Hey folks, first cheese log here. I made some Halloumi this weekend, but I think the curd was over acidified / too dry or something as the curds didn't stay together as well as I remember form my first time. The cheese also never floated during the cook. It was a crumbly goopy hot mess. To save the cheese I put it back in the cheese mold (that basket they give you with the cheesemaking.com kit), and forced it to be a solid cheese. The outside is uneven (don't have an actual cheese press yet), but the inside came out well, and the taste is good. I'll be cooking some up tonight inside of a meatloaf and frying it up as a side.
Anyway here it is.
1 Gallon Make based off the cheesemaking.com recipe
• Heated Slowly to 88F
• Added calcium chloride and mesophillic culture (I added the full pack as it was a very old pack, this could be part of the crumbly issue?) Sat 20 Minutes
• Added Rennet for 40 minutes, curd wasn't quite firm enough (old rennet too!), so it got another 10 minutes (More over drying right?). (50 minute coagulation time)
• Cut the curd and raised slowly to 106F over the course of 25 minutes. Cooked additional 30 minutes stirring 3 times at 7 min intervals.
• Separated whey from curds and tried to form a decent wheel for cooking in hot whey (raised whey to 195).
• Cooked the wheel in hot whey, it wans't stuck to the bottom it just never floated even after 30 minutes. Pulled the cheese out and it was a hot droopy mess.
• Put said mess back into the basket to form at least a half way decent cheese.
• Sprinkled both sides with Kosher Salt
• I cut some that night to have with dinner, I'll actually cook some up tonight.
I have the full image album here
http://imgur.com/a/zcNpn