Author Topic: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party  (Read 28508 times)

LoftyNotions

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My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« on: October 03, 2012, 09:15:24 PM »
Inspired by iratherfly’s excellent Reblochon recipe and Boofer’s great pictorials, this looked like a cheese I needed to try.

I used about 3½ Gallons of Brown Swiss cream-line milk (That’s all the room I have in my 4 gallon pot). I don’t have many choices here in Montana, so hopefully this will work OK. Per the recipe, I added half the Flora Danica dose to the chilled milk the day before. (1/16 tsp)

Cultures
KL71
SR3
Geo15
MY800
Flora Danica

9:15 After heating the milk to 94 degrees I checked the pH and pitched the cultures and CaCl. pH was low at 6.58. I don’t know if there was a problem with the milk or if the pre-inoculation had started bringing the pH down. Since it started so low, I wanted to make sure the cultures were actually starting to work, so I opted for a target pH for renneting of 6.51. Just a bit below the suggested pH of 6.55.

10:46 Stirred in 1 tsp diluted calf rennet. Top stirred for another minute. Flocculation happened at 7 minutes. With a 2.5 floc multiplier, total time to cut was 17:30.

First cut was to ¾ inch with a 5 minute rest. Second cut with a whisk to ¼ inch with another 5 minute rest. Curds were then stirred for 10 minutes and drained to about 1 inch above curd level and wet-scooped into molds. PH at drain was 6.43, pretty much on target. I need to work on my ¼ inch whisk cutting.

12:00 Started pressing with 3 pounds weight per mould. pH at ½ hour was 6.22 pH at 1½ hours was 5.86. pH at 3 hours was 5.44. The fast acidification was probably due to the 74°F room temperature. Unfortunately, that was my only choice at the time.

This is where I think I had a severe brain cramp and probably made the wrong choice. I decided to put the moulded cheeses into the yeasting “room” and turned the temperature down from 62 to 60, hoping that would slow down acidification. Unfortunately, at midnight the pH was 5.05 when I finally salted the cheeses with 1.8% salt by weight. In retrospect, it might have been better to just salt them after 3 hours of pressing. Oh well. It’ll probably still be some kind of cheese. :) Average weight of the 4 cheeses was 535 grams.

This morning I turned the yeasting room temperature back up to 62°F and will flip them often while waiting for Geo bloom. I’ll make my morge wash tomorrow.

Pictures to follow…

LoftyNotions

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2012, 09:22:42 PM »
Pictures, as promised...

bbracken677

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2012, 09:28:26 PM »
Looks great! I bet the smell, right now, is heavenly too!  ;)

LoftyNotions

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2012, 09:35:18 PM »
Right now they smell nice, fresh and creamy. They'll smell heavenly when my wife comes upstairs complaining that something smells like her dad's work boots.  ;)

bbracken677

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2012, 10:13:16 PM »
LOL kinda like the last time I made feta....my wife asked me if that smell was the cheese...and then compared to smell to old sneakers.

Offline Boofer

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2012, 05:09:27 AM »
Pictures, as promised...
Nice pics. Nice knit.

Congrats...I believe you are the first to use a stopwatch and laptimer to judge the floc time. ::)

A cheese to you for joining the Reb party.

Got spruce?

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

LoftyNotions

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2012, 01:17:37 PM »
Pictures, as promised...
Nice pics. Nice knit.



Got spruce?

-Boofer-

I knew that question was going to come up. :). Looks like you beat iratherfly to it. It's on my list of things to look for.

And a cheese back to you sir, for all your great threads!

Larry

LoftyNotions

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2012, 05:48:38 PM »
Hmm... Sadly there isn't a source of spruce here. From Boofer's 4th edition thread list of woods, it looks like my choices are pine, Port Orford Cedar or possibly birch. I would think pine would be closest in aroma to spruce, but who knows?

Would any of these be better than plastic mats?

Thanls,

Larry

bbracken677

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #8 on: October 04, 2012, 06:56:09 PM »
If I am not mistaken, pine would have more resin present in the wood than a spruce. Actually...a spruce is also a pine, just a different variety and if I remember correctly, the wood is a bit lighter colored than the traditional pine lumber.

LoftyNotions

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2012, 07:06:54 PM »
If I am not mistaken, pine would have more resin present in the wood than a spruce. Actually...a spruce is also a pine, just a different variety and if I remember correctly, the wood is a bit lighter colored than the traditional pine lumber.

I think you're right, bb. I'm checking in to some on-line sources now. Maybe I should just cut down one of the 40 year old ones in my back yard.

Larry

bbracken677

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2012, 07:40:07 PM »
wow...you have 40 year old spruce in your yard? That's awesome! If it grows in your neck of the woods I would think someone would be able to supply you. Are there any small mills around?

LoftyNotions

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2012, 03:48:16 AM »
I've been flipping these cheeses a couple times a day because they've been so wet. As of tonight, they're very slippery and starting to get a nice funky aroma.

Geo can't be far away. :)

iratherfly

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #12 on: October 07, 2012, 08:38:11 AM »
Yay!!!! They look great!!!!  ^-^

Love that nifty timer, is this an app?

Don't worry too much about the spruce. It has some microbiological properties that are supposedly beneficial and it can get washed with boiling water and salt over and over again without falling apart so they are everyone's favorite. Spruce is rather neutral.

Pine would work but bear in mind that it has tannins in it that leach into the cheese and effect color and flavor. While not typical for Reblochon, this isn't necessarily bad. Many great cheeses are made in pine. In fact, Tallegio is washed and ripened in pine wood boxes all through their affinage period. Smelly tanic woods like Cedar can pose more of an issue.

LoftyNotions

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #13 on: October 07, 2012, 10:44:47 AM »
Yay!!!! They look great!!!!  ^-^

Love that nifty timer, is this an app?

Don't worry too much about the spruce. It has some microbiological properties that are supposedly beneficial and it can get washed with boiling water and salt over and over again without falling apart so they are everyone's favorite. Spruce is rather neutral.

Pine would work but bear in mind that it has tannins in it that leach into the cheese and effect color and flavor. While not typical for Reblochon, this isn't necessarily bad. Many great cheeses are made in pine. In fact, Tallegio is washed and ripened in pine wood boxes all through their affinage period. Smelly tanic woods like Cedar can pose more of an issue.

Thanks iratherfly.

The timer is a free app and can be found at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bigstopwatch/id301615836?mt=8.

Given a choice, would you pick pine or the plastic mats?

Geo is coming along nicely. They'll get their first wash this morning. I'll post a couple more pics later

A big thanks, and a cheese to you for your excellent Reblochon guide.

Larry

Offline Boofer

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Re: My First Reblochon. Might As Well Join The Party
« Reply #14 on: October 07, 2012, 01:58:40 PM »
Given a choice, would you pick pine or the plastic mats?
Hey, Larry, although I have just recently included spruce boards in my process, I have made wonderful cheeses on plastic mats. I wouldn't sweat it.  ;)

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.