Author Topic: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make  (Read 4972 times)

LoftyNotions

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Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« on: January 08, 2015, 06:13:09 PM »
I’ve taken about a 2 year break from making cheese, but recently it has come back into my hobby rotation. The firm curd was made on November 8 and the softer curd was made and the cheese put together on November 9. This was adapted from Jim Wallace’s recipe on the cheesemaking dot com website.
I was having trouble with my pH meter, so take any pH readings here with a grain of salt.

Ingredients for each day
2 gal. Cream top Pasteurized milk
¼ tsp. Flora Danica (Used ½ tsp. second day).
½ tsp CaCl diluted with R/O water
1/32 tsp. P. roqueforti rehydrated in milk (Day 1 firm curd only)
Calf Rennet

Day 1
Milk brought to 87° F and CaCl Added. pH 6.64
Add P. roqueforti and Flora Danica. pH measured 6.47 at 30 minutes.
Add ½ tsp. (50 drops) Calf Rennet.
Floc time was 9 minutes (too fast). Cut curd at 36 minutes.

After rough cut with a knife, rested 10 minutes and stirred with a whisk until curds uniform.

Stirred for a little over 1 hour, watching the pH go up. (6.53 at ½ hour, 6.67 at 1 hour). Decided that my meter was toast and drained the curds in a colander. Hung to drain overnight. Out of curiosity, I monitored pH from the whey, and got readings of 6.59 at 1-1/2 hours, 6.53 at 2-1/2 hours, 6.5 at 5 hours, 6.43 at 6 hours, 6.35 at 8 hours, and a final pH of 4.77 the next morning.

Day 2
Milk brought to 87° F and CaCl Added. pH 6.60
pH 6.6 at 30 minutes, 6.47 at 1 hour, 6.36 at 1:15
Added 40 drops rennet diluted in R/O water. Floc time still 9 minutes. (Different brand milk, lower pH?) Cut at 36 minutes and rested 10 before stirring with whisk. After curds uniform, intermittently stirred with a spoon. Total time from cut until pH 5.9 was about 3 hours. Drained whey to just above curd level.

Milled firm curd to approximately thumbnail size.

Started filling mold with approximately 1/3 of the softer curd on the bottom. The next 1/3 of the soft curd surrounded all of the firm curd. The last 1/3 of the soft curd went on top. I had to press down gently to get everything into the mould.

After the mould was filled, flipped it about every half hour until bedtime. Continued flipping the next day, tapering off to every hour or 2.
This cheese is dry salted over 3 days, with total salt equal to 4% of the initial cheese weight. 50% of the salt is used on day 4. 30% of the salt is used on day 5, 20% of the salt is used on day 6. Each day’s salting was divided into morning and evening doses.

So, with a cheese weight of 2150 Grams, here is the salt schedule:

Day   Side 1 (Morning)   Side 2 (Evening)
4   25% of total or 22 grams   25% of total or 22 grams
5   15% of total, or 13 grams   15% of total, or 13 grams
6   10% of total, or 8 grams   10% of total, or 8 grams


Day 7 put cheese in a box and into the “cave” at 54° F. Humidity was around 80 to 95%, depending on which hygrometer I chose to believe on any given day. There was some condensation in the box, so I’ll go with somewhere in the 90s. Flipped every day or 2. At day 11 there was a small amount of blue on the outside.
Day 16 perforated top and sides with a skewer.
Day 19 perforated bottom. Day 22 re-perforated top. Day 25 re-perforated bottom.
Pics to follow…

LoftyNotions

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2015, 06:38:27 PM »
Pics as promised. More to follow.

Offline pastpawn

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2015, 01:31:08 AM »
Looks great!  What diameter is that?

What do you use to smooth your cheese?

How does is smell :)

Also, what are the materials you use in your ripening box there?  I need to build some of those. 
- Andrew

LoftyNotions

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2015, 04:38:28 AM »
Hi Andrew,

The mould is 5-1/2 inches tall by 6 inches in diameter.

There is no smoothing involved with this cheese. It presses under its own weight, and the exterior surface you see is solely because of the softer second day make for the exterior.

It smells great, a nice blue funk going on. I'll have cheese porn pics soon. :)

The box is one I picked up at WallyWorld. The base layer is fluorescent light plastic grill material. I bought a 2 X 4 sheet of it at Home depot and cut it to size for several purposes. Lithonia Lighting White Eggcrate T12 Troffer Replacement Diffuser Model # L2GT PLTS R5 Internet # 100579509. The top layer is plastic canvas, or canvas mesh, which I bought at Michael's. They have different sizes and meshes. Just be aware that the finer meshes do seem to hold water via capillary action.

HTH,

Larry

Offline pastpawn

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2015, 04:43:18 AM »
Hi Andrew,

The mould is 5-1/2 inches tall by 6 inches in diameter.

There is no smoothing involved with this cheese. It presses under its own weight, and the exterior surface you see is solely because of the softer second day make for the exterior.

It smells great, a nice blue funk going on. I'll have cheese porn pics soon. :)

The box is one I picked up at WallyWorld. The base layer is fluorescent light plastic grill material. I bought a 2 X 4 sheet of it at Home depot and cut it to size for several purposes. Lithonia Lighting White Eggcrate T12 Troffer Replacement Diffuser Model # L2GT PLTS R5 Internet # 100579509. The top layer is plastic canvas, or canvas mesh, which I bought at Michael's. They have different sizes and meshes. Just be aware that the finer meshes do seem to hold water via capillary action.

HTH,

Larry

Thank you Larry, that's great info.  Good luck with your gorconzola.  I've got a couple of blues going myself right now.
- Andrew

Frodage

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2015, 03:11:51 PM »
Started filling mold with approximately 1/3 of the softer curd on the bottom. The next 1/3 of the soft curd surrounded all of the firm curd. The last 1/3 of the soft curd went on top. I had to press down gently to get everything into the mould.

Andrew,
What would be the difference to the cheese if you intimately mixed the soft and firm curd, instead of the way you did it? I'm asking because this is the first time I've read about two types of curd (from two batches) being combined into one cheese.

LoftyNotions

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2015, 08:34:27 PM »
Hi Jim,

The method I used here is specific to Gorgonzola Picante. The idea is to have the hard curd with the P. roqueforti only in the middle. The end result will be apparent when I post the cut pics. The cheese has a blue veined middle, and a not veined outside.

I'll get the cut pics up soon.

HTH,

Larry

Offline pastpawn

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2015, 08:47:55 PM »
Hi Jim,

The method I used here is specific to Gorgonzola Picante. The idea is to have the hard curd with the P. roqueforti only in the middle. The end result will be apparent when I post the cut pics. The cheese has a blue veined middle, and a not veined outside.

I'll get the cut pics up soon.

HTH,

Larry


Like this?  (taken from the webz)

- Andrew

LoftyNotions

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2015, 08:51:22 PM »
Bizakly! :)

LoftyNotions

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2015, 11:59:00 PM »
This cheese was cut at about 7 weeks. I know a lot of people prefer 3 months or so, but 7 weeks is plenty, and I'd be happy to cut and bag one even at 5 or 6 weeks.

Blue is plenty developed, the flavor and aroma are excellent. What's left has been vac sealed. It does get sharper, just not more blue.

Jim, this will give you a better idea of how this cheese is constructed.

Larry


SOSEATTLE

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #10 on: January 10, 2015, 02:21:01 AM »
That cheese is gorgeous  ^-^ and deserves a cheese for the maker.




Susan

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #11 on: January 10, 2015, 03:21:35 AM »
That cheese is gorgeous  ^-^ and deserves a cheese for the maker.

Susan

I agree.  One of the nicest creations I've seen here.  You've set the mark.

Cheese in the hole!
- Andrew

Frodage

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #12 on: January 10, 2015, 04:10:46 AM »
Incredibly beautiful!  :)  So, despite piercing the cheese, the blue only grows on the inside near the hard curds. Splendid photos!

LoftyNotions

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #13 on: January 10, 2015, 04:32:03 AM »
Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Jim, the P.r is only added to the firm curds of the first day's make, not to the soft curd on the second day. If you look at the cut lines, you'll see a little blue dragged out through the outside curd in a couple spots.

Larry
« Last Edit: January 10, 2015, 04:43:51 AM by LoftyNotions »

Offline Danbo

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Re: Gorgonzola Picante November, 2014 Make
« Reply #14 on: January 10, 2015, 06:13:25 AM »
WOW! :-)

A cheese for that.