I made my first Monterey Jack. It's a washed curd version. I added some chilies to it. I mainly used Dixon's recipe, but my starter acted differently. Maybe it has a different acidification curve?
8L Skim milk P/H
820ml Unhomogenized 35% cream
1/8tsp MM100
1/2tsp CaCL2
1/2tsp liquid single strength rennet
1.5 tbsp red chili flakes, boiled in 1/2 cup water (PH level of water was adjusted with baking soda)
Heat to 88F
PH 6.74
add culture, ripen until 0.1 drop
add CaCl2
add Rennet, floc 3.5 = 52.5 minutes (a bit long)
PH 6.63
cut 1/2 inch
bring to 102F in 40 mins (did it in 43 mins)
settle 25 minutes
Stopped the movie because it was stupid.
Switched to some "Modern Family" episodes.
remove whey to curd and replace with 60F water until 86F
Stir 5 minutes
Drain
PH 6.15
Added peppers with water and waited to drain
Salt 2.75%
Press 1 15 mins 0.78psi
Press 2 15 mins 1.25psi
press 3 1 hour 1.57psi
press 4 1 hour 1.57psi (a bit of sticking, sprayed no-stick solution on cheese and netting)
press 5 2 hours 3.13psi
press 6 3.5 hours 5.49psi (spray was giving a bad PH reading, so I trimmed a bit for accurate PH reading)
Final PH 5.11 (Peter Dixon recommendation : 5.10 - 5.20)
All-in-all, I'm satisfied with how it went. Peter Dixon'sPH markers and time steps were different than mine. He suggested using MA011, I used MM100. I wonder if there's a difference in acidification curve. Maybe that's why my PH targets were higher than his. I found it was the same when I made my two caerphillys, the acidification started out slow, but really picks up later on. It's always at the RENNET PH marker that I'm off.
Anyways, still satisfied. Hope it turns out well in 3-4 months!