I planned and looked forward to this make because I wanted a really good test of the criss-cross press. It's 5 gal. but unfortunately I chose to use a 8" dia. mold which was too big to achieve the correct form factor
. About midway through pressing I started seeing the tell-tale signs of butterfat (oil) loss
and decided to cut pressing short after 24 hr. as I knew the milled curds wouldn't knit once the oil got between them and didn't want to lose any more fat. This was my 164'th cheese and I've only had one to have the butterfat loss issue. I want to research more on the forum and look over the make log to see what caused it, but if you have any ideas let me know.
I used
Ricki Carrol's recipe and from what I could judge during the make all went well. I cobbled together the cultures from what I had on hand so hope it comes close. Even though this was a "swing and miss" cheese I went ahead and did
a video. Apologies for the gravely voice - applications for a narrator are available
.
By the way I did vacuum bag this cheese after a week because of the cracks. We'll see if it's decent a year from now.
The make log is first attachment.