The first of these I made has been consumed already
, and really appreciating the speed of which it's ready, I made a second one today.
Recipe is as follows:
1) Boil jug and put 20mls of water aside to cool.
2) Take 10 litres of the finest Friesian milk you can source (I use Runnymede milk!) and slowly bring up to 32 degrees C. Put 4 litres hot tap water in chilly bin
3) Place milk (still inside the pot) into chilly bin with thermometer and hold at 32C. Add 1 packet of Mad Milly’s Mesophilic Starter Culture (or 200mls if you’ve prepared a culture) to the milk and mix in well for a couple of minutes
4) Leave to ripen for 30 minutes
5) Add 2ml of rennet to the 20ml of cooled water, mix, then slowly pour this into the milk as you stir. Continue stirring for 2 minutes.
6) At 40 minutes test for a clean cut of the curd.
7) Cut the curd into 1cm cubes and allow to stand for 5 minutes before stirring.
Stir the curd gently and regularly for 15 minutes making sure to maintain the temp around 32C.
9) Start adding more hot water to the chilly bin water (NOT THE CURD/WHEY MIX) whilst stirring CONTINUOUSLY for 15 minutes to bring temp of curds/whey to 35C
10) Once at 35C, continue to stir CONTINUOUSLY for a further 15 minutes. (This means at the end of step 10, you should now have a sore shoulder and be bored silly, as you have been stirring for 30 minutes continuously!!!!!!!
11) Allow the curd to settle (NO MORE STIRRING!!!) for 30 minutes to let acidity develop. Run the whey off
12) Pile curds to one side of the pot to allow whey to drain. Keep moving from one side of pot to the other as you drain any whey the comes out off. Keep doing this for 30 minutes.
13) Take the curd out of the pot (it should resemble a loaf of bread at this point as the curds have knitted together) Cut into slices an inch or so thick and stack on one side of pot. Keep an eye out and run off any whey that come out. Continue to allow to acidify at this point for 45 minutes.
14) Cut the slices into inch cubes. Place back into pot, then sprinkle 10gms of non-iodised salt (1 gm per litre milk used) over the curds, mixing around with your hand as you do so.
15) Place curds into cloth lined cheese mould and press very gently for 30 minutes. Remove from mould, turn over, then press with slightly more pressure for an hour. Turn and more pressure for 2 hours checking knit as you do so.
16) Press overnight. If knit at last stage is poor, then screw it right down, otherwise just slightly more pressure than what you last used.
17) Next morning, remove from press and mould and place formed cheese into a cool 20% brine solution for 12 hours. Remember to turn it when you think about it.
18) Remove cheese from brine and air dry on rack for 2-3 days.
19) Store at 11-15 degrees. This cheese should be ready after 10 days
I knew from the moment I took the whey off that I had a huge amount of curd there, so now i'm wondering if maybe I accidentally put 11 litres of milk in to start. Either way, I've ended up with a 2.125kg cheese, which has a nice firm feel to it. Happy camper!!
