jumped the gun--now what?

[rosawoodsii]

I put 4 gallons of milk in my pot and while it was heating, went through my cultures to pull out what I needed.  Instead of putting them aside, I put the mesophilic culture in the milk--OOPS!  The milk was only at 66°F instead of 96°.  So here's my question--do I start the timing of the culture now?  Start the timing when it's up to 96°? or do I add more culture when it's where it should be? 

I always do something "off" when I make this cheese (Jarlsberg)

[Spoons]

Hope I'm not too late. The best I can do is only based on a hunch. I'd start counting when the milk temps reaches 80F as I'm pretty certain cultures don't acidify bellow 70F. If you have a PH meter, then you can totally rely on either a 0.1 or 0.05 PH reduction (depending on your recipe).

Hope this helps. Care to share your Jarlsberg recipe?

[rosawoodsii]

You weren't too late, but this is going to be one interesting cheese, probably not a Jarlsberg.   After culturing, I put out the rennet--and realized I hadn't added the Proprionic shermanii.  Another Oops.  So I add it, stirred well, let it sit for another 20 minutes, and then added the rennet.  I wonder what else I'll do to this cheese before I'm done?

[rosawoodsii]

Jarlsberg recipe is from Rikki Carroll's website. http://www.cheesemaking.com/Jarlsburg.html.  One of these days I hope to make it the way it's written.  Three tries so far, and I haven't yet, but the good news is it always tastes good, even if it doesn't taste like Jarlsberg.   

[Spoons]

I wonder what else I'll do to this cheese before I'm done?

Some of the world's best "modern day" cheeses are created that way, by accident 

[rosawoodsii]

Some of my best cheeses have been "mistakes".  The problem is, those are the ones that I didn't mark, or didn't keep good notes on.    I'm trying to be better about my notekeeping, but it's a challenge...