Baby-Swiss-style cheese
A washed-curd cheese with propionic bacteria, warmed by hot water in two steps and then held in a warm room for weeks so the bacteria can form its holes.
Built structures · Kettles, coppers and boilers
Brewer as a hot-water service station
hot liquor tank for cheese · hot-water tank
The brewer holds clean water at a set temperature for washed-curd cheeses and other hot-water jobs, beside a separate cheese pot, instead of heating milk directly.
Overview
Several washed-curd and pressed cheeses warm the curd by adding hot water, not by heating the milk through the wall of a pot. A brewer full of water at a known temperature can supply that water. The brewer then stays a hot-water store beside the cheese pot.
Jim Wallace's Gouda removes about a third of the whey and adds water at 130 °F over 15 minutes. His baby Swiss adds non-chlorinated water at 130 °F to bring the curds to 95 °F and then 102 °F. His tomme adds water equal to 15% of the milk volume at 120 °F. His canestrato reheats formed cheeses in whey or in 150 °F water. The brewer can supply each of these waters at the stated temperature.
How it works
Water added to the curd mixes straight in, so the temperature changes quickly and evenly, without waiting for heat to pass through a pot wall. The Gouda method adds water to remove part of the lactose that lactic bacteria would turn into acid.
Sources for this section
Documented layouts
Tony Hamblyn's later brewery layout kept one tank purely for hot water, beside the cheese tanks. This is the nearest documented layout: the sources do not show a brewer supplying wash water to a curd directly.
The same hot-water role can keep a bath hot for a separate vat, run the early large-volume stage of a syrup before a smaller pan finishes, and support several small pots and equipment tasks. Cleaning and sanitising water are kept separate from water added to food.
Sources for this section
Evidence
The water temperatures come from the cheese recipes. Using the brewer as the water source is an adaptation: no inspected source tests it, and the page records it as such.
The measures are the water temperature in the jug at the moment of adding, and the curd temperature after each addition.
Sources for this section
Limits and food safety
The water becomes part of the cheese. The vessel, tap and hose must be fit for food, and a brewer that has been cleaned must be rinsed before it fills with water for the curd (reasoned, not from a source).
Wash water and cleaning water need separate containers. Baby Swiss specifies non-chlorinated water for the curd.
Sources for this section
History
The sources are current cheesemaking instructions from New England Cheesemaking Supply and a New Zealand brewery update. They use the brewer as a hot-water store. They do not date the first use of a brewer for this purpose.
Site
SettingA home or small cheesemaking workspace: a brewer held full of water, beside a separate cheese pot.
NotesThe sources give no dimensions and no room climate for this set-up.
A build is made where it stands: moving it means building it again.
How it is built
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Water added to the curd
The water becomes part of the cheese, so the vessel, tap and hose must be fit for food.
Hazard sourceRinse the brewer after any cleaner before filling it with water for the curd.
Control sourceUse non-chlorinated water where the recipe calls for it (baby Swiss).
Keep wash water and cleaning water in separate containers.
Materials
- Brewer or brewing kettle — Filled with water at the recipe's water temperature.
- Separate cheese pot — Set on a counter, in a sink bath, or nested, so the cheese vat is not the brewer.
- Clean jug or food-safe hose — Carries the hot water into the curd.
- 2 Thermometer probes — One for the water and one for the curd.
- Fill the brewer with water and hold it at the temperature the recipe gives.
- Set the separate cheese pot in place, on a counter, in a sink bath, or nested.
- Have a clean jug or food-safe hose ready to carry the water to the curd.
- Probe the water and the curd separately, and record the water temperature when it is added and the curd temperature after each addition.
Places
New Zealand
Documented use · Country evidenceTony Hamblyn's later brewery layout keeps one tank for hot water; the page does not date it.
Related
Used for
Canestrato-style basket cheese
A scalded cheese moulded in baskets and re-cooked in its forms in hot whey, made alongside a ricotta from the same milk, then acidified, brined and aged for months.
Gouda-style washed-curd cheese
A pressed, brined cheese in which a third of the whey is replaced with hot water, washing out lactose so the cheese ends less acidic before months of ageing.
Tomme-style cheese
A rustic pressed cheese with a mixed mesophilic and thermophilic culture, whose curd is warmed by swapping whey for hot water before light pressing and cellar ageing.
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Sources
New England Cheesemaking Supply CompanyMethod
Gouda Cheese Making Recipe (Jim Wallace)Cited in: Overview; How it works
New England Cheesemaking Supply CompanyMethod
Swiss Cheese Recipe (Baby Swiss) (Jim Wallace)Cited in: Overview; Evidence; Limits and food safety
New England Cheesemaking Supply CompanyMethod
Tomme Style Cheese Recipe (Jim Wallace)Cited in: Overview
New England Cheesemaking Supply CompanyMethod
Canestrato Italian Basket Cheese Recipe (Jim Wallace)Cited in: Overview
New England Cheesemaking Supply Company (cheesemaking.com)Documented use
Tony Hamblyn in New Zealand UpdateCited in: Documented layouts