Hi,
I'm just at the drain stage right now, so thought I would post up my notes. Will fill in the details as I complete it. Anyway, this is based upon a bunch of different makes I saw a few years ago for Butterkase. Since putting this together, I've been tweaking and changing this almost every make (just because it is fun to do so; so far it's proved to be a very forgiving make procedure). This time I've added a touch of calf lipase. Butterkase is a very mild cheese, so adding lipase to sharpen it a bit is, well, wrong with respect to the cheese style, but I saw the bottle of powder and decided to give it a go and see how it turns out.
This is a mix of meso and thermo, though butterkase is probably a thermo cheese. However it only gets up to 42, and I think that is right on the edge of where the mese cultures die off. So, some may survive and do some additional work during aging. If not, they at least help ripen and acidify the milk during the make.
This is, for all intents and purposes, a pretty easy washed curd cheese. Ready in about 2 or 3 months as a mild cheese, though it will deepen it's flavour profile if aged a bit longer. It doesn't get strong or sharp (the lipase may add something interesting this time), but it will have a definite solid taste. Paste should be smooth and moist, and good in a cheese sandwhich.
Anyway, it had been a long time since I made this so thought I would pull it back out and dust it off. Yes, I believe I'll dust my butterkase!
- Jeff
Butterkase : Sunday, Apr 19, 2014 (sunny, med Pressure; warm ~21.6 C)
11L homebrand standard milk
½ tsp CaCl (50% solution)
0.5 ml microbial rennet IMCU 750 (next make go with 0.5; 8 min flocs twice now with 0.6)
1 ice cubes crème freche, 1 ice cube buttermilk (meso) 1 ice cube ST B01 (Thermo) 3 tbls yogurt 1/16 tsp LH (De Winkle yogurt has Lactobacillus Acidophilus)
1/40 tsp calf lipase powder (this is not typical in Butterkase, but it’s an experiment)
Start time: 7:00 ish
1) Add CaCl2 to jugs of milk when setting up
2) Add all cubes and yogurt when cold and start to warm (target is 35 C)
3) Added LH when milk was at 24 C (to rehydrate). (7:13 Temp 24.0 C) and lipase when at 30 C
4) Warm to 35 C (hit 35 at 7:23; continued to climb to 35.3 C) (added all starter when cold, except LH)
5) Ripen 40 minutes (target time 8:03 actual time 8:03; Temp: 34.7 C at end)
6) Start raising temperature to 40 C at 8:04
7) Reached at 40 C at 8:15 actual temp: 40.3 C)
8) Add 0.5 ml rennet in egg cup water (8:16:00)
9) Floc time = 8:30:00 14m 00s 3.5 * floc = 49m 00s until cut
10) Cut at 9:05:00 into 3 cm cubes
11) wait 5 min (9:08 - 9:13) then cut into 1 cm cubes (good curd 39.2 C)
12) Curds settle 15 minutes (start 9:19 - 9:34), then remove approx 3 1/3 litres of whey (1/3 orig. volume of milk; extended time to allow more whey expulsion; good curd, no shatter – temp down to 36 C)
13) Slowly add 60 0C water until you reach 42 0C (over 5-15 minutes or so 9:50 - 10:15 41.9 C)
14) stir 45 minutes (start time: 10:15 - 11:00 )
15) move to cloth lined colander and drain 30 minutes (11:10 - 11:40)
16) Move to cloth lined mould
17) press lightly (20 kg; 6.25” cm mould; 1.43 PSI) 6 hours (start time: 11:45 – pressed in pot in sink of approx 40 C water 60 min then at room temp)
18) flipped/redress at 12:25 pm (knit looks good)
19) flipped/redress 12:50 pm and again at 2:00 (knit looks very good and excellent by 2:00)
20) Finish Press Time 5:45
21) 20 minutes water (5:45-6:05; knit superb 1424g 15.7 x 6.6 cm (1277 cm3; 1.12 g/cm3)
22) Brine (1 hour per lbs per inch in height = 8 hours 8 min ; 6:10 pm - 4:18 am – we’ll see; actually out at 6:00 am; weight 1366g, 15.2 x 6.5 = 1179 cm3 = 1.16g/cm3)
23) Air dry 3-5 days, until dry.
24) Move to cave, flip daily and age at least 2 months.
Make went very smoothly. The one thing about this make that's a bit of a pain is the fact that by the time it's done, it means it has to come out of the brine around 4-5 am. If I could make a larger cheese, then it would be perfect as it could come out of the brine about the same time I do. Oh well, with the kids, I'm up not long after that anyway. Still, those last few minutes are always the most desired! :)
- Jeff