I have since revised the recipe slightly based on an experiment using a combination of recipes and techniques from sevral sources. This cheese turned out absolutely perfect in both flavor and texture.
HAVARTI
Havarti is a semi-soft, mild cheese with a satisfying buttery flavor. It melts great, so use it in grilled sandwiches or shred into egg or potato dishes.
Ingredients:
Pasturized milk at 86-88 °F,
Mesophile Aromatic Type B (starter )
MD-89 (This culture is used to enhance flavor (buttery) and produce some small eyes in cheese )
rennet mixed in 1/4 cup pure water
flaked, kosher or sea salt
Optional Herbs
Dill weed or pollen
Onion
Saffron
Procedure:
Pasteurized whole milk at 86-88 °F,
Add cultures
Ripen milk for 30 minutes.
Add rennet
Check for clean break before beginning to cut . Let curds stand for 5 minutes after cutting before beginning to stir.
Gently stir curds in whey for 15 minutes while keeping 86-88 °F.
Let curds settle to the bottom and push to one side and drain off whey equal to one half of original milk volume.
Save whey.
Add 130°F water (in two stages below) in an equal volume to replace the drained whey while continuously stirring curds.
First raise the temp to 93 °F and stir for 5 min.
Second add the remaining water for a final temperature of 97-98 °F.
Add salt
Stir and cook for 30 minutes at 97-98 °F.
Let curds settle to the bottom of vat for 5 minutes and then push the curds towards the back of the vat to form a curd pack. Drain off liquid until the curd pack is covered by 2 “ and stir the curds vigorously.
Drain off the liquid and continue stirring and breaking up curds while putting into cheese hoops. Add herbs now.
Press with 1 1/2 lb. weight per 1 lb. cheese.
Remove cheeses from press, turn over, and put back in hoops.
Return to press. Repeat 2 more times every 15 minutes.
Repeat 3 more times every hour.
Press and ripen until the pH = 5.8 - 6.0 (about 2-4 hrs) is reached. The cheese is then submerged in 65°F water for about an hour. The water mayl get milky by the end of this step. Remove the cheese when it begins to get slick or slimy.
After the water bath the pH should be 5.2 then cheese is brined 5-6 hrs and dried off. Place in saturated brine of 4 cups salt/gallon of whey for 2 1/2 hours per lb. of cheese depending on desired salt content. Brine pH should be around 6.0-5.8. Final pH after brining should be about 5.2.
After brining or salting, wheels are air dried until the surfaces are dry but not cracked; rinds that are cracked will allow molds to penetrate the cheese. A room with 80-85% RH and 50-60 °F is required. The cheeses can be waxed or vacuum-sealed as soon as the surfaces are dry enough.
Wheels are stored at 50-55 °F and 85-90% RH for at least 30 days for a young cheese and 120 for a mature cheese.
Cheeses in wax or vacuum sealed will last 6 months.
The higher the temperature during drying and aging, the greater chance the eye development. A slice of Havarti typically has many mechanical openings and a soft, creamy texture.
edited to add info on water bath techinque by Mr. Wallace.
