At least it started out as a Roquefort approx. but now who knows what it will end up as
.
Ingredients:
- 2 gal. whole cows milk, pasturized
- 1 pt. heavy cream (just shy of 7% milk fat)
- 1/4 tsp. MM100
- 1/2 tsp. P. roqueforti
- 1/8 tsp. Lipase (calls for mild but I just had sharp)
- 1/2 tsp. CaCl2
- 1/2 tsp. single strength veal rennet
- 2 Tbs. plain salt
Recipe and comments:
1. Heated milk to 90F
2. Added cultures (MM100 and P.r)
3. Ripened for 35 min. @ 90F
4. Added Lipase, CaCl2 and rennet
5. Clean break @ 45 min.
6. Cut curds to 3/4"
7. Rest 5 min.; stirred occasionally for 45 min.
OK, fine up to there. Recipe called for pitching, draining, salting etc. but my curds were for whatever reason not wanting to sink. I'm speculating here but I've always had a hard time getting the P.r hydrated and dispersed so may have "over whisked" in an effort to do that and entrained more air
. Whatever it was my curd wasn't in any mood to pitch so I decided to switch to a stacked / milled Stilton-like knowing I was not going to end up with anything near a Roquefort.
Rather than detailing any more I'll leave it there because as you will see with the pics this was a major fail and all I can do is to see if anything good comes out of this. Milled curd was way too "stiff" to consolidate and even under 15 lbs. pressure they still had large gaps after 3 days. Did my best to close the gaps with a wet-and-warm spatula, let dry a little in open air and put in the mini-cave. No real great hopes for this so we'll see.