Ten Bells: An Easy Cheese to Make at Home
This is one of my favorite cheeses to make at home and it is included in Sandor Katz’s book Fermentation Journeys.
Ten Bells is a raw cow cheese inspired by Herr Glauser’s Belpher Knolle. Belpher Knolle is flavored with garlic, formed into balls, coated with black pepper, and aged. Belpher Knolle looks a bit like a truffle and shaves like a truffle. Belpher Knolle and my own Ten Bells is seemingly impossible as it is a hard cheese after just a few short weeks. Ten Bells is formed into two palm-sized patties and aged in a small plastic tub lined with bamboo mats in the refrigerator. No special aging space required.
Ingredients
Milk
1 gallon (4 liters) whole milk
Culture and Rennet
Option 1: 1/4 cup (60 ml) ripe milk kefir (and many there are other “wild” sources of microbial participants suitable for cheesemaking) and rennet
Option 2: 1 packet C20G or C20 direct set cultures that include rennet
Option 3: Other mesophilic cultures such as 1/8 teaspoon MA4001 or 1/8 teaspoon Flora Danica and rennet
Rennet
Walcoren rennet is available in tablet form and I recommend it because it is easy to use as it is already measured for use by smale scale cheesemakers, it has a long shelf life, and it is non-GMO. Walcoren is available online and one bottle contains 80 tablets which is enough rennet for 80 or more gallons of milk.
For Ten Bells, dissolve one Walcoren tablet is dissolved in a 1/4 cup (60ml) water
Calcium chloride (optional)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon diluted in 1/8 cup (30 ml) unchlorinated water I always recommend calcium chloride for store bought milk and goat milk cheese. I take a less is more approach as too much can result in tough, unsatisfactory results. Calcium chloride is always added before rennet.
2 or more cloves garlic, crushed
4 or more tablespoons whole black peppercorns, toast until fragrant and coarsely ground
Equipment List
Large pot and/or crock
Spoon
Colander
Cheesecloth
Small plastic container
Bamboo mats or cheese mats
Schedule
This cheese requires 12-16 hours to ripen so a nice schedule is to start this cheese in the late afternoon or early evening and drain it in the morning.
Yield
Two small cheese weighing together about a 1/2 pound (227 grams)
Process
Warming milk. If you are using cold milk, heat the milk to 85-86F (29-30C). Stir while heating and monitor the temperature closely. If you overheat the milk, pull it off the burner and allow it to cool. If you are using fresh, warm milk, simply strain into a pot or crock. A crock is a bit more insulating or you can wrap the pot in towels.
Culturing milk. If you are using kefir, stir it in gently or if you are using commercial culture sprinkle it on top of the milk and allow it to hydrate for a few minutes before using an up and down motion to distribute the culture throughly.
Calcium chloride. If you are using pasteurized milk, add calcium chloride diluted in water. Allow to stand for a few minutes before adding the rennet.
Adding rennet. If you are using kefir or cultures that do not include rennet, you will need to add rennet. Add dissolved rennet to milk and stir gently for a few minutes.
Ripening milk. Cover pot or crock and wrap in towels. Allow milk to ripen and the curd to form for 12-16 hours.
Draining the curd. Place the cheesecloth over a colander over a pot or bucket. It’s best not to put the rich whey down the drain. Spoon the curds into the cheesecloth and allow to drain. Grab three corners of the cheese cloth and wrap the fourth corner around the three and pull the end up through the bit you just wrapped. Hang the cheese to drain. If insects are a problem consider protecting the draining curd. My favorite way is to use a small board wedged in a bucket with the draining curd hanging from it and put the lid on the bucket. It can be helpful to open the cheesecloth and move the cheese around to allow for more even draining. <with such a small batch rearranging the curds once while draining is adequate>
Salting the curd. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt to the drained curd. With your hands gently work in the salt. <just about any salt will do but I generally use Himalayan pink salt or Celtic grey for cheesemaking…no fancy, overpriced “cheesemaking salt” is required>
Spicing the curd. Crush 4 or more cloves garlic and gently work the garlic into the drained curd. <one can be creative here!>
Forming the cheese. Though this cheese traditionally made into truffle like lumps, I found that they aged and stored nicely when formed into patties. Divide the curd in half and form each half into a patty roughly 1” thick. Press and smooth top, bottom, and sides. <of course one could experiment with various molds and form>
Coating in black pepper. Coat each cheese in crushed black pepper.
Drying. Place the cheese on bamboo mats or cheese mats on a tray and allow to dry at room temperature. A fan can expedite the process. <I never use a fan but some folks do.> Dry for 1-2 days until the exterior looks dry and is dry to the touch. <again this should be protected from insects…so a suitable arrangement should be made that allows lots of air circulation and excludes the insects.>
Aging. Place the cheeses on bamboo mats in a lidded plastic container. Place the container in the fridge. Check after a couple of days and if the container has excessive moisture, remove the lid and air out. Then punch a few holes in the lid of the container. I have wrapped a tea towel around the lid to absorb the excess moisture. Sometimes no holes are required and other times lots of holes. The trouble with employing a fridge at 40F or lower and no added humidity is that cheeses can really dry out and crack. I prefer to start with no holes or just a few holes and air out as needed. Flip cheeses every week or so so that they loose moisture evenly. <no brushing or excessive care is required.
Ready to eat. This cheese can be enjoyed after just a month or aged for several months. The longest that I have aged this cheese is about 8 months, at some point it will succumb to a wee crack and/or begin to dry out in a not favorable way or what mostly happens in my case is that the cheese cave has too many aggressive molds that move into any wee crack and invades other cheeses…which can be a welcome cheese surprise or not.