Hi, I'm a novice at the wonderful art of cheesemaking, but scored well from Santa this year in books and equipment, so decided to try my hand at at a Farmhouse Cheddar. I knew that using supermarket (homogenised) milk would be tricky, but went ahead anyway, and have produced a nice looking wheel. My concern is that my
ad hoc deviations, in an attempt to firm up the curds in the pot, and later to bond them under pressure, will have done things that affect the final product in ways I can't predict. So I'm hoping that someone can advise me on how best to 'rescue' the cheese (whatever sort it is) by aging it appropriately. Thanks in anticipation
0:00 8 litres pasteurised/homogenised milk (Superbarn brand); added 4ml CaCl; heated in double boiler to 32 C.
0:30 added ‘dash’ of MO 030; stirred 1 min
1:25 added 2 Mad Millie rennet tablets in 60 ml pure water
2:10 tested for clean break. Very soft curd. Continued testing for 30 minutes
2:40 cut curd (12mm). pH 5.8
2:45 cooked curd to 40 deg C, over 30 minutes, stirring, at which point they started to firm up. pH 5.5. Let sit 5 mins.
3:20 Drained; suspended in cloth in warm place for 30 minutes.
3:50 Weight 1385g. Milled and salted (20g salt). 160mm mould. Press for 10 mins at 2kg; 30 mins at 8kg; 12 hrs at 15kg. Finished weight 990g.