My Mini Jack

[Pirri]

Hi all
This is my first attempt at a Jack cheese. I was inspired by the Jack rubbed with peppers and cocoa recipe on the  New England Cheese Making recipe page. Before jumping into a large wheel the need 19L of milk I thought I'd try a smaller version, to see if I would even like the flavour. So I used the Jack recipe from Ricki Carroll's Making Cheese, Butter & Yogurt, as it only used 4L (maybe my first mistake).

So off I went on my new cheese making adventure.   The recipe called for a mould but I preferred the freer form created by pressing in just the cheese cloth (second mistake?). The cheese was presses freely under 500g for 15min then 2kg for 12hr. I started becoming a bit concerned that my cheese was becoming very 'squished' but I had decided to follow it through.

I'm very excited by my cheese, I even named it (I don't think that will stop me from eating it  )

Mini Jack is approx 16cm across and 3cm high. He has what feels like the right texture and I am very happy with the shape, I'm planing on rubbing it with pepper infused olive oil.  I am just curious about how the size will affect my aging time. Ricki's recipe calls for aging between 1-4 months.  The larger cheese on the NE Cheese Making site says aging between 3-8 months (and up to 2 years).  I'm planing on giving it a cut at about the 1-1.5month mark but I was curious what you guys thought about the thickness. Mini Jack just seems soo small and thin. Is this the thickness you would expect for a recipe of this size?

I have attached some photos below

[Spoons]

Hi Pirri,

Nice miny Jack! I really like the cloth-pressed look! As for the size, it is small and will probably end up a little dryer than you would like. At such a small size, I would seal it to prevent too much of a rind development.

I don't know about Caroll's recipe, but if it's a cold washed curd, then 6-7 weeks has a real good flavour development especially if it's a pepper-jack. I've read that a cold-washed curd jack cheese doesn't hold well beyond 90 days. I've never tested why, my jack cheeses don't last very long in the cave or fridge 

A cheese for you for such a lovely looking cloth-shaped jack 

[Pirri]

Thanks for the cheese - my first one
I was hopping it wouldn't come to sealing as I don't have any wax or a vacuum sealer. I've never done a hard-ish cheese before so have never needed wax. I put an order into my cheese supply people on Thursday before making this (didn't bother getting any wax) and that still hasn't arrived so the rind may have dried out before I would have a chance to seal it. What do you think about keeping up the pepper olive oil rub. Could that help prevent the rind from developing?

I don't think this recipe was cold washed. I don't have the recipe in front if me but I don't think it was washed at all (but then my understanding of the terminology could be wrong). I'll have to have a look at it tomorrow.

[Spoons]

I looked up Ricki Carroll's Jack Recipe. It's not a washed curd recipe.

This version of a jack cheese will be crumbly. Don't worry about the rind, if you keep the RH% at around 85-90% then you won`t loose too much moisture in the cheese in a 6 week period. The oil rub won't act as a sealant, but it may somewhat help with the rate of moisture loss (ever so slightly).

If you want a Jack cheese with a flexible, moist paste, then try a Jack recipe where you wash the curds with cold water. This is similar, almost identical to a Colby recipe. 

[Pirri]

So I've just realised that I have posted this in the wrong forum.  If need be feel free to move it.

I thought I'd give an update of where my mini jack is at.

I managed to get access to a vacuum sealer after your last post (thanks mum!), so I quickly sealed him up and crossed my fingers.  Thanks for the suggestion Spoons  cant imagine what it would have been like if I hadn't done that.  You recommended 6 weeks would probably be the aging limit for a cheese of this size, and I had always planed to have a taste at the 1 month mark.  I noticed in the last week that the vacuumed bag started to loose its tight seal around the cheese so I took that as a sign that it should be opened.

I open this little guy up on the weekend and found it could probably go a little longer.  I was happy to see that the flesh hadn't dried out or become crumbly.  The texture was a bit rubbery (probably not the best descriptive word to use) but not chewy and I was surprised to see that it had developed holes! 

There was a distinct lack of flavour though.  My first thought was hmm its not salty enough and there was really nothing of the pepper flavour at all.  I left a piece out to come to room temp to see if I could detect anything but if anything any vague flavour that had been there disappeared completely.  I cut the block in half and vac'ed them separately.  I'm thinking that I will leave it for another month and hopefully some flavour will develop.

Below there are a couple of pictures

[awakephd]

Well, it LOOKS tasty. What culture did you use? If you used a Flora Danica, or other culture with meso aroma in it, that results in small holes through the co2 production; also gives a more buttery taste.

I wish I knew the answer to whether aging will help with the taste; I'd guess so ... but I'll defer to those with more experience!

[Pirri]

Yes unfortunately it is just lacking on.  I'm not too worried yet about the aging time.  The recipe said it can be aged for 1-4 months.  Well I'm only a month in so I can only hope/assume it improves with age.

Recipe called for a generic meso.  I used 1/32tsp of MM100 (well that's where the holes came from I guess).  This was all I had at the time so I was limited in my options.  I probably would have gone MM100 and a bit of FD or a Meso/Thermo combo pack if I had them on me at the time but I can give them a try in my next one.

[OzzieCheese]

Welcome to the forum...
It is just a cute looking cheese.  the Culture you used, MM100, has a couple of different bugs in it but for now it is described as a moderate acidifier and some gas production and from the holes - eyes - then that shows up. As long as there are no 'Off' smells then it the culture, if it smells weird, a bit sweet sweaty socky sort of smell it might be something else. Basically, the flavour mainly comes (or lack of) from a couple of things.  1. The Cultures -dieing (they're supposed to) and releasing enzymes as Cheese makers we concerned with two main ones (there are loads of others) they basically breakdown the fats and proteins in the milk and the the acid (Lactic acid) in the cheese and this changes during the aging process.  And of course salt . . . at 4 weeks it could still be a little bland.

Keep Cheesing 

--Mal   

[Pirri]

Thanks Mal,
No off smells.  There was some vaguely unidentifiable background flavour reminiscent of very faint B.Linens but I suspect that could have been all that remained of the pepper infused olive oil which I rubbed into the surface.  This taste disappeared completely when it come to room temperate so I'm not too worried about the holes.  I now have some MM11 to use so if I make this cheese again then I'd probably go with that.

I used the amount of salt asked for in recipe so at the moment I can only assume it was the correct amount so really I am hoping aging is the key.  Fingers crossed.

[OzzieCheese]

A Cheese for persistance..

[awakephd]

1/32 tsp of culture sounds a bit low ... but of course, it always depends on the particular brand involved. As a comparison, the Danisco cultures that I use call for 1/2 tsp to innoculate 6 - 12 gallons of milk. So I use 8 gallons as the target, and divide by four for a 2-gallon make, giving me 1/8 tsp of culture. That seems to be working well for me. If your culture is similar in strength, I would have used 1/16 tsp for a 4L make.

That said ... I've been curious about how exacting the amount of culture is. Recipes seem to vary wildly -- possibly due to different assumptions about the brand of culture being used? I've read hints and dire warnings and dark mutterings about the possibility of adding too much culture, but haven't (yet) experienced such. As a result, I tend to err on the side of a bit more rather than a bit less.

[Pirri]

I've have always used my culture pack as a guide.  If the recipe only calls for one culture then I try to make sure the amount recommended by my packet corresponds with the amount of milk I have (not that I have a great deal of experience).

This recipe was a 1 Gallon (4L) make (just a baby) and called for 1 packet of meso culture.  Not exactly a SI unit.  So I went with a scaled version of my packet values which is 1/2tsp per 10L (2.5 gallons).  Coming to think of it I don't know why I chose 1/32tsp it really should have been closer to 1/4tsp or 1/16tsp but that's what my notes say . 

Actually thinking back, I hadn't found my mini tsp measures by then so I would have only had a 1/4tsp available.  I can not guarantee how accurate that 1/32 is.  Think of it as more of an intention (values may appear larger in reality)

[OzzieCheese]

And there is the beauty of Cheese making.  No wrong ways - just some taste better than others.  You have also alluded to the wonderful skill of note taking. Accurate notes that you can review later.  All valuable lessons . .  BTW reminded me of an entry I saw in my log  . . . 
Today Fetta
4 litres of milk

and nothing else  well, that's not very useful is it 

Keep Cheesing