Gouda recipes

[FarmerJd]

After hearing all about the Gouda production from everybody here, i have decided to try it. Are there any logistical variables that I would need to think through before attempting a large batch like 20-24 gallons? For instance, I assume it is going to be a much larger cheese than a cheddar for the same amount of milk. Is this right? And I know I have to think about brining it in something too.

With pressing this cheese under whey, can i just place my hoop in a pot and then pour the whey and dump all the curds into it there, and then press in the new pot so that my whey is as high as the top of the hoop? Also any numbers for the pressure it needs in psi?

Also any suggestions on recipes would be appreciated. I read the one on this site but I just want to research a little before I try this on thursday. Thanks.

[Cheese Head]

Farmer, the Gouda Cheese Making Recipe on the website is an amalgam of the four I compared here.

Yes, less dense higher moisture content than cheddar so more curds to press, I'm guessing the final cheese will be 25% bigger than your Cheddars.

Not all Gouda recipes call for pre-pressing in whey or preheating of the hoop. I think it's primarily to keep the curds as warm as long as possible to enable a better knit, not such an issue with your large volume. If you do, I don't see any reason you couldn't pre-press by pouring the whey over your mold.

For pressing weight/pressure/time please see those four recipes, that's all the info I could find. It will be way way less than your Cheddars.

There are some info webpages on brine that you should plan for in advance, (volume, using whey, amount of salt, etc). I believe someone else and recently linuxboy just about using a large food grade garbage can for his brine tank. Your brining time will be in days!

Looking ahead to aging, you'll need to think what you are going to do for a rind, initially natural then oil or wax etc?

Lastly, any additives such as Annatto for colour or Caraway Seeds or Cumin Seeds etc or au naturel?

Good luck, love to see some pictures of such a big on getting made.

[FarmerJd]

Thanks John. As usual a wealth of information. I will be reading alot today. I will try to post my recipe before I try it everyone that wants to can proofread it for errors. The reason i was wondering about size is that I was thinking of using my 12" hoop this time since the pressure needed is less.

We are getting almost 7 gallons of milk a day now and i may have to start making cheese twice a week to stay ahead.

[linuxboy]

You can make up your brine in a food grade bucket. If you don't have one, go to a hardware store and look at their empty buckets, like the orange ones at Home Depot. On the bottom, it should say HDPE in a little triangle. That's what you want. Holds 5 gallons of brine, and should fit your large cheeses. I think they are about 14"-16" in diameter.

[FarmerJd]

Thanks linuxboy, that sounds like a good  idea.

John, I read the recipes and noticed your comments after the pressure figures. I checked the site I have always used for my cheddar recipe ( always have to convert to small batches from the commercial specs) to see what the gouda recipe says. I am posting it here but notice the pressure values there too: 14 to 28 psi! What is strange is that all other recipes that call for pressing on that site use kilopascals instead of psi. I wonder if that is what might be happening. The should have put kPa instead of psi (14 kPa = 2 psi and 28kPa = 4 psi.) If you guys are right about gouda needing much less pressure, I would hypothesize the recipe you referenced from chr hansen probably originally should have had 2-4 psi instead of 2-4 kg/cm2 and he put the wrong unit after converting from kPa or he meant to convert to kg/cm2 but went too far.

The moral of the story is that I feel confindent that 4psi is the max finishing pressure for a gouda. Any other commerical procedure sites we can compare?

[Cheese Head]

Farmer, thanks for the additional recipe you attached. I agree that the units could be the cause of the very high numbers. I just can't equate 14-28 psi very high pressures with the large traditional Gouda wheels and relatively small single levered thin wooden arm antique Dutch presses. Therefore I can only assume that the recommended 14-28 psi are a modern air - pneumatic reading that does not take into account cheese size or cylinder diameter.

Have fun!

[Tea]

In the recipe that I have, the cheese is initially pressed under whey for a short period then whey poured off, and pressing continues over night without the hoop being disturbed.

Personally I do think that it is important to have the whey in while adding the curds.  I did it curds then whey last time and the cheese was holey and just not right.  This time I did it whey then curds, and the result is completely different.  The curds knitted beautifully.
Just my two cents.

[Baby Chee]

What I find enjoyable about gouda making is that the curds are SO easy to deal with, unlike all other cheeses I've made.

You keep heating them and draining until the curd coalesces into pea size hard things, and then draining the whey is as simple as tilting the pot.  When you drain the whey by tilting, MORE whey comes out, and then more and more.  What you press is so simple and clean and easy to transfer to the mold.

Commercially, gouda must be a charm, unlike camembert or stilton.  AND you don't have to wrap or do much to it after it is done: dry a little, wax, throw in fridge for 6 weeks or more, and there you are.  WONDERFUL cheese.