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