This wheel has been in a vacuum-sealed bag since October 9th. Some small amount of whey accumulated inside the bag. Last night I cracked the wheel. Once again, I have a crumbly cheese. Salt content is okay...fairly light actually. It was in the brine/whey for 7 hours. I see that I used 2 cups of kosher salt to 1 gallon of whey. I should have doubled the salt.
As you can see from the pics, the slice is fractured.
I felt good about the techniques I employed for this cheese, but somewhere along the line I missed a beat. At 5 drops of annatto, the final color is a shade of light cream.
So why the crumbling texture? 25 minutes ripening. Temp at 89F. Cooking slowly up to 100F.
I sliced (or tried to) some off of one quarter (the other three were vacuum-sealed with my new FoodSaver and returned to cave-age), and toasted it on sourdough, then added a thin slice of roast beef. Pretty tasty!
-Boofer-