Loosely following
Jim Wallace's recipe, I made this little wheel of what I hope will be a tasty treat.
I tried making Manchego a couple years ago, but the lipase taste was too much for me. With this make, I've classified the cheese according to the milk source (cow) and it is more properly named "Hispanico". I also tried to limit the amount of lipase in the make. I want a nuance of piquancy. I don't want to be bludgeoned with it.
I had two gallons of milk and I tried to put the curds into my microperf mould (they stack inside each other, so one acts like a somewhat perfect follower) but it bottomed out because I didn't have sufficient curds. I typically use that mould with three gallons and it works fine. So I scrambled to put Plan B into operation. I went and grabbed a 5-inch Reblochon mould, stuck it in the boiling water to sanitize it, lined it with plastic cheesecloth, and put the curds in there. Oh boy, now the curds stick up a half-inch above the lip of the mould. I hoped that the pressing would compress the curds so that they would all fit into the mould and would allow the follower to push down properly. What actually happened was that the curd squeezed out around the follower while being pressed. Eh, I trimmed off the resulting "lip" of curd. All is well.
Saturday, April 20: Initial milk pH: 6.69
2 gallons Cozy Vale Creamery whole raw milk
4 cubes MA4001 mother culture
1/24 tsp lipase
1/16 tsp dry calf rennet
Used a 2.5x floc factor and it floc'd in 10 minutes.
After preparing the curds and putting them into the mould under warm whey, I pressed down on the follower to try to knit the rind. I did this, flipped & rewrapped the cheese several times. I drained the whey but kept the cheese in the mould inside the kettle with a clean towel covering it to retain warmth. Then I put the cheese onto the press and pressed with 80 pounds (3.5psi) for several hours, flipping and rewrapping as needed.
4:00PM pH 6.25
8:30PM pH 5.91
Sunday, April 21:
4:00AM pH 5.65
12:00PM pH 5.45 <<== I was looking for 5.3-5.4...this will do. Into the whey-brine.
4:00PM flipped and salted the top of the cheese in the brine.
8:00PM out of the brine, dried, weighed...into the minicave to airdry overnight.
-Boofer-