Author Topic: Manchego - actually Iberico  (Read 2131 times)

BobE102330

  • Guest
Manchego - actually Iberico
« on: June 23, 2013, 02:31:40 PM »
Yesterday I set out to make manchego following Mary Carlin's Saffron infused manchego recipe almost doubled.  The day started out well, when I went to the farmer's market for creamline milk in glass bottles I was charged $3/gallon.  It pays to talk up the results you're getting with the milk.  Last time I paid $4/gallon with a posted price of $2.50/half gallon.  A few distractions and episodes of cerebral flatulence later, I have a wheel of cheese in the brine.

I started out overshooting the culturing temperature by 8F.  When I realized I hadn't turned off the heat soon enough I put the cheese pot in a sink with cold water.  When I came back to it 35 minutes later, I discovered that my sink stopper needs to be replaced, all the water had drained.  At least the milk was down to the intended 86F. I returned the pot to the warm water bath, renneted and gave my bowl a spin.  I must have cultured too long, because I got flocculation in just under 8 minutes.  The recipe calls for cutting 30-40 minutes after renneting, so I figured that the target floc multiplier must be 2-2.5.  Using 2.5, I set my timer at 20 minutes.  When it went off I realized my mistake. 

After cutting, I stirred a bit harder than usual, hoping to expel enough whey to make up for my mistake.  For once, I picked the right setting to raise the temperature to 104F in the specified 30 minutes.  Let the curds settle, remove enough whey to expose the curds and ladle them into the draining bag.  Now the moment of truth - do the curds fit in my tomme mold?  Hooray!  I must have expelled enough whey, since the curds fit in the mold without overflowing.  I pressed under whey with double the specified weight, as 15 and 30 pounds on a 7.75" mold seems far too low. 

When I woke up this morning the curds had knit well and the cheese floated high in the brine.  Hopefully I will be able to age this out into something approximating manchego. My last attempt ended up with a linens rind.  It was delicious, but not manchego. I don't have MM100, so I used MA-16 and MD-88 in a 3:1 ratio.  I also added 1/2 tsp of mild lipase and 1/32 tsp of LBC-80 to my pot limit of 3.5 gallons.
« Last Edit: June 23, 2013, 05:40:19 PM by BobE102330 »

John@PC

  • Guest
Re: Manchego - actually Iberico
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2013, 08:02:42 PM »
I've used Mary's recipe several times but always sans saffron.  Is it worth the price, and if so do you have any recommendations on saffron type or brand?  We're in a small town so I would probably order online. 

BobE102330

  • Guest
Re: Manchego - actually Iberico
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2013, 08:13:42 PM »
Sorry John, in my head I typed "sans saffron", but my fingers didn't cooperate I guess.  A local health food store carries saffron at 1/5 the price of the grocery store variety.  I've used it in bread and of course paella, but not cheese.  I'll have to try this recipe with saffron soon.

Offline Boofer

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Lakewood, Washington
  • Posts: 5,015
  • Cheeses: 344
  • Contemplating cheese
Re: Manchego - actually Iberico
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2013, 02:04:54 PM »
cerebral flatulence
;D

Iberico? Really? Actually?

Attempting to correct my earlier interpretation of what Manchego should be, I changed my cheese naming to Hispanico, following Jim Wallace's guidance which has now been corrected. And I see where he may have found the information with which to correct his article. He had first stated that Hispanico is normally made with cow's milk, Manchego is made with sheep's milk, and Iberico is made with cow-goat-sheep milk.

Eh, what's in a name? Chances are, I will never be able to make a true Manchego, Hispanico, and definitely not Iberico.

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

BobE102330

  • Guest
Re: Manchego - actually Iberico
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2013, 04:35:38 PM »
Oops, I meant to say Hispanico.  Too many cheese names I should just stick to what the recipe calls it.