After seeking suggestions from forum members for a good everyday cheese that melts well I decided on and made a cheese based on recipes for lancashire and caerphilly. because of the light press weight I'll consider it a caerphilly.
5/23
3 gal milk
3 Tbsp (heaping) ea. of buttermilk starter culture, and meso
1 Tbsp thermo/yogurt starter, originally 5 culture from Fage yogurt
1 tsp cal chlor
3/4 tsp calf rennet
2 1/2 Tbsp salt
heated milk to 90 F. At 80 F added cal chlor and cultures.
ripened 1 hour
added rennet in 1/4 cup filtered aged water, floc in 15 min min, x3.5+52 minutes
clean break in 52 minutes, cut curd to 1/2 inch
rest/heal curds 15 minutes then stir for 10 minutes while raising temp to 95 F over 20 minutes.
rest curds 10 minutes and stir for 10 while raising temp to 98F
Drain and hand press/wring out whey
Cut and stack, rest 30 minutes in water bathed kettle at 100 F
recut and stack and flip, rest 30 minutes
repeated cut/flip/stack 2 more times
milled curds and salted
Put in form and pressed 30 min under 8 lbs
flipped and pressed without cloth 30 min. 8 lbs
flipped and pressed under elastic press aprox 15 lbs 1 hour
flipped and pressed 1 hour aprox 20 lbs
flipped and pressed 6 hours aprox 25 lbs
flip and final shaping press 25 lbs 2 hours
moved to room temp cheese box to dry
and that is where is is, I will leave it there aprox 36 hours, I think and then move to the 55 F cave to continue drying uncovered until I get a good surface rind starting. I already asked about bandagign this cheese in another thread and the consensus is no for a cheese that I plan on aging a max of 2 months. Overall the make was fairly easy and smooth running. I was afraid that I had drained the curds too much before the start of cheddering but it knitted very well during cheddering and in the press. I did have about 1/2 lb of curds that wouldn't fit the mold and these were bagged and will become a topping on a frittata or 2. made ricotta from the whey and with about a quart of milk added to the whey I got 15 oz of ricotta, 2/3 of which has become a ricotta cheesecake.
I turned the cheese today when I brought it out to take a photo. Which is an adventure in itself when I am trying to use a tablet with only a front facing camera to take the pic. I weighed it at this time after 24 hours in the drying box and it weighs in at 2 lb 14.4 oz, 4 5/8" in diam. and 4 1/4" tall.
Sorry about the lousy photo. I'll have to dig out my digital camera and see if I can do better.
