According to the folks at Extech technical support my meter is probably defective so I had to do this one without any sort of pH meter. As far as I can tell everything worked out roughly the way it should have. Pretty much followed GC's hot-washed curd recipe but did some of my pressing under the whey like I have seen Mal do with this recipe. Also cut the culture amount in half and substituted Flora Danica for LM since I do not have any. Otherwise I sort of went by what felt right based on other makes as far as texture and so forth and aimed for 6 hours of pressing since the recipe suggests 4-8 hours. Figured somewhere in the middle should be good. Also the water ended up cooling a bit more than I had planned but I decided to just go with it. Pretty much went as follows:
2 gallons raw Jersey milk
0.15g MA4001
0.05g Flora Danica
1/4 tsp CaCl
0.6 mL double strength rennet
Heavy Brine
Heated to 81F added cultures, left my Nesco slowcooker on too long while ripening and had it at about 16F 15 minutes into it all, took the pot out and put it in a waterbath to get it back down to about 89F and continued ripening for 30 minutes.
Added CaCl, wait 5 minutes.
Added rennet, flocculation occurred at 11m 15 sec. Used flocculation factor of about 3.5 X and cut at 40 minutes after addition of rennet.
Cut into 3/8" cubes. Rest 5 minutes.
Stirred 15 minutes. Rest 5 minutes.
Drained a little over a 1/2 gallon of whey. Added back water at 135F over 10 minutes and got temperature to 100F before running out, turned the Nesco on for 40 seconds to get it up to the 101F I was shooting for.
Stirred for 20 minutes before the texture seemed about right. The curds tasted a lot more watery than the sweet taste I get without the wash. They were just a little soft and smooth throughout and felt right when squeezed together. Let rest for 5 minutes.
Pitched in a cloth lined form under the whey until I could actually get all of the curds inside the mould, which took about 10 minutes.
Pressed with 4 lbs under whey for 15 minutes.
Then pressed, still under the whey, with 9 lbs for 15 minutes two times (I always flipped the cheese of course)
Then pressed, no longer in the whey, with 33 lbs flipping every 30 minutes for about 1.5 hours.
Then 1 hour at 33 lbs.
Then I had to run an errand so it sat in thereabout 2.5 hours at 33 lbs.
I decided to try GC's trick and pressed it for awhile between 2 cutting boards to give a more rounded shape and flatten it out a bit so it would fit better in my cave(not a ton of room between shelves in the wine cooling fridge).
She weighed in at 2.28 lbs.
Right now she is sitting in the brine and will have spent 7 hours in there before going to her new home.
I am happy with how she is looking and am excited to see how it turns out. I am thinking of trying a cocoa and olive oil rind on this one, or maybe a washed rind, although I have never really heard of a gouda with a washed rind before. I just know I would like to do something other than wax or vacuum seal it and plan to age it out maybe 6 months. I am taking nominations and votes on what style rind to give this beauty.
