Author Topic: Pepper Jack to Pepper Flat  (Read 837 times)

Offline Eve

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Pepper Jack to Pepper Flat
« on: April 24, 2021, 01:41:20 PM »
I made a nice beautiful Pepper Jack yesterday. I let it dry overnight and I came down to a flattened cheese.... Oops... Learn from your mistakes, let it dry in the mold? Or... Wasn't it pressed enough? Or.... Can a Pepper Jack just not be so high?

The cheese is upside down in the last picture. I am still trying to let it dry and hopefully I can wax it and eat it in the weird form....

« Last Edit: April 24, 2021, 01:56:15 PM by Eve »

Offline rsterne

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Re: Pepper Jack to Pepper Flat
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2021, 04:35:20 PM »
We had a "Slumpy Jack" as well....  ::) .... I think the curds had too much moisture before hooping.... If you do press the next one harder, start out slow, or you will trap moisture in the curds.... The best advice I have had (and now follow) was to close the rind at about the 2 hour mark when pressing....

Bob
Cheesemaking has rekindled our love of spending time together, Diane and me!

Offline mikekchar

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Re: Pepper Jack to Pepper Flat
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2021, 07:18:10 AM »
Jack cheese is a washed curd, so there is less lactose.  This can mean less acidity, which (in combination with moisture) will cause the cheese to slump.  As a comparison, if you make a feta the same shape, it will likely hold its shape due to the higher acidity of the cheese.

There are a couple of reasons for your problem, likely.  The first one is not cooking the curds long enough, etc.  The second one may actually be pressing too hard.  As rsterne says, pressing too hard at the beginning creates a kind of water balloon effect -- you close the rind and there is nowhere for the whey to escape.  The result is a very high moisture cheese on the inside.  This often referments after salting causing a crumbly acidic cheese.

My advice for this cheese is to age it only for a couple of weeks and then enjoy it.  It is unlikely to survive much past that.  It will not taste like a jack cheese, but mild spicy cheeses are also good.

Edit: A good example of over pressing a cheese.  Quite some time ago Gavin Webber made a tomme.  Here is the making video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr_vcD9cyg0 and the eating video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCdFFZSnhj4  The main problem in this cheese is that he's over pressed it, which caused it to collapse (not quite as dramatically as yours, though).  Then when he eats it, you can see how the cheese is over moist, sticks to the knife and is and breaks apart instead of being flexible.  That's from the cultures continuing to work away at the cultures and over acidifying the cheese.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2021, 07:28:22 AM by mikekchar »

Offline Eve

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Re: Pepper Jack to Pepper Flat
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2021, 02:12:15 PM »
Thank you all! I'll try again next week....