It's been a long time since I made one of these (Sept of 2013 it seems). This is a Scottish cheddar type cheese first introduced by Barbra Gilmore in the late 1700s. This is a really good cheese for aging, although I've liked it quite young too (2 to 3 months). Dipping the cheese in hot water the next day for a minute, and then further pressing, does seem to be worth doing as well. Although I've found the knit to be quite good after the first night of pressing, I think it helps to seal things a bit more for extended aging to help guard against the intrusion of wild moulds into the interior. Anyway, this make is only part way finished, so no photos of the cheese just yet. And, as I used up the last of my 750 IMCU strength rennet, I also ran a touch short. With rennet this strong, a touch short can mean a long set, which appears to have been the case. Anyway, that being said, all seems to have gone well and I'm pleased with how it's going. Normally I would flip the cheese again and up the weight one more time, but the weights are sitting level and all is going well so I'm just going to leave it as is. No need to tempt fate and much of the flipping at this stage is to deal with tilting of the weights.
Actually, at 8:30 I decided to flip it but didn't increase the weight any further. This morning, doing the hot water dip, all seems well. Excellent knit. Forgot to get a photo though. Cheese is a very big one, at just over 1.7 kg, but much of that will be moisture and it will shed about 500g over the months I suspect. But, you may be shocked to hear this, I have been wrong before.
Dunlop : Sunday June 20, 2015. Sunny, 17 degrees
8 litres silver top (4.0g/100 fat, 3.1g/100ml protein; creamline – normally 7 & 4, for 0.84:1))
3 litres budget blue top (3.3g/100ml fat, 3.2g/100ml protein; p/h) 0.81:1 p:f ratio total
4 ice cubes ripened buttermilk
0.66 ml microbial rennet IMCU 750 – last of this, and was a bit short closer to 0.6 maybe
½ tsp Calcium chloride 50% (add while milk in jugs)
2-2.5 tbls salt
1) add ½ tsp calcium chloride in egg cup of water to milk in jugs
2) Add the starter when started warming milk
3) Warm milk to 300C. (reached at 8:04 am; 30.1 C)
4) Wrap pot in towels and ripen 1 hour (target time 9:04 – but it was 9:29 – the dangers of gardening – temp was still 29.3 C though!)
5) add rennet in egg cup of water (time: 9:29:00 : temp: 30.1 C – raised back)
Floc time = 9:58:00 29m 00sec. – bit low volume and the rennet is very old)
6) floc 3.5x = 101 m 30 sec = cut time: 11:10:30
7) Cut into broad bean size cubes (1 cm?) & stir (11:10:45 heal 10 minutes; 11:22-11:32 28.0 C)
8) raise temperate to 36 C over 20 minutes (start time: 11:32 end time:11:55:30; temp : 36.3 C good cooking curve until near the end, finished a bit late)
9) cook 20 minutes (start time: 11:56 end time: 12:16; end temp 35.9 – kept moving it in and out of pot of warm water to maintain temp)
10) settle curds (5-10 minutes 12:16-12:26) and drain whey
11) put curds in cheesecloth in collandar, pressed with 2 l whey 15 minutes (12:34 - 12:49)
11) cut into several (6) broad slabs
12) stack, & change slabs several times over 30 minutes (start time: 12:50 end time: 1:20 ; in pot placed in sink of warm water; around 40 C; flipped every 10 minutes @1:03 & 1:10)
13) Mill into small pieces (thumbnail size; 1:20)
14) sprinkle with salt (amount not stated in recipe; I used 2 tbls this time; 2.5 last time)
15) wrap, place in mould in pot, press lightly (10 kg 0.72 PSI) for 15 minutes (start time: 1:37 end time: 2:05 – very moist curd. Seems to have retained a lot of whey –my stirring was fairly gentle and may not have expelled as much whey as I recall? Will see at final weight )
16) flip, redress, & press heavier (20kg; 1.43 PSI) for 1 hours (start time: 2:05 - 3:05)
17) flip, redress, & press heavier (30kg; 2.15 PSI) for 2 hours (start time: 3:05 - ??:??)
Decided to just leave it like this as the pressing is going well, and no tilting so left at 30 kg until 8:35 pm
18) flip & redress, press overnight (30.0; 2.15 PSI) (start time: 8:35 pm end time: 6:10
am; 1726g and 15.7 cm x 7.5 cm, 1.19 g / cm3 superb knit all round)
19) remove from cheesecloth, and dip in 660C water for 1 minutes (6:16 am – 6:17 am)
20) redress and press for 24 hours (30kg; 2.15 PSI start time: 6:20 am flipped/redressed at 5:30 pm 1714g 15.6 x 7.6 cm = 1.18g/cm3 end time: 6:05 am; 1696g 15.7 x 7.6 cm = 1.17g/cm3) excellent knit and result.
21) air dry until dry to touch (moved to box on , ?? ??:??; am; ????g ??.? x ?.? cm = ?.??g/cm3 )
22) Ripen 10-150C, 85% humidity. Ready in 6-8 weeks but really comes into its own after 6-8 months and can age longer; bandaged or waxed or natural rind.
Made ricotta from the whey; heated to 92.3 0C, added ¼ cup apple cider vinegar, let sit for ?? minutes Got 537g, add 1-2% salt by weight (add 6g).
NOTE: I did eventually get the cooking temperature to the final point. Just took a few extra minutes.
