This one is from November last year.
Gouda recipe from Ricki Carroll's book, with 1 Tbsp of dried birdseye chilli added to the curds, which made 2 x 650gm cheeses from 10 litres of raw Jersey milk.
I modified the recipe at a second step, by replacing 1/2 of the salt from the brine with sugar. My reasoning was that I would get a similar osmotic effect while brining, and I was aiming to get a "sweet chilli" effect.
Paste is fine and dry straight out of the bag, firm and flexible. Again I have the small eyes I seem to get all the time in my Gouda, no matter how hard I press them. The small flecks of chilli are quite pleasing.
Taste up front is smooth and creamy, no sweetness and little evident heat. Salting appears fine. There is a nice afterburn, not strong, but there is no additional flavour. Not a patch on the taste of the Pickled Jalapeno I posted earlier.
The sweet brine produced no weird effects, but didn't seem to affect the cheese much.
This is a nice cheese, but I was aiming for something a bit more interesting.
