Author Topic: My second Colby effort  (Read 8481 times)

Offline Boofer

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My second Colby effort
« on: September 14, 2009, 02:51:50 PM »
 ;D I am optimistic. This morning I started my second Colby. The first one was too wet & crumbly. I am using the Colby recipe here with a few tweaks to make it my own. I'm using 3 gallons of Darigold whole milk combined with 1 quart of Albertson's Heavy Whipping Cream. This brand of cream is NOT UHT. I think that makes a big difference. In my mind the UHT products are DEAD...DEAD...DEAD.

One of the changes to this Colby is the addition of significantly more annatto than was previously recommended. 33 drops. 11 drops per gallon. Somewhere in this forum someone quoted that amount to get a rich Colby-like color. My first Colby was ivory colored. Eh, not so good.

Another change will be to prepress in the whey. That should be interesting. It makes sense though to gain the smoothest rind (non-pocky). I'm documenting along the way with photos. Right now, I'm typing while I'm ripening. I have added 1 tsp Calcium Chloride along with the 1/4 tsp Mesophilic MA (leeners.com).

I'll be posting more as I progress. This helps me journalize the effort.

-Boofer-
« Last Edit: September 15, 2009, 06:46:37 AM by Boofer »
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2009, 12:08:20 AM »
Good luck hon!

Offline Boofer

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2009, 05:39:45 PM »
Well, I must say my confidence was definitely in place for this cheese. That is until I removed the cheese from the whey pressing to turn it. Man, was it soft! I decided not to chance putting it back in the whey bath for another pressing and instead continued the pressing as per normal.

I was trying to find a way to save the whey for later whey-pressing. The unhandy method tried this time was to use a handheld collander with a cheesecloth strainer and to dip the clean whey out. Anyone have any better wheys?  ???

-Boofer-
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Offline Boofer

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2009, 05:43:58 PM »
I managed to pull out 2 gallons of whey with my gee-job strainer. It's yellowish and not greenish because of the 33 drops of annatto I added.

-Boofer-
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Offline Boofer

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2009, 05:54:34 PM »
In the whey I pressed with 10 pounds. I was hoping that this batch of Colby would not be as wet as the first, but from the look of the curds at the top of the mold I think it's going to be even wetter. Yeesh!

When I was contemplating making cheese I reasoned that I would need some way of applying weight/pressure to the mold. I searched on Freecycle for barbell weights and, as luck would have it, received a response within 24 hours. A family's teenaged son had used weights in the past but no longer needed them. I went over, picked them up, derusted them, painted them, and now have excellent weight options. This was a whole set of weights but I only kept a 5, two 10's, and two 25's. I figured that would be enough to mix and match and arrive at any weight I needed for cheese.

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

Offline Boofer

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2009, 06:07:01 PM »
I was quite surprised to see the weight of this wheel. I probably wish it was 1.5 pounds lighter and that there's a lot of water weight I don't want to deal with. That extra water weight may open the cheese up to bacterial invasion...way too tempting a target.

Can anyone tell me if the mold "nodules" are:
  • okay: leave them alone
  • not okay: try to rub them off with the daily brine washing

Now comes the fun part...drying the wheel without encouraging mold growth. I believe the change from bamboo mat to Rubbermaid mat should improve the odds in my favor. This is a sink strainer mat that I cut down to subsequently fit a Rubbermaid lidded box (cheese cave).

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

wharris

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2009, 06:21:14 PM »
looks fantastic.

Tea

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2009, 08:16:38 PM »
Boofer, that looks fantastic.  I agree with the ditching of the bamboo mats.  even though they may be cheap and handy, I found it very difficult to keep cheese free of unwanted mould.

Hope this one ages well for you.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2009, 09:33:19 PM »
Hey Boofer that is a great looking cheese! I kind of like the little nodules they give it character. They won't hurt anything but they will probably wear off.

Congrats on the weights that will be very handy.

Really great looking cheese!

Cheese Head

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2009, 10:26:36 PM »
Boofer, great posts and great looking cheese.

I'd leave bumps as is, adds character, I searched forum on "bumps" and there are lots of others: Example #1, #2, #3.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2009, 10:53:48 PM »
I'll post my lastest cheese later. Looks like it has measles!

Offline Boofer

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2009, 03:51:10 PM »
As I expected, when I flip the wheel, it's dripping from the excess moisture.  :( I tried to limit the uptake of moisture to the curds by washing with warmer water. I will continue to wipe & flip and hope that the wheel actually dries significantly. I will not even think about waxing until I've got a good dry surface and no dripping.

On the positive side, I really like the deeper color.  ;)

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

Sailor Con Queso

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #12 on: September 17, 2009, 04:17:21 PM »
Rub your bamboo mat with damp salt or wash with saturated brine and you won't have any mold. I change mine out every day and "sterilize" after use with the sanitation cycle on our dishwasher.

Tea

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #13 on: September 17, 2009, 07:31:41 PM »
Thankyou for that Sailor, I will remember that.

Offline Boofer

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Re: My second Colby effort
« Reply #14 on: September 17, 2009, 11:42:42 PM »
I switched out and have rejected the bamboo mats in favor of a Rubbermaid sink mat combined with a fine plastic mesh (1/8"). I did have some problems with mold on the bamboo with other cheeses even with a lot of salt used and steam sterilizing.

Right now the humidity in my kitchen cabinet is around 65-70%. That's a big factor in evaporating the whey away from my sweet Colby.

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.