My 1st hot-water washed curd

[WisconsinDan]

I am heating the milk as I type. Going to follow Caldwell's Recipe from Mastering artisan cheesemaking. However I do not have any LM cultures laying around, it says to add a pinch, and am wondering if some Flora Danica would work? I am going to check around the time I am getting ready to add the cultures.  If nobody tells me otherwise I am just going to make the substitution and see what happens.

Also making a 4 gallon batch and was curious how might this affect flavor and texture in comparison to the 2 gallon batch made in the recipe?

[jmason]

LM is also found in Flora Danica so it would add that bacteria and 3 other mesophillic acidifiers.  I don't know the recipe that you are following but assume there is a thermo culture of some sort as the main acidifier?  The substitution seems reasonable to me.  just watch pH levels until you have reached a temperature that shuts down the mesophiles.  The additional lactococcus may drop the pH faster than expected.

John

[WisconsinDan]

The main culture is MA 4000. I have been finding my batch of cultures (the MA) has been acidifying things much faster than suggested and my rennet is giving me much shorter flocculation times than I have been shooting for so I am making a couple of adjustments. The temperature will never go above 90F until I add the hot water so I don't think they will really slow down much until then. The recipe seems pretty forgiving as far as pH drop. A pH change of anywhere between 0.1-0.5 before adding rennet seems to be acceptable. I am also adding a couple skewer tips of lipase to the pot too since I like the flavor it adds.

Anyhow the make should hopefully go as follows:
4 gallons whole milk
0.45g MA4000, 0.2g Flora Danica
1 tsp CaCl in 0.5 cups water
1 ml double strength rennet in 0.5 cups water
saturated brine

Add lipase
Add cultures@80F
Ripen@88-90F for ~ 45 minutes with a pH drop of 0.1-0.5
Add CaCl
Add rennet and hold temp; desired  coagulation time 45 minutes and flocculation factor of 3.5
Cut into 3/8" cubes
Stir 15-20 minutes still maintaining temperature
Drain 25% of whey and add same amount of 160F water over 10 minutes to increase temperature to 101F
@101F stir 15-20 minute4s for final texture.
Drain whey to level of curds and consolidate into single mass.
Drain off remaining whey.
Fill cloth-lined mold and begin pressing.
Gradually increase weight until rind is closed and pH of 5.2-5.3 is achieved.
Brine for 3-4 hours per pound.

[jmason]

Dan,
I would rennet a whole lot closer to the 0.1 drop in pH rather than the 0.5, especially considering the rapid acidification your experiencing with your farmhouse culture.  Don't press too hard too quickly, give the whey a chance to drain out as you increase press weight, and the curd acidification is an integral part of that process.  What I am trying to say is that press pressure alone wont drain the whey it's a combination of factors, and cheeses in this category aren't very hard pressed normally.  I don't know if you are pressing too hard too quickly but I'm wondering if that might have been at least a part of the problem with your cheddar.  I don't know how you are drying your cheeses, but, here is what I do.  I have a sterlite tote that I use only for draining and drying cheeses.  I elevate a drain board (not so important with a pressed cheese) with a drain/ripening mat on it and let the cheese dry at room temp for a day or two.  This protects the cheese from dust, bugs and what have you and prevents it drying too quickly, you want a humidity of 85-95% through the whole process.  Washing the rind should only be done after there is a rind to wash,  the vinegar/salt water rub is really only to deal with the occasional spot of mold that might appear.  This kind of wash can be very drying to the cheese rind as counter-intuitive as that is, at least that is what I remember Yoev (iratherfly) has written and I tend to trust his word on these things.  He actually recommends salt rubs after a good rind has formed (depending on the variety of course), kind of like dermabrasion for cheese, and the salt wont be absorbed by the cheese once a good rind has formed. 

BTW, what kind of cheese is this going to be, other than washed curd you didn't say?

John

[WisconsinDan]

I don't really know what you would call it. The book says that this is similar to how one might make a Gouda or an Edam.

I think I may have cut the culture too much(25% less than the recipe recommends) as it has been near 50 minutes and I can still detect no pH drop with my meter which unfortunately it only goes to 0.1 for accuracy and I just have it laying around from beer-making.  I figure if I wait awhile longer the cultures will do their thing, proliferate and the pH will drop. I have made another washed curd cheese before, with same-temperature water, which has pressed and been aging fine for a month now in my wine-fridge.  I don't seem to have a problem with low humidity.  If I don't leave the fridge open for several minutes a day the cheeses seem to keep it around 94% RH on their own.  I try to keep it closer to the 85-90 range to discourage the mold.

[jmason]

OK, cool,
Sorry if I sounded "preachy", just trying to give the best advice I can and didn't really know from your previous posts if the humidity was good or not.  Did Caldwell specify the 4000 farmhouse culture?  Just ask cause often with this style L. helviticus is a part of the culture for the nutty flavor it gives the cheese.  Have fun with it.

John

[WisconsinDan]

I appreciate any advice I can get because I am pretty new to this craft and I certainly could learn a lot more.

Yeah they recommend the MA4000 and LM. She says LM or equivalent blend.  I am thinking by equivalent blend she may have been referring to how manufacturers will rotate cultures to prevent phage, but I felt like making cheese today and figure use what I have got.  I would have made one of the other recipes like a Tomme, which only uses MA 4000, but I would like to have something I am not going to have to wait 6 months to eat. The cheddar is the only thing I have been having problems with cracking though and I think a lot of it is because the rind never really closed all the way. I am thinking next cheddar I will try a mold with a larger height-to-width ratio and either doing a 2 gallon batch or having somebody help me mill the curd so it doesn't cool off so much.

Took 1 hour 15 minutes but the pH finally dropped 0.1. I am giving it ten more minutes and going to rennet. I really hope that the smaller inoculation won't be too big a deal. I guess I will be biting my nails a bit today.

[jmason]

Don't sweat it, 1 hr 15 min. isn't a big deal.  The bacteria will reproduce and in the end the proper acidity will be reached and you won't be scrambling to get it in the press before the pH drops too much, we hope.  Tommes come in many forms and don't nesessarilly take that long to mature, 2 months would be a minimum probably.  But they would almost always have a ripening blend, such as choozit pla, to give surface flora.  The reason for the LM in this recipe is to provide an aroma forming bacteria to the mix.  All the other cultures are considered homofermentive, whereas the Leuconostoc mesenteroides  is heterofermentive and will produce additional flavors and aroma. 

BTW, I was also a homebrewer and winemaker for many years.  I owned a brew shop for 12 years, and was a certified beer judge.  I judged the world homebrew competition the first 2 years of it's existance.  Kinda missing it, and have given thought to reopening my brew shop, there is certainly a need for it in this city.  We had a very active brew club here and hosted a brewery to brewery road race for 8 years I think until the member that organized it started to get worried about how big it was becoming and the potential liability to the club and to him personally.  The breweries, Ommegang and Old Slugger, for a time continued the race themselves.  At the least I need to brew some beer with some of the old gang.  We had set up to do 20-25 gallon batches with a 30 gallon stainless drum.  One day we were out of our minds and did a 3 beer brew day, starting at 8 am and finishing near midnight.  First and only time we did that, 1-2 brews were the limit after that.

Have fun
John

[WisconsinDan]

It seems to be working out alright. The pH of the curd was at 5.6 when it went into the press a little over an hour ago. It has already dropped to 5.2. I am wondering if I need to invest in a better meter for testing the curd because that seems awfully fast. The recipe says it should have taken 4 to 8 hours. The rind seems to have mostly closed already, but the cheese still seems really soft and rubbery.  It almost formed to my hand a little bit when I flipped it.

Moved the whole press down to the basement where it is closer to 63F to slow pH development, but I think I may have read this will slow down the loss of moisture too so I don't know if that will really help?

Truthfully I am not sure that its current "softness" is really a problem either?

So far I have flipped it 4 times and gradually increased the weight to 15 lbs. right before I posted this. (including the mechanical advantage).

[jmason]

It gets to a certain point and the pH drops like a rock, fast,  Once the curds have knit well I wouldn't worry about the rate of pH drop and yes at a warmer temp it will happen faster, but so will the whey expulsion.  So as long as it has nicely knit I wouldn't worry about the pH drop rate.  Remember people have been making really good cheese for a lot longer than we have known about pH, I wouldn't become a slave to the pH meter, just use it as another tool to tell you what is going on with the make.

[awakephd]

Dan, don't let the pH get too low -- you'll get a crumbly cheese instead of the smooth texture of a Gouda. (Still tastes good, though!) I try to get my Gouda out of the press at around pH of 5.3.

[WisconsinDan]

I am not actually sure what the final pH was when I got it out of the press. I ended up pressing for about 7 hours before I put it in the brine. The cheese weighed in at about 4.1 pounds and I soaked it for about 14 hours. I don't think it is looking bad now it is time to wait...

[jmason]

Looks like a success to me Dan, good job.  Have a cheese for this one.

John

[WisconsinDan]

So I had vacuum bagged this awhile ago using a 8 gallon zip lock, the kind with the hand pump.  I have noticed that you need to occasionally go back and pump the air back out with these. Anyhow when I went to do that for this one I noticed some odd coloration so I decided to open it up and take a look at it.  Immediately I noticed a rather funky off smell that seemed sort of like alcohol.  Not exactly a pleasant smell but not the worst thing I've smelled either.  The next thing was the touch.  It had been drying in the cave a little over 3 weeks before bagging it, admittedly I did not yet have it set up with the logic controller for the humidity the first couple weeks and the timer set-up I tried to use at first was putting a bit too much moisture into the air and slowed up the drying a bit. Anyhow, it was dry to the touch when I bagged it.  Today it felt kind of slimy and I am wondering if the batch is still safe to consider eating in another couple of months or not.  Do I leave it in the cave and try to dry it out in the cave again?  With my controller my cave never leaves the 85-87%  RH range.

Also wondering what theories people might have on the odd coloration? Why the odd patterns?

[WisconsinDan]

So much of the smell seems to have left the cheese and stayed behind in the bag and it is starting to smell how I remember it smelling when I bagged it. Only the whitish spots still seem sort of gooey, but not as bad as last night. What I believe to be a little Geo, though I could easily be mistaken as I don't know my microflora as well as I ought yet, seems to be making its home on some of the lighter spots this morning as well. The dark spots seems dry already and when I think about it harder I think some of this coloration was already there when I bagged it but just not as pronounced. I am really puzzled why the mottled look has come about like this. I figure I am going to let it air out in the cave another week or so and try bagging again because I just don't have the space with the awkwardly sized humidifier that became necessary when it warmed up outside.