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A Soft Goat Cheese Wrapped in Rye-Infused Hickory Leaves

Banon is the name of a town in France where this cheese is made, and in the authentic cheese, Eau-de-Vie and Chestnut leaves are used.  I have a beautiful Shag Bark Hickory tree in the yard so I used leaves from that tree, and it seemed that Rye Whiskey would go better with Hickory than Eau de Vie would.  Here I will share a photo log of how I made this cheese.

FIRST: Wash, clean, and sterilize all surfaces, tools, bowls, and utensils that will come into contact with the milk, cheese, or ingredients.  I use star san. 

Make the macerated leaves a couple days before you need them so that they can soak in the liquor.   Here's how to make the macerated leaves.  I think you could use any local leaf like a maple leaf, chestnut leaf, or grape leaf.

Hickory Leaf, I only used the big lobes, not the two little ones on the bottom. I cut the big ones from the main stem of the leaf.

Boil the leaf briefly, just long enough to wilt it. If you go to long it will become brittle. Then immediately put the leaf into an ice water bath.

Take the wilted leaves from the ice bath and pat dry.

Soak in Rye Whiskey for a couple days. I stirred them and flipped them a couple times.

When you begin making the cheese, start with 1 gallon of whole , pasteurized, goat milk.  I got fresh milk straight from a local goat farm.  https://swissfraufarmproductsllc.com

Slowly bring the milk to 86degF on low heat

Add 1/4tsp of MA11 starter culture and let it rest on the milk for 5 minutes then slowly but thoroughly stir it in.

• After you have stirred in the 1/4tsp of MA11 starter culture, dilute an 1/8tsp of Calcium Chloride in a 1/4 cup of water and stir that into the milk
  
• Then dilute 1/4tsp liquid calf rennet in a 1/4 cup of water, and stir that into the milk
  
• Let it sit at 72 deg from 9 hours
  

After 9 hours, the rennet has curdled the cheese; the curd has formed into a mass, and surrounded by liquid whey.

Using a curd knife or a long sharp knife, or a long flat pastry knife, cut the curds into 1/2" slices and stir it for 3 minuts to release some more whey.

Line a strainer with cheese cloth, and scoop the curds into the cheese cloth with a ladle. Let the whey drain from the curds for 20 minutes. Then stir in 1 tsp of cheese salt into the curds (I use my hands) and then let keep draining for another 20 min.

Set up 4 small round cheese moulds over a trip pan and ladle the curds into the moulds.

Cover the moulds with cloth or paper towel, and let sit at room temperature for 12 hours. The whey will continue to drain and the cheese will compact under gravity.

Fresh little Banon cheeses, just out of the mould. After 12 hours, gently shake the cheese out of the mould. This particular time, there was sufficient fat in the goats milk that I cut the cheese in halfd to get the little disks you see above.

I wrapped the cheeses in two rye-macerated hichory leaves per cheese wheel, and tied up with twine. Age for 2 weeks at 55deg at 80% humidity. Enjoy!

Fresh Banon-style cheese, wrapped in Rye-Infused Hickory Leaves. After unwrapping, the leaves stem and veins can be seen in the young cheese.