Author Topic: Stuart's Raw American Style Neufchâtel  (Read 2252 times)

Stuart

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Stuart's Raw American Style Neufchâtel
« on: September 19, 2009, 11:43:34 PM »
It's taking forever to drain. I just took it out of the cheese muslin after 11 hours and I still found it to be too liquid so I'm going to hang it for a few more hours.
Is there any concern to hanging too long, especially with raw milk?
I've hung goat milk this long and it was too dry.

Stuart

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Re: Stuart's Raw American Style Neufchâtel
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2009, 03:28:17 AM »
It hung for 14 hours and it was still a more liquid viscosity than I wanted. I didn't feel comfortable hanging it longer, so I put it in the fridge. Hopefully it'll firm up in the fridge. I only did a half gallon and I used a full pint of heavy cream, so maybe that's affecting the viscosity. Now that I think about it, probably is. I'm going to try again with a full gallon of (less expensive) raw milk, hopefully tomorrow. 

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Stuart's Raw American Style Neufchâtel
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2009, 04:03:09 AM »
You could always tie it to a wooden spaghetti spoon and dangle it over a bowl in the fridge.

MrsKK

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Re: Stuart's Raw American Style Neufchâtel
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2009, 08:54:58 AM »
When I've had neufchatel or cream cheese that is draining slowly, I will scrape the cheesecloth or dump the curd into a new cheesecloth if the cloth seems to have gotten clogged by the curd.

Hanging from a dowel or spoon, as Debi recommends, also makes a better use of gravity and encourages better drainage, rather than just allowing it to sit in a cloth-lined colander.

How fine is your cheesecloth?  You refer to it as muslin, so I'm assuming it is quite fine.  A looser weave might help you in the future.

Cheese Head

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Re: Stuart's Raw American Style Neufchâtel
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2009, 11:44:53 AM »
Stuart, I believe you've been hanging your cheese for better gravity drainage. As MrsKK says, I've also found that different weaves effect draining ability and I also periodically take it down, place in colander in sink, scrape drier cheese off inside of cloth into middle to allow moister curds access to the cloth to drain and rehang the bag. The problem is that the curds form a filter cake to the moisture in the middle.

I now use a very expensive but indestructible manufactured bag, in picture you can see the open weave. It works great.

Stuart

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Re: Stuart's Raw American Style Neufchâtel
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2009, 02:14:04 PM »
I might try cheese cloth instead of muslin sometime, bigger holes for quicker drainage. It's funny that raw drips so much slower than pasteurized.

The cheese turned out pretty well. It's got a little tartness to it. I'm going to do a bigger batch ASAP.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Stuart's Raw American Style Neufchâtel
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2009, 10:05:50 PM »
Wel it ight have been slow for you but apparently it was worth the wait! Congrats hon!

clherestian

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Re: Stuart's Raw American Style Neufchâtel
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2009, 01:45:33 AM »
Also, I wouldn't worry about it hanging for more than 14 hours. I've drained cheese for 24 hours or more. Its not unusual to leave cheeses out on the counter for several days after making them.