Yesterday I decided to try to achieve a little better garlic flavor in a Gouda. I followed Pav's "
Gouda: Washed Curd Howto" in my 74th cheese make.
Initial milk pH: 6.82
3 gallons Twin Brooks whole creamline milk
1/2 gallon Twin Brooks 1% creamline milk (I was going to drink this but instead decided to add it to this make.)
8 cubes Kazu mother culture
1/2 tsp CACL
1/16 tsp Renco dry calf rennet
I roasted three heads of garlic for 1 hour, let them cool, and then separated the garlic from the skins and hard pieces. I mashed the garlic into a somewhat smooth, slightly chunky paste, covered it, and set it aside.
I renneted at pH 6.71 (.1 delta) and used a floc factor of 3. It floc'd in 15 minutes and I cut the curds in 30 more minutes.
Resting, stirring I was looking for the pH to drop. Because it started so high, it took a while to drop. I drained whey for whey-brine and pressing under whey, and then added my 130F water, stirring.
When it came time to add the garlic paste to the curds, I packed one prepared Kadova mould first as a garlic-free cheese. Then I proceeded to mix in the garlic, milling the curds and garlic together. I packed the other three moulds and laid a cutting board on top of all four as a "spreader". Then I placed a 10 pound barbell weight on the cutting board. This served as the first pressing. I then put the garlic-free mould into a pot with warm whey and pressed with a 5 pound weight. The garlic moulds went into another pot with warm whey and I placed a 10 pound weight on top of all three. It wasn't too long, while I was flipping the cheeses in the moulds, that I realized two of the moulds were not being pressed and achieving a clean knit. The Kadova mould lids will stop at a "shoulder" when pressed if there aren't enough curds in the mould. This was happening with these two moulds.
It took me a while to realize I could fix this problem and possibly achieve a smooth knit. That fix came in the form of folded muslin, dipped in warm whey, and used as a buffer for the mould lid to push against. Once again I was pressing under whey. I flipped and pressed multiple times. Later, I removed the whey and continued flipping and pressing. The results were not perfect, but far better than what I was seeing previously.
I brined the little pillows for 2 hours, then air-dried them for six hours at room temperature. When I went to bed, I moved the minicave that they were in to the 53F cave. They will continue to dry in there for several days and then they will be vacuum-sealed.
Fingers crossed.
-Boofer-