Author Topic: Twin Cheese Project  (Read 1019 times)

nightsky

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Twin Cheese Project
« on: May 15, 2017, 04:14:25 AM »
I decided to start an experiment yesterday by making an unnamed pair of cheeses. I got a bit curious reading about Butterkase and how it uses a mesophilic culture initially and switches to predominantly thermophilic activity after heating the milk. Using this as a baseline, I started a batch of milk as follows:

Ingredients:
- 3 liters pasteurized milk (no access to raw unfortunately)
- 400 mL 43% cream
- 200 g milk powder (26% fat---used in place of calcium chloride since I still have a whole lot of milk powder)
- 68g mesophilic mother culture (2% by weight---not sure since I used a Fromage Blanc DS packet to create the mother culture but maybe something like FD or Aroma B)
- 34g thermophilic mother culture (1% by weight---Yogotherm yogurt cultures)
- 1g single strength rennet

Given the added cream and milk powder, I'm guessing the total milkfat is about 9-10%.

Process:
- heat to 30C and add cultures
- ripen for 90 mins (sorry no pH meter)
- heat to 42C and add rennet
- flocculation multiplier = 6x (about 27 minutes for me)
- cut vertically into 2cm cubes, heal for 5 mins
- cut horizontally, rest for 10 mins
- scoop into molds, maintaining the warm environment for about 2 hours
- flip at 30, 90, 150, and finally at 210 minutes
- continue draining at room temperature (about 20-25C I guess)
- total drain time is about 21 hours
- dry salt to 2% of cheese weight

If you haven't noticed by now, I'm working with limited supplies and materials so I make cheese with what I can find.  :-[ Using my *improvised* cheese molds, I ended up with two cheeses weighing about 570g and 590g before salting. Now the cheeses are in their salting phase.

After they dry, I'm planning on having some fun with the two. I'll inoculate both of them with Geo and PC but while I'll let one of the twins fully bloom, I plan on converting the other to a washed rind in the middle.   >:D

I'll take some pictures after the drying as the cheese is very delicate right now and I broke a small chunk off (needs to drain more it turns out). Also, I'm curious... Do these cheeses have names?

DoctorCheese

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Re: Twin Cheese Project
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2017, 06:24:51 AM »
I am going to give you a cheese because you remind me of myself when I started making cheese last year. I was churning out a cheese a week, of all different kinds. It is super fun and there is a lot to learn! Please don't hesitate to ask questions either on the boards or in private messages. There are a ton of helpful and knowledgeable people on here. I will do my best to at least point you in the right direction if you contact me  ::)

nightsky

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Re: Twin Cheese Project
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2017, 10:10:32 AM »
Why, thank you for the cheese. ;D I'm making the cheeses in my spare time as a way to relax from my work/research but I can't help but let that experimental tendency spill over to cheese making.

Anyway, here are the twins right now. They're holding on to quite a bit of moisture so I'm worried about eventually getting slip skin on these guys. For some reason, though, they don't seem to want to drain any more.

nightsky

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Re: Twin Cheese Project
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2017, 04:52:31 AM »
The cheeses are now a week old and it looks like I'm facing a problem with these twins. They're still quite soft at this point and they've also gotten a greasy surface which I'm guessing is from Geotrichum activity. The problem is that there's very little growth of PC which, I think, is because of my weak spray (harvested from a store-bought camembert a few weeks back). I've already placed an order for ABL but it might take another week or more to arrive. Is it still possible to spray the proper cultures later on? I'm thinking of moving these into a colder fridge to slow down any activity in the meantime.

Aside from the slow growth problem, I'm not very sure about this, but there might also be some B. linens activity as well. Would it be more prudent to go ahead and convert these into washed cheeses?

Offline Gregore

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Re: Twin Cheese Project
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2017, 06:12:08 AM »
This is normal first they go slimey then the ph raises up and then  the pc grows . Give it a few days .

In a week if it still has no pc then, maybe change to a washed rind

nightsky

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Re: Twin Cheese Project
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2017, 06:36:37 AM »
What about spraying PC when the proper cultures arrive? My last cheese using the same spray never fully bloomed so I'm concerned about the current PC viability.

Offline Gregore

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Re: Twin Cheese Project
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2017, 01:51:22 PM »
I would say that it is not impossible to spray it and have it work but, your at 1 week now and add a week to that waiting for the pc to arrive , then another 4 to 6 days for it to start. That is really stretching it .

Much better to just run with it as it is , at least your geo is up and running and it does give a somewhat similar flavor as pc ...... sort of .

Some cheeses only use geo

nightsky

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Re: Twin Cheese Project
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2017, 03:10:42 PM »
So if it's a Geo growth with just a little PC and washing, it'd be closer to something like a Reblochon/Pont-l'Évêque treatment?
« Last Edit: May 22, 2017, 03:24:15 PM by nightsky »