I thought I'd try to document my third Gouda make ... partly so I can remember how I did it! My first two Goudas have been quite good -- er, goud. I need to buy some "real" gouda to compare it to, to see if it tastes "right" -- but I like the taste and texture very much, so I am continuing to make it.
All of the goudas, including this one, have been based on the recipe in the Ricki Carroll Home Cheesemaking book. The first I followed pretty exactly, using 175° water to wash the curds as specified. That seemed too hot, so the next gouda I made using 130° water, as found in a recipe on the Home Cheesemaking site. That seemed too cool, and required way too much water to get to the target temp of 100 - 102°. So this time I tried 150° water, and it was just right. I also played around with the recipe a bit.
Here is the protocol I followed:
3 gallons of P+H milk (Hunter Farms brand, from Harris Teeter, a local chain -- I've made all my cheese using this milk, with no failures thus far)
3/4 tsp CaCl
3/16 tsp MA011
1/8 tsp MD089 (this is a meso aroma culture -- first time I've tried adding it, so will be interested to see how the taste differs)
3/4 tsp liquid rennet
Heated milk to 90°, added culture, waited 5 minutes, stirred it in.
Cultured for 10 minutes (short! but that's what the RC recipe calls for)
Added CaCl diluted in water, stirred in
Added rennet diluted in water, stirred in
Allowed to set for 1 hour (long!! but again what is called for in the RC recipe)
Firm curd with clean break; cut vertically into 1/2" squares and allowed to heal for 5 minutes (first picture below)
Horizontally cut with cheese ladle and allow to heal for 5 minutes.
Gently stirred for 10 minutes
Drained 3 quarts of whey (second picture below)
Gradually added 3 quarts plus a bit of 150° water, bringing the temperature up to 102° over 15 minutes
Let curds sit for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent matting. At that point, curds felt right for draining.
Drained curds into cheesecloth-lined mold, then put mold back into whey with 4 pounds of weight for initial press of 15 minutes (third picture below)
Removed from whey and pressed for 20 minutes at 20 pounds
Redressed cheesecloth, turning the cheese over, and pressed for 30 minutes at 40 pounds
Redressed cheesecloth, turning the cheese over, and pressed for 16 hours at 50 pounds (fourth picture below)
Put into saturated brine for 12 hours, turning over after 6 hours
Removed, dried, and weighed at 2.874 pounds (typical yield for me using this milk) -- last picture below
Now drying on the mat; will age at least 3 months, possibly longer if I can stand it!