St. Nectaire

These are some photographs from the procedure of making St. Nectaire. I based my procedure on the description of the making of this cheese by Patrick Rance. On page 217 in his book " The French Cheese Book" he describes a visit in 1973 to the farm of Madame Fereyrol in Chandeze, just outside Besse. 

She started making cheese at 6.30 a.m. with about 25 gallons of milk from the thirty seven Salers cows. The milk was renneted at once at 31C (33C in winter) and coagulated in 45 minutes at which point she started to cut the curd. For the cutting Madame Fereyrol used a menole. After some research, I came across a frenhau. This is the traditional tool of cutting the curd for Cantal cheese. Both cheeses being from the Auvergne, I figured that the curd cutting tools must be fairly similar. I made mine after the images I found online. 

Patrick Rance describes how Madame Fereyrol worked her menole slowly up and down through the curd until a uniform cut of mais sized grains was established. The temperature of the curd needs to be kept at least up to renneting temperature.  Madame Fereyrol brought hers op to 35C by introducing water at 40-45C. Adding warmer water might seal up the curd and prevent whey expulsion.

She then stirred the curd to firm up the grains. The description doesn't mention a time, but in my experience, this usually takes around 40 minutes. The curds then settled on the bottom of the vat for a few minutes after being brought together with a menadou (also called a musadour or mouisadou). I haven't figured out how to use a tool like this although I have seen some films showing the use of it. The implement is gently taken round the sides of the vat to pile up the curd and encourage it to mass together. This takes usually 10 minutes according to Rance. At this point the pousset or puise-serum, an upside down mushroom, is used to press down the curd and remove most of the whey. 

I use a large lid to press down the curd and expel some whey. The whey I remove from the vat with a saucepan. In time I shall make a menadou or mousadour.

The curd is now cut into cubes, 10 centimeters, and distributed between the cheese moulds. She pressed the curd down by hand into the shallow moulds, gently at first, gradually more firmly. Patrick Rance then describes how Madame Fereyrol put the cheeses into deeper moulds under a lever-and -counter-weight press for one minute on each face. She then applied casein marking plaques and salt on each face. She applied 25 grams for each cheese while The Syndicat suggest 30 grams. Here Patrick Rance makes one of his numerous comments about salt in cheese. He says: "...and I am all for moderation".

The cheeses are then pressed for eight to twelve hours before turning and pressed again for the same amount of time.

The two batches of cheese based on this procedure I made recently did deviate from the recipe. 

The moulds I used were larger than the traditional ones used and I brine salted the cheeses. In du time, I shall try to stay closer to the recipe and try to make a traditional St. Nectaire.

Frenhau

A few weeks ago I made this implement based on images I found online. Called a Frenhau, it is traditionally used in the Auvergne to cut the curds for St. Nectaire cheese.

St. Nectaire

The other day I watched a documentary called "The Cheese Nun" about Sister Noella Marcellino. Sister Noella Marcellino is a Benedictine nun at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut. She began making the Abbey’s cheese in 1977 using an ancient technique taught to her by a French woman. Pursuing a doctorate in Microbiology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at UConn in 2003, she traveled extensively through cheese-making regions in France collecting native strains of cheese-ripening fungi to access their biochemical and genetic diversity. She isolated hundreds of species of the fungi Geotrichum candidum, one of the keys to the uniqueness of every cheese. She collected samples of the microflora from the milk, cheeses and caves. Back in the lab she studied the samples and discovered that each cave has its distinct microflora. Even caves a few miles apart might be inhabited by different strains of the fungi. This is one reason why cheeses are so distinct to their locality.

After watching the documentary, I went to look for some of the sister's publications. I found two and have read one so far. Published in the November 1992 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology I found "Scanning Electron and Light Microscopic Study of Microbial Succession on Bethlehem St. Nectaire Cheese". A very interesting article about the developmental stages of the microorganisms on this particular cheese. She describes the biochemical activity of the texture and flavor developing microbial populations on this mold ripened cheese.

As said, all caves have a distinct microflora living in them which are influential to the development of the cheese. After reading this paper I tried to do a little research on the microbial population in my cave by studying the rind of the St. Nectaire I made a while ago. Of course I don't have a microscope, nor can I determine which fungus or mold is what. But after a close look at the rind, I can conclude that my cave does not have a very diverse population. I think I can recognize a strain of G. candidum (the white mold in the pictures) and a strain of Mucor (the grey mold in the pictures). This is nothing like the ten to twelve microorganisms mentioned in the scientific paper by Sister Noelle. As I had always suspected, this cave is rather sterile. It is a poured concrete structure under the Brooklyn sidewalk. It does not compare to the cave upstate, which I use in the summer when it gets to hot in the city. The pictures of the rind of those cheeses will attest to that. The rinds are colorful, evidence of a very diverse and abundantly present population of microorganisms.

St. Nectaire

Here is an update on the St. Nectaire I made on January 7. 

St. Nectaire

Here is an attempt to make a St. Nectaire style cheese after a procedural description in "The French Cheese Book" by Patrick Rance in combination with some information taken from "French Cheeses" by Masui and Yamada.
I used 10 gallon of raw Jersey milk and inoculated the milk with half a teaspoon of MM100 and one eight of a teaspoon Geotricum candidum 17 after which I heated the milk to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I added 7.5 ml rennet half an hour later and let the curd set in about 55 minutes.
I cut the curd into mais size particles and let it rest for five minutes.
Keeping the temperature of the curd at 90F, I firmed up the grains by stiring for 45 minutes. I drained most of the whey, pressed the curd in the vat, cut the curd mat into 2 inch cubes and transferred these cubes to open ended moulds lined with cheesecloth. I pressed the curd down by hand, gently at first, gradually more firmly.
I pressed the curds for 10 minutes at each side before taking them out of the moulds for salting. I dry salted each face with 1% of the cheese weight and put them back in the hoops to be pressed for 12 hours before turning and pressing for another 12.
After this the cheeses are dried for a day or two before moving them to the cave for ripening.