Again a Caerphilly - Why this cheese. Simply, I'm a little impatient
This is ready to eat 3-4 weeks and is our house cheese. But this is not really a post about a cheese but the milk. Given the number of way to pasteurise milk I decided to find out what the effect they all had. The finding were a little disturbing. And each of them are increasingly destructive on the main building blocks of our obsession.
The main ways are- From Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking. These timing and temperature are from a US author but you get the picture and will differ from Country to Country.
Thermization 55 - 70 DegreesC for 2-16 seconds
Small Batch/Vat processing 63DegreesC for 30 minutes
High Temp/Long Time 72 DegreesC / 15 secs
High Heat/ Short time 88 DegreesC / 1 second
Ultra Pasteurization 138 DegreesC for 2 seconds
Ultra High 116 DegreesC / 4-15 seconds
As you got down the list the destruction increases - to the point where it is so denatured(changed) it can no longer create a curd matrix. So, in order to get to know the base ingredient, I emailed and to my surprise, received a prompt phone call. Told him why I was after the information and was very helpful. So now I know my milk is pasteurized at 77.5 for 15 secs I can find out what survives at that temperature and another thing I found out is that they don't standardize their milk so there is seasonal differences.
10 litres of Milk – Gold Top -cream line Milk. Pasteurised and Un-homogenised milk. And yes you can get it in Australia, it costs a little more but so worth it.
1/8 tsp of Calcium Chloride diluted in ¼ cup of de-chlorinated water.
full MO 030 dose.
4 Mls Liquid Rennet.
2 tabs of Cheese salt.
11:30 – 25oC
Last time
One small change to this mix will be adding the CaCl2 just before adding the rennet.
heat the milk target is 32OC and as this has a 1 degree temp change so pull the pots off at 3 degrees shy of 30 because as the bath will increase the temp to 32 without further addition of heat. The later 1 degree change is important
add the Cultures at temp of @32OC. Needs 30 minutes to ripen.
11:50 Added Culture.
Add the Culture at the same temperature and let ripen for 30 minutes at 32 oC.
Add CaCl2 and stir for 1 minute.
Add rennet and stir for 1 minute – gently :
Mad millies vege rennet .2 t .5 ml per litre instead of ½ tablet of rennet diluted in ¼ cup of de-chlorinated water. ½ a tsp = ½ a tablet so I’ll see where that takes us. 5 ml = 1teaspoon 1/5 teaspoon = 1 ml Last time a little more than half gave a Floc time (see later) of 20 minutes
30 Nov adding 4 mls. Measured using a Syringe
The recipe says to sit for 40 minutes but have found the Flocculation method to produce more accurate results.
Each type of cheese is a little different. The following is a guide to some of the cheeses and their multipliers.
3 Caerphilly, Tomme, Parmesan, Wensleydale, Mozzarella, Gouda, Port Salut, Manchego, Beaufort, Ossau-Iraty, Munster, Oka, Kashkaval. Cutting to pea size.
I cut the curd first with a curd knife and then a couple of runs through with a large whisk, just once or twice to get the curds all a simular size.
Take the elapsed time and multiply by the figure for your cheese. For example say the movement stopped after 11 minutes and in this case we are making a Caerphilly – has a multiplier of 3 = 33 minutes. Now add the number of minutes to the recorded rennet adding time say 9:30 am 9:30 + 33 minutes = 10:03am. This is the time you cut the curd. I check normally for a clean break as well at this time – just to be sure and if it is still a little mushy I’ll give it another 2-3 minutes.
Add Rennet 3.6 mls. Measured using a Syringe
12:00
Flocculation Time: 10:00 minutes X 3 = 30Minutes
Curd cutting time @ 12:30
12:30 Curd Cutting time. Cut the curds as closely as possible into ¼ inch(6mm) cubes.
This cheese has a very gentle cooking of the curds and a medium stirring time.
Slowly raise the temperature to 33OC over 10 minutes.
Stir gently @ 33OC for 40 minutes and let rest for 5 minutes. As there are no additives in this cheese the whey can be saved to make ricotta at the end of the day.
The next step is a mini ‘Cheddaring’. This helps to drain the whey and increase the ph - I don't know what to but the whey at the end was a little 'Tangy' so I presume it achieved it goal, of the curd mass.
The rig is a simple one where I use a cleaned and sanitised glass cutting board over a sink of hot water on one side of the double sink and the press setup on the other. This way I can keep the curds warm and hopefully a better knit.
Drain for 5 minutes into a colander lined with Cheese cloth, saving the whey this time for ricotta. While still in the colander maintain the 33OC temperature by covering the curd mass.
After draining cut the mass into 2 inch slabs and I turn them out onto the warmed glass board.
The aim of the Cheddaring processing is to maintain the curds at 33OC. With the lid over the curds and the hot water below the temperature is maintained pretty close to 33OC. Turn the slices over twice in 10 minutes. The whey should just be dribbling clear at this stage.
After the cheddaring the slices will have started to firm up. They will still be soft but will hold their shape. Break into thumbnail size pieces and blend with the salt. Don’t squeeze the curds, just gently mix the salt through.
Getting the press ready and calculating the weights and distances.
Pressing and Dressing procedure
1. Press for 10 minutes @ 10 lbs. Remove from the mould rub salt in the top and the bottom redress .
2. Press again with @10 lbs. for 10 minutes.
3. Repeat and re-press @ 15 lbs. for 20 minutes.
4. Unmould re-salt and redress and press again @ 25 lbs. for 16 hours. On the press I am using .75kg @ 60cm and 1.5kg @ 70 cm which gives me 8Kg at the cheese and 2kg @ 80 for 25lbs.
Set the final pressing @ 7:00pm but the whey is nice and clear.
The cheese weighed out of the press @ 1540 grams. Sorry I don't have any make pictures but I'll post up some as is ages out to 4-5 weeks.
But the main aim of this post is to urge you to find out a little more about what milk you are using and how they treat it because it has a direct influence on the end product after the hours making and months waiting.
Cheese On
--Mal
