Hello Everyone
I have made a cheese that I have three options on cream cheese, firm cheese, grating cheese) depedning on the treatment after draining. All are good but there is a problem with the set of the curd.... I loose some of the fats I think.
I use whole milk (cow)(standardized)(17lts), 1.2lts of full cream (47% butter fats). I treat the milk with CaCl (at the rate recommended) and calf lipase (1/4 tsp). I use liquid rennet and does with the amount for 25lts (due to the cream). The starter is a mesophilic type. Heating the milk to 86F before adding the rennet and then transfer to the "cold room" (61F) and put into a thermostatically controlled box set to 72F. After 14hrs the curds and whey are still warm (77F). I can get a clean break on the top of the curd but when I start to transfer to drain I find that the curd is barely set lower down in the container.
As I said I loose some fats but not too much. I would like to get a nice clear whey....so what do you recommend?
This yields a nice strong cheese. After drying and maturing it for 6 months it produces a really good grating cheese that is similar to Parmesan in character. To get this I put it into a 2Lb mold and press with 35Kg of load. Keeping it less time and less air drying gives good results as well.
For the cream cheese, once it is drained and salted (+garlic) I put it into silicone muffin molds and then freeze it. After defrosting it drops some more whey. Discard this and then reconstitute it by beating with a fork. Ends up very smooth. Chill in the fridge for a really good stiff cream cheese.
