Decided to make a Tilsit! Used Boofer's recipe, sort of, kind of. We'll see what this turns into.
2/20/15
8:09 2 gallons whole P/H milk, added cultures. On a thought, that maybe they rehydrate while I heat up the milk, and then work better? A lot of my cheeses don't seem to have been acidic enough.
8:33 Reached 99º F, put in sink of cold water.
9:06 Cooled to 92ºF, started ripening. Ordinarily, I'd do the whole 45 minutes to an hour, but I was unsure because the cultures might have been working while I let the milk cool off.
9:40 Added CaCl and rennet, diluted in milky water
10:22 Cut curds to 1 inch
10:33 Stirred for 28 minutes.
11:01 Removed about 30 ladlefuls of whey, stirred for ten minutes
11:12 Added 120ºF water to 100º F, stirred
11:42 Drained
11:47 Pressed with 10 lb.
12:45 Flipped, 20 lb. Now looking at Tilsit again, I've realized that it normally isn't pressed very hard. So I compensated by doing it for shorter, also because pH oh this was a confusing period.
1:21 Flipped, 20 lb.
3:28 Flipped, 30 lb. (I was exercising and needed ten pound weights more than 15 lbers.) PH was around 5.3?
And around 4:30 Removed from press, brined for 5 hours.
Aging for maybe 2 months? We'll see.
