Hi,
Just mid make right now. My thermometer has given up the ghost though. Was just able to squeeze a final reading out of it to realise things were at 42 C just before adding the warm water. Normally one adds 60 C water to raise the temp to 42, so I just added 40 C water.
This make has had a lot of mistakes as I renneted before raising the temp to 40 in the first place, and all sorts of other oddities. Anyway, the curd still looks really good though, so it should be a decent cheese. Will post full make notes and a photo as they become available.
49) Butterkase (mine): Saturday, Aug 26, 2012 (sunny, Pressure 1012; warm ~20.0 C)
6L homebrand standard milk
4L Nosh Blue
500 ml homebrad cream 35g/100 ml
½ tsp CaCl (50% solution)
0.5 ml microbial rennet IMCU 750 (previous makes 8 min flocs twice with 0.6 ml)
1 ice cubes Flora Danica, 1 ice cube buttermilk (meso) 2 ice cube ST B01 (Thermo) 4 tbls yogurt 1/16 tsp LH (De Winkle yogurt has Lactobacillus Acidophilus)
Start time: 7:30 ish am
1) Warm to 35 C (hit 35 at 8:08; continued to climb to 35.2 C) (added all starter when cold, except LH)
2) Added LH when milk was at 29 C (to rehydrate). (7:55 Temp; 29.5 C)
3) Ripen 60 minutes (target time 9:08 actual time 9:10; Temp: 33.7 C at end)
4) Warmed to 35.0 C (oops, should have raised to 40 here, will do it after the cut)
5) Add ½ tsp CaCl in egg cup water (?:??; temp 35.0 C)
6) Add 0.5 ml rennet in egg cup water (9:17:30) (floc was 10m 00 sec last time with 5.5 ml)
7) Floc time = 9:30:30 13m 00s 5x floc = 65m 00s min until cut (previous were 3.5x floc)
8) Cut vertical at 10:22:30 into 3 cm cubes wait 5 min (start 10:30-?:??) then cut into 1 cm cubes (good curd 10:35 ; 34.0 C)
9) Raise temp to 40.0 C (thermometer battery died)
10) Reached at 40 C at ?:?? actual temp: ??.? C) Kept in warm bath and stirred until 11:05
11) Curds settle 15 minutes (start 11:05-11:35), then remove approx 3 1/3 litres of whey (1/3 orig. volume of milk) – went to get new battery. Rested until return; thermometer broken, but last reading upon return was whey at 42.5 C
12) Slowly add 60 0C water until you reach 42 0C (over 5-15 minutes or so ?:??-?:?? ; ??.? C) – I just added 40 C water this time, 3 litres worth.
13) stir 45 minutes (start time: 11:50 – until 12:30)
14) drained in cloth lined colander for 30 minutes (12:30-1:07 ) and move to mould
15) press lightly (20 kg; 6.25” mould; 1.43 PSI) 6 hours (start time: 1:20 – pressed in pot in sink of approx 40 C water 50 min )
16) flipped/redress at 2:10 pm (knit looks good; cloth sticking to the cheese a bit)
17) flipped/did not redress 3:30 pm (knit looks really good; removed cloth as it was sticking a bit)
18) flipped/did not redress 5:20 pm (knit looks excellent)
19) flipped/did not redress 6:20 pm (knit looks excellent)
20) Finish Press Time 7:20? pm; knit looks ???? ????g ?.? cm high x ??.? cm diam (???? cm3; ?.?? g/cm3)
21) 20 minutes fresh water (7:20-7:40)
Brine at 1 hour per lb per inch height (saturated) = 10 hours 56 min - 7:20-6:20 flipped - 5:20 am; weight after brine: 1684g; dimensions 16.0 x 7.5 = 1507cm3 = 1.12/cm3
And here it is just about post-brine. Has about an hour to go.