I had a look through this board and found an old make by Deejay Debbie, Bitto, which looked interesting. I've been thinking of trying something new, and I was thinking of something with lipase. Since this is a mix of cow's milk and goat's milk, and I don't have goat's milk, then I figure I can add lipase and pretend (ok, I know the end result isn't the same, but I'm looking for an excuse here, work with me people!)
Anyway, here's the intended protocol, adapted a bit from Deejay's original post to fit what I've got:
Bitto (Deejay adapted this from cheese descriptions)
a firm and tasty cheese, with a slightly granular texture. It can be served lightly grilled, which softens the texture and adds wonderful toasty flavours to it.
11 L cows milk (8 HomeBrand Standard + 3 HB Light blue top gives me : 1.16:1 p:f ratio)
¼ tsp CaCl2 in egg cup non-chlorinated water
( add 10 to 20% goats milk, or 1/16th tsp calf lipase)
1/4 teaspoon TM 81
(I’ll use 2 cubes Strep.Therm + 1/10 tsp LH100) Ended up using 2 tbls fresh mother culture of Strep.Therm.
1/20th teaspoon Proprioni bacteria
1.6 ml 280 IMCU strength calves rennet (to get floc in 10 -15 minute range)
6.25” diameter tomme mould
Deejay’s note: should probably have used Lactococcus Bulgaricus but I didn’t have any. TM81 contains : (ST) Streptococcus thermophilus and
(LBB) Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus
1) Add CaCl2 to milk while setting up
2) Add starter and lipase
3) Warm milk 47.8-48.9 C (?48.4 C)
4) Ripen for 35 minutes. (9:01 - 9:36)
5) Add rennet (9:37:15 – floc time 9:47:45 - 10m 30s 2.5x Floc - 26m 15s – cut at 10:03:30) NOTE: while this seems precise, I only just checked it at 9:47:30, and it had set already! Seems to have set hard too. So, probably floc’d much earlier, but I don’t know when. Next time need to cut rennet down to 1.3 maybe? Higher temp and acidity, etc, changes rennet action)
6) Cut to ½ cm cubes, then to the size of rice (plunge whisk straight down and out through cubes; 10:08 )
7) Slow raise tempertature to 52.8 C over 45 minutes. (10:12 - 10:57 45.8C – 51.8C – reached 522.8 at 11:05)
8) Remove from heat and stir constantly for 15 minutes (11:08 – 11:15 : due to late temp reach, cut this short as I was stirring while heat rise)
9) Drain whey, move curds in cloth to mould
10) Press in the pot (10 kg for 30 min 11:25 - 11:55; 0.72 PSI)
11) Press in the pot (15 kg for 30 min 11:55 - 12:30 ; 1.08 PSI)
12) Press in the pot (20 kg for 30 min 12:30 - 1:00 ; 1.43 PSI)
13) Press over night (35.2 kg 1:00 - ??:?? ; 2.53 PSI)
14) The cheeses are dry salted every 2 or 3 days for 3 or 4 weeks. (or brine 1 hour per lbs per inch of height; i.e. a 2 lbs cheese, 2 inches tall, brines for 4 hours)
15) Mature for at least 70 days but may be aged up to 10 years.
Just updating the notes as I've started the pressing. This is a very straightforward to make cheese, and with it going in the mould in under 3 hours once the milk is to temp, it's a pretty quick make too. I was thinking I might brine it, but have decided to go with the described salting (probably will only need to do this for two weeks though, as this is a smaller cheese). - actually, as I've found out that brining is acceptable, I'll go with brining as I've done that lots.
Given that the milk clearly floc'd well before 10 minutes, this one will have retained more whey than usual. However, given the fact that this is cut so small, and cooked quite hot relative to meso type cheeses, I'm thinking that may not be as big an impact. But, to be on the safe side, I'll not age this one the full 10 years! I was looking for a shorter term table cheese, so will go for a young one in the 3 to 4 year range! :)
Update at 6:31 pm, during the press: The knit has been fantastic since very early on. The small curd size from the whisk, plus the high temperature of cooking, has really expelled the whey. The size of the cheese is much smaller than my meso makes, and the stack of weights is nearly touching the top of the mould (image included below). Quite possibly, at some point during the night, the pressing weight will revert to 5kg, or 0.36 PSI. I've flipped it a few times. The cloth is sticking to the cheese a bit, more tacky than sticky. Hopefully it won't be stuck in the morning.
Here's the "heat rise" chart. Pretty good, though I was 1 C below target at the end of the time period. I just kept raising the temp and shorted the "keep stirring off the heat" time that followed.
