What wonderful cheeses - Tiarella. I'm noway near that level - inspiring
and I feel a cheese is necessary.
Sarahal88:
Here is a basic Caerphilly style cheese with a few notes on the different pasteurisation levels.
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10375.0.htmlThe main point is the process and I dont know what cultures you have access to so where I have 1 dose of MO 030 - this is just a basic Mesophillic culture, I've included another culture chart so a comparable one is Mesophilic (Danisco) Choozit MA011/MA014/MA016/MA019 or Mesophilic (Abiasa) Type III. It mentions that it is a High to Med acidifier and is just a guide on how active the culture is. There are many thing you can do here but stick with the basics for now.
Your next challenge is Rennet and this too is a bit difficult as I don't know what you have and what strength, have a look and see if you can find a figure that says something like 190 IMCU or I think the scale in the US is different (larger number) but the intent is to show you how active it is. Some say single or double strength rennet and somewhere around the 200 IMCU is considered Single strength.
Next thing - Flocculation Time. This is where the Art comes into it.. If you don't already know the flocculation point is not the Curd cutting time but is used to calculate it. You will see a lot of recipes say "Add rennet - stir and let sit for 40 minutes and then check for a "Clean Break". The link above has a description of how to measure and use the Flocculation point to determine the optimal time to cut the curd. Not the same every time due to many reasons including seasonal difference in the milk, temperature, how much acid the culture has developed amongst others. If you don't feel comfortable using this it should be about 40 minutes.
Measuring the clean break is making a small cut in the curd surface and placing the flat of your curd knife under the cut at a 45 deg angle and slowly lifting the knife. Watching, as you lift, the behaviour of the curd as it splits and the colour of the whey that fills the cut space. if the edge is rounded and the whey is milky then leave a further 5 minutes and test again. What you are looking for is a nice sharp edge and clear to yellowish whey. What you are really checking for is that the Curd matrix has formed sufficiently to trap the fat in the protein network with minimal leakage back into the whey.
Temperature: Caerphilly has a very small cooking temerature rise about 4 Deg F sorry my measurments are in degrees C but this is a good example of thermal inertia to get the curd to to move that 2 deg C / 4 Deg F. Don't fret if it sneaks a bit past but the point is the slow rise and then keeping it there. Since I posted the make I add the cultures at about 28 degrees and ripen at 30 degrees which gives me a 3 degree rise. This actually gets the curds to a better place, in my opinion.
I'll stop here and let you get comfortable with all that info.
-- Mal
