This is actually my second Reb make. I made one last night but I had some problems with my ph meter. It was “drifting up so I ended up with a pretty acidic cheese. After 12 hours in the molds they were at 5.18 ph so I salted them and decided to make it again. So, here's the make notes from my second try.
4 gal Pasteurized COT Whole Milk
1/4 tsp PLA
1/8 tsp MY800
1/8 tsp Flora-Danica
Warmed milk to 94.5 degrees F – ph 6.63
3:30 added cultures and molds let rehydrate for 5 minutes
3:36 finished stirring cultures and molds put cover on milk to retain heat.
I checked the ph and I'm still having some problems with my meter so I recalibrated it then checked it against the buffer as I went forward. I'm pretty sure the readings are close but, who knows, maybe my buffer solution is off. Anyhow, Yoav is right, the curve on the acidity goes from slow to fast quickly. I caught it, though, pretty close to the target.
4:29 added ½ tsp CaCl, ph 6.52, 94degree F.
4:31 added ¾ tsp single strength calf rennet
4:46 Floc time 16 minutes → total set time 40 minutes
5:11 Cut curd to 3/4” finished cutting at 5:16
5:16: 5 min rest
Like Larry, I have a hell of a time cutting the curd to a consistent 1.4th inch. Using the whisk the final product was all over the map from rice size to ½ inch. Did my best.
5:21 cut to 1/4” curd finished cutting at 5:26 94 degree F
5:26 5 minute rest
I'm still too inexperienced to have a real strong feel for when the curd is ready. I stirred for about 11 minutes checking the cured at minutes, 8 minutes and finally at 11 minutes it felt like it matted easily. One of those things, I suppose, where experience will pay off at some point in the future. But the ph target seemed to be about right.
5:31 stirred → 5:43, ph 6:48
I don't know if I actually needed to use cheese cloth when I filled the hoops. Seemed like the right thing to do at the time but I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on it.
6:06 finished hooping press with 3 #s
When I flipped them I had a pretty good knit so I decided to leave the cheese cloth out for subsequent pressing.
6:41 flipped continued to press at 3#s
7:43 flipped continued to press at 3#s
9:15 Checked ph and at three hours was 5.58 decided to de-press and set it in the yeast room. . Seems to be acidifying faster than expected.
Here are some pics. I'll post more tomorrow after I de-mold and going forward.