Hi,
I picked up some Munster from the local French cheese shop. It was very nice, so I decided to give it a go. In the 200 Easy Homemade book, she lists Muenster, but says it is from Alsace-Lorraine region of France. I thought Muenster was an American cheese, and Munster was the French one? Anyway, this is my plan for the make tomorrow. If anyone has any suggestions before I get going, let me know. I'll be using a 6.15" diameter tomme mould for this make.
- Jeff
Munster (misnamed Muenster in 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes)
2 Litres Silver Top (creamline 4% fat, 3.1% protein)
3 Litres Homebrand Standard (3.2% fat, 3.1% protein : gives 0.87:1 P:F Ratio – target 0.88:1)
1 ice cube buttermilk; 1 ice cube crème fraiche
1/40th tsp B. Linens
¼ tsp CaCl2 in egg cup water
Rennet (0.3 mls 750 ; 0.8 mls 280 Calf ; or 3.46 65 Renco)
Salt
brine for washing (6 g salt to 194g water)
1) Add CaCl2 while setting up
2) Add culture and b.linens to milk and warm to 32 C (7:35 32.2 C)
3) Ripen 15 minutes (7:35 - 7:50 32.0 C)
4) Add rennet (7:51:00 floc time 8:03:30 = 12m 30s 4x floc = 50m 00s cut time 8:41:00)
5) Cut to 1.25 cm cubes (8:48 - 8:52) (so 4.6x floc used)
6) Ensure temp is 32.0 C ( 28.5 C raised back to 32.2 C)
7) stir genetly for 15 minutes (9:05- 9:20)
8) Let curds settle, cover and rest 30 minutes (9:20 - 9:50)
9) Drain whey to level of curds, then gentle transfer curds to cloth lined collendar
10) Drain 30 minutes (9:57 - 10:27)
11) Ladle soft curds into mould (but press them lightly to ensure they are spread evenly – used coffee cup ½ full of water) and drain 24 hours (flip several times over this period and remove any whey – keep cheese above the whey (10:27 – flipped 11:37, fusing nicely – again 12:40 - 1:20 – 3:25 and switched to large coffee mug of water – 4:55 – 6:00 – 7:30 pm switched weight back to small coffee cup with water for the overnight to minimize possible “tilting”- 6:00 am – 5:30 pm – 690g 15.7 x 3.1 = 600 = 1.15 g/cm3)
12) If cheese still too soft to handle, continue to drain/flip for 6-7 hours more (??:?? - ??:??)
13) Sprinkle each face with ¼ tsp salt up to 1 tsp for larger cheese (6.25” tomme mould, used ½ tsp each face? )
14) Place cheese in ripening container and ripen at 13 C, 85% humidity
15) Flip cheese daily, remove any whey until no more released (about 3 days; was dry after first day, no whey in the container)
16) Start washing every 2nd day (or alternating faces each day) for 2 weeks (smaller cheeses) to 3 weeks (larger cheeses). Orange smear should start to form after 10 days or so. (started brine washing Feb 11, 2014; pm)
17) Can be eaten at this point, or continue to ripen up to 3 months (gets stronger the longer you continue to ripen it).
18) Rind should be soft and moist, but not sticky. Once the rind is where you want it, wrap in parchment paper and store in regular fridge to extend.