it was priced, with the 7-years old, and older cheddars increasing in cost exponentially over a cheddar just 1-2 years younger.
I spent close to $50.00 in the early-2000's purchasing tiny samples of every cheddar that we sold during those 6-8 months when the boss toyed with selling cheese. I consider that money some of the wisest monies that I ever spent on what most people would have considered an unnecessary indulgence. Until one experiences *REALLY* good, well-aged cheeses; $75.00 per ounce balsamic vinegar that's 25 years old; the best quality Jamon Iberico Spanish ham; or the best quality Prosciutto de Parma Italian ham; then it's really difficult to understand what all the fuss is about.
The closest thing we have in the United States are our older cheddar cheeses and the boutique Southern country ham producers; which are quite good.
It was good reading your comment. Thank you! TIME is a critical “ingredient” with cheeses (like cheddar). It is when the flavour is developed. But it is so hard to wait years in my kitchen, especially when I’m hungry and the fridge is empty, and that aged wheel of cheese is sitting there, peacefully eyeing me, saying, “Why don’t you take a taste of me now?”
Amazing Video!!!!!!
Thanks Jess! Hug!
Great video Mary Anne and what an interesting experiment!
Thanks, Josee! Happy to share some with you if you want to come by. :-)
@@GiveCheeseaChance Can't say no to that! 😁
@@joinbookland Let's set a date then!
Wow..love your cheese olympics! Everyone on video were enjoyable. Ams so do I.❤
Maybe I needed some Olympic-style medals?? :-)
As I’ve watched several videos on Cheese making I’m not a professional. But the cloth bound Cheese was supposed to be scraped of the mold before you start cutting the wheel therefore it could have flavored the cheese differently even though you kinda cut it off after you cut into it
OK, I can try that next time. Scraping off the mold, or brushing it off though? I don't think scraping with a knife would have done much. I would have been scraping on the fabric.
I would like to get started making cheese but don’t know where to source the best supplies. I live in Halton region. Is there any suppliers locally?
I also live in Halton! There are no local places that you can drive to, unfortunately. However, I have been able to order online from a Canadian cheese supply place (in Lancaster, Ontario) and they deliver pretty fast. Look up GlenGarry Cheese Supply. I also order sometimes from a U.S. retailer called New England Cheese Supply. They sell different stuff with some overlap, so you have to check both places.
Thank you so much for the information. Can you tell me which type of rennet you find best. I love your videos and can’t wait to get started
@@cindyturner7240 I buy both liquid calf rennet and pill/tablet form calf rennet. They are just a few dollars, so I recommend for a beginner, get small amounts of both. That way, if a recipe calls for the liquid form, you don't have to figure out the conversion if you only have the tablets. The advantage to the tablet rennets though is they last for 15 years in the freezer! The liquid form lasts a year or two in your fridge.
One note: rennet is sometimes referred to as COAGULANT.
Very impressed with your test. You did real work. I encourage you to continue with your channel and do more tests. Just try to do more different cheese from Latin America or any other places around the world
Thanks, Danny. I love making cheese. I am limited by how much free time I have. I will get to making videos about latin american cheeses eventually. I think I might make a blue cheese video next. Do you like blue cheeses?
@@GiveCheeseaChance Yes, it is one of my favorite. My goal is to make some Blue Cheese (Gorgonzola) for the next months. But before that, I need to get some ingredients.
@@doch40 Blue cheeses are the most challenging to make, I find. They need lots of care.
Omg the camera angles!!!
I know right? Thanks to hubby!
hi,I prepare gauda cheese and I wrap it with plastic wrap and I put it in the fridge but after 10 days I see blue mushroom, I don't understand why, I wrap it well to isolate the cheese against the air, but I find the mushroom, you can help me understand and thank you
Hello hen zoo. When you make a hard cheese like gouda, you want it to air dry for several days on all surfaces because it needs air flow during the maturing stage to create a proper rind. Even if it grows spots of mold on the outside, you can brine wash it and/or use a brush to wipe the mold away. I don't know why you would wrap a freshly made cheese in plastic. The only time I would wrap a cheese in plastic would be after it is fully mature, I have cut into it and sectioned pieces and I want to keep it from drying out in my fridge.
@@GiveCheeseaChance Thanks for the advice, i dried the cheese for six days and because i saw that gauda cheese should be wrapped and i do not have wax or vacuum packed to wrap the cheese, i used packaging folm.Is the purpose of wrapping the cheese with wax or vacuum packed to prevent air from reaching the cheese and so it will not grow fungi?
@@henzoo5210 Hi, plastic film wrapping is not air tight like vacuum sealing, so it just won't work--you will get fungal growth. I suggest you buy a vacuum sealer machine, they are not as expensive as you might think. They are a good investment because you also get to use them after you have cut into the wheels of cheese to make slices once fully mature. You can vacuum seal the small triangles of cheese so they are ready to eat/serve months later without worrying about them getting mold on the individual slices (or drying out). So what to do about your mold-covered cheese right now? Get some very salty water (brine) and pour it onto a very clean (thread-bare) cloth, and rub the cheese until the mold is gone. Then dry the cheese again for a few days at room temperature before putting it back into a cooler environment/box for maturation. You can try aging the cheese with a natural rind if you can mentally accept growing natural mold on your cheese.
@@GiveCheeseaChance thanks you
@@GiveCheeseaChance thank you very much
well done!
Mary Anne, why don,t you try salt or "gofio" or a mixture of both. Traditional home made cheese un the Cannary Island use this ingredients " to cure" the cheese (made from goat milk). God bless you!💐
My goodness, I am intrigued. What can you tell me about gofio? What cheeses do you make with this salt mixture?
A little confused on the scoring, according to the chart it looks like the wax bound came in second no?
I vacuum pack almost all my cheeses and have had the same results but prefer the taste of natural rind with vacuum pack second i hate the texture of cheeses that have been waxed they are always creamy and moist and I dont like it.
I know exactly what you mean. I don't like cheese where the moisture gets trapped. They still have to breathe.
You are so good x
Love the Idea thank you so much but what about your opinion lol who's your favourite?!
I am going to tell you honestly that I did not participate in the tasting comparison. I was too busy that day setting everything up, dealing with people coming and going, tallying the results, etc. I have since eaten all the cheeses though, just not as a taste comparison. They were all good!
@@GiveCheeseaChance please can I contact you in Instagram ?
@@tafatlounis8109 I rarely use instagram though. I know it is very popular though. Do you post a lot?
@@GiveCheeseaChance these messages are instant and i wanted to send you pictures
If I am understanding your rating chart the 0-25 rating has skewed the results. So they rated there favorite from best to worst 1-4 and then they gave a arbitrary rating of 0-25 to each cheese is that correct? Rating the cheese from best to worst 1-4 is very reliable way to judge your cheeses, my taste buds tell me this is the best tasting cheese and this is the worst. However without extensive training as a group and agreeing on each attribute that cheese offers and a number assigned to that characteristic of the cheese that number is meaning less. For example 4 out of your 8 testers rated your 4th place cheese better than your 2nd place cheese and a 5th tester tied the 2 cheeses. Both Rye and Anita rated the #2 cheese as there favorite but the chat does not indicate that. Just my opinion. Thanks so much for sharing this video and the making of your cheddar cheese video I will be making it very soon. Thanks again.
I guess I should have had you do the analysis! Next time... 🙂
You should know that each judge judged each cheese's aroma, texture, appearance, and flavour, etc. They did not just give an arbitrary ranking out of 25 for each cheese. However, I put summaries in the video for viewers to see.
@@GiveCheeseaChance Ya I know my comment sounded harsh but I really didn't mean it that way. Its just the 0-25 test is very subjective and prone to error as your chart indicates. The cheeses did not line up in both tests. I am a very analytical person and I saw the test scores are skewed. I thought the best to worst 1-4 test is very good you cant argue what people like or don't like they just do. However some of the testers changed there minds on the second test 0-25 so the results were a little confusing. You can test anyway you want to, I was just pointing out the flip flop results so you can modify your procedures if you choose. Didn't mean to offend, sorry you took it that way.
@@tazblink Oh I wasn't really offended. It really was a small sample size -- and not a proper scientific experiment. I did say it was "mostly for fun". However, I learned a lot considering I thought almost everyone would prefer the cloth-bandaged cheese, and they didn't. To me, that was the big take-away from the whole day.
IT would have been nice if you added a side note informing viewers that though most cheddar is yellow in colour, cheddar is actually WHITE in colour and a food colouring( annatto seed) is added to give that yellowish colour
Thanks for your comment. I do say that in the video where I explain how to make cheddar (that annatto is optional and just used for coloring): th-cam.com/video/cRNIb4NWu_Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=h34S0_xeeRuMXdeC
It could be that our taste has turned to a more modern flavor so the cheese with the oldest method tasted different than expected by the tester's.
That is possible. It also could be a bias of us wanting the traditional method to be the one that makes the best tasting cheese because we often think traditional is best. In previous centuries, they didn't have vacuum packing, so cloth bandaging and a natural rind were the only options. If they had access to vac packing, maybe they would have done that too. All just hypothesizing, of course.
The only thing is that everyone’s idea of a true cheddar is skewed because for the last number of years everyone’s idea of a cheddar would be a vacuum sealed aged cheddar from the big name cheddar producers. As if you were to visit homesteads the Amish and European they would say the natural & cloth bound are more cheddary.
I don't know how much "Real" Cheddar gets too the USA but maybe the Tasters views were slanted to the taste that they were familiar with? We all have in-built bias and maybe they associate a cheese that is close to an American version is what it should taste like? Ps. Have you tried Stinking Bishop yet?
You seem surprised! I was too (shown in the video). We are in Canada, by the way. I can assure you that ALL the people in the video are from places around the world and travel frequently, so they are not limited to American tastes. We also have access to fine UK-made cheddar in Canada. I am not saying that all vacuum-sealed cheddar tastes better around the world, but on this day, in my kitchen, with my recipe, with these judges, with my affinage skills... these were the findings, and they were surprising because I had a bias that cloth-bound would ALWAYS taste best, and it wasn't true.
No I haven't tried stinking bishop yet, but it looks amazing and is getting a lot of publicity. What do you think of it? Bring some over and let's film us eating it! 🙂
If our taste buds weren't destroyed by chemicals in our environment and sugar prevalence, I wonder if it would change the results. In my book, Natural 🏆 for ease and vacupak for ease of storage.
When I run the numbers I get Cheese number 2 was in second place.
Keep in mind thatvthe normal and most sell chessescare vacoum sealed
I waxed some cheese and it grew a lot of mold, like nasty mold.
It could be the cheese’s rind still had a lot of moisture. The rind should be dry because otherwise, when you wax, you are trapping moisture between the cheese and the wax, so mould will grow. I suggest to dry the cheese at least a week before waxing.
🤓✌👍👌🖖😎
"it smells cheddar-y"
👁️👄👁️
You would have different results with judges outside of North America
Many of those judges are Europeans who moved to Canada.
It's surprising that the vaccine package won🏆. Thanks for sharing.
I enjoy your videos, but we are trained to like plastic wrapped cheese because that’s what we are accustomed to.
So, do you think the plastic imparts a flavour on the cheese?
#youtubestar
𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚖
The one vacuum packed wasn't really a Cheddar...
Maybe the judges were not really cheese lovers or experts so they went for the "flattest" experience, considering the clothed Cheddar (that was probably a more complex sensorial experience due to a different organoleptic composition) something unusual and strange. Just sayin'... Great comparison, anyway. Thanks for the video.
All 8 of them?
@@GiveCheeseaChance Well, for sure they are cheese enthusiasts, but usually I tend to trust the judgement of the person who made the cheese, in this case you. And it was on the clothed cheese.
@@ottimacheese4041 My opinion was not included in the video. I wanted to not bias the judges.
@@GiveCheeseaChance I know. We produce cheese as well and when we have tasting sessions in our office I am the last who talks ;-). But now I am curious about your opinion...
@@ottimacheese4041 You won't believe it but I was just so busy setting everything up and recording everything that I didn't judge the cheddars, although I took a sample here and there while cutting them--I just didn't sit down and compare. A missed opportunity, I know. I'd love to hear about the cheeses you make! Tell me!
Thank you so much for the vid!
My pleasure. Thanks for watching!
Great video but there was a lot of age between them so it wasn’t fully accurate. Be interesting to know in which order you made them. Love your videos.
They were all approximately the same age actually. It wasn't a fully scientific test, and I admit that. But still, the fact that everyone didn't vote for the cloth bound cheese surprised me.
@@GiveCheeseaChance me too. I was certain the cloth wrap was going to take it. My biggest surprise was a vac packed cheese won but you gave some great information which I think made the difference as big as it was and that was the extra dry time before vacuum packing. Be interesting to take that further and do 3 cheddar all vacuum packed with different dry times. I wish you lived next door to me. I’d be rather fat tho. 😂😂😂😂❤️
@@Foodgloriousfoodish if you lived next door to me, you’d never have to buy cheese again!