I made a caerphilly type today, and I tried a few different ideas with this make, trying to integrate some of what I thought I heard with the recent class with Gianaclis Caldwell....
I started with the usual pasteurized, not homogenized milk. As usual, it had very thick/solid fat plugs at the top of the container, into which I had to poke holes in order to get the milk to pour out.
One of the points made in the class was that previously chilled milk, which is then heated to 122 F and held there for 5 mins, has better coagulation during the make. So, I figured that would help re-integrate the fat back into the milk as well.
However, the process of heating the milk, and then cooling it back down to the correct make temp (88 F) easily added 2 hours to the process. And, it did melt the fat, but that seemed a bigger problem as I had this oil slick on top of the milk! Previously I just removed the lumps of fat that did not want to play nice.
As far as coagulation went, I did not notice an appreciable difference in the curd from the usual, and yield seemed the same.
I had noticed that the fat softened up and seemed to meld back in at around 95 F. So, on the next make with this kind of milk I think I will hold the containers in warm water in the sink while prepping my equipment, and see if that helps soften. I don't think I will try heating to 122F as that just added way too much time for not much change.