Giving this another go. I forgot to check my make notes when I picked up hte milk and didn't get the 2 litres of cream line, so it's a bit short of fat (not much), and more importantly, the curds were a bit weaker. I should have let them sit before stirring as the curds broke up a bit, but not too badly. It's coming together ok and hopefully by tomorrow when the "pressing" is done, the rind will be nice and tight. Will hopefully get a good b.linens rind on this one. Fingers crossed.
Munster (200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes) Sunday, July 19, 2014
{ 2 Litres Silver Top (creamline 4% fat, 3.1% protein) should have this and 3 of the Standard to get 0.87:1 P:F Ratio – target 0.88:1 but this time just have 5 L standard}
5 Litres Homebrand Standard (3.2% fat, 3.1% protein)
1 ice cube buttermilk; 1 ice cube crème fraiche
1/32nd tsp B. Linens
1/8th tsp CaCl2 in egg cup water
Rennet (0.8 mls 280 IMCU Calf rennet)
Salt
brine for washing (6 g salt to 194g water)
1) Add CaCl2 while setting up
2) Add culture and b.linens to milk and warm to 32 C (8:13 35.0 C)
3) Ripen 15 minutes (8:13 - 8:28 33.0 C)
4) Add rennet (8:28:00 floc time 8:44:30 = 16m 30s 4x floc = 66m 00s cut time 9:34:00)
5) Cut to 1.25 cm cubes (9:36 - 9:40)
6) Ensure temp is 32.0 C ( 31.0 C raised back to 33.0 C)
7) stir gently for 15 minutes (9:40 - 9:55)
8) Let curds settle, cover and rest 30 minutes (9:55 - 10:25)
9) Drain whey to level of curds, then gentle transfer curds to cloth lined colander
10) Drain 30 minutes (10:33 - 11:03)
11) Ladle soft curds into mould (but press them lightly to ensure they are spread evenly – used large coffee cup ¾ full of water) and drain 24 hours (flip several times over this period and remove any whey – keep cheese above the whey (11:15 – flipped 1:15, fusing ok, some larger cavities; 4:00 - 7:50 – ??:?? - ?:?? - ?:?? – ??:?? pm - 5:50 am – 6:15 pm – 824g 15.8 x 4.2 = 823 = 1.00 g/cm3)
12) If cheese still too soft to handle, continue to drain/flip for 6-7 hours more (??:?? - ??:??)
13) Sprinkle each face with ¼ tsp salt up to 1 tsp for larger cheese (6.25” tomme mould, used ½ tsp each face – used ½ tsp for this one )
14) Place cheese in ripening container and ripen at 13 C, 85% humidity (Mon, Jul 21, 2014)
15) Flip cheese daily, remove any whey until no more released (about ? days; was dry day ?)
16) Start washing every 2nd day (or alternating faces each day) for 2 weeks (smaller cheeses) to 3 weeks (larger cheeses). Orange smear should start to form after 10 days or so. (Started washing Jul ??, 2014 AM/PM).
17) Can be eaten at this point, or continue to ripen up to 3 months (gets stronger the longer you continue to ripen it).
18) Rind should be soft and moist, but not sticky. Once the rind is where you want it, wrap in parchment paper and store in regular fridge to extend.