When I started this make (cheese #93), I thought I was heading towards my first Oka effort. Now, after additional contemplation, I'm staring at a blank canvas.
That's not a bad thing. Credit for starting me down this path goes to member
leedsfan and his
Oka recipe.
Part of that break in my focus can be blamed on combing through the different process details I have saved over the years. I have included some washed rind and washed curd docs as well as some thoughts captured from linuxboy's writings. The last four attachments are inspirational touchpoints.
My original focus was for a semihard cheese that would age well even after being sectioned into six or eight wedges and vacuum-sealed. That's the starting point. It is a washed curd cheese that will also be washed rind. That opens up a lot of choices for how to proceed.
Started make: April 17, 2015
Initial pH: 6.78
3 3/4 gallons Twin Brook Creamery 2% creamline milk (had to allow room in the kettle to add other milks)
1 pint Twin Brook Creamery cream (this is added because whole milk was not available)
8 oz buttermilk (this gives a little tang dimension and additional culture complexity)
1/4 tsp TA-61
1/4 tsp Alp D
1/32 tsp PLA (protects rind and helps develop paste)
1/16 tsp dry calf rennet in cooled 1/4 cup distilled water
1/2 tsp CACL in 1/4 cup distilled water
Brought milk to 96F.
Added cultures to milk, allowed to rehydrate for 5 minutes, stirred in.
Stirred in CACL and rennet at pH 6.50.
Flocculation after 10 minutes (the TA-61 combined with the buttermilk and 96F accelerated the floc).
With a floc factor of 3X, curds were cut 20 minutes later.
Stirring and watching for pH 6.4-6.45 for the point at which to drain 1 gallon whey and add in ~128F wash water.
Adding 128F water raised the kettle temp to 105F (a little higher than I wanted, but should still be okay).
Checking for pH 6.35, curds were drained at 6.33 @ 101F.
Curds to Plyban-lined mould and pressing under whey with 16 lbs to knit the rind.
The kettle rests inside a larger crab pot containing 2 inches of warm water. This assures a warm environment for knitting the rind.
Flipped & rewrapped after 20 minutes, pressing the same.
Flipped & rewrapped after 20 minutes, pressing the same.
Removed whey.
Flipped & rewrapped after 20 minutes, pressing the same.
Flipped & rewrapped after 20 minutes, pressing with 1.9psi (5 lb & 2 pulleys).
Checked pH after one hour... pH 5.22 ...Wow, very aggressive cultures!
Weighed wheel prior to brining...1854 grams (4.09 lbs).
Into prepared whey-brine saved from Tilsit #6 (3/12/15).
Brined for 14 hours, flipping at halfway point.
Into minicave to airdry at room temp for a couple days.
Checking, flipping, and drying wheel over the next couple days.
Looking to develop rind with a white wine wash. The linens and geo from the PLA should kick in fairly soon. I'd like to limit the linens development. The other PLA components will help.
My apologies for the slightly out-of-focus pic of me holding the curds. Managing to hold the camera in the middle of moulding the curds I guess was a little shaky, but I had a sudden urge to grab a pic.
This wheel joins the other three cheeses I've managed to crank out this year: Montasio #4, Tomme #8, and Tilsit #6.
-Boofer-
