Well, here's the deal. At that time I hadn't found this forum yet, and I just had my copy of Ricki Carrol's book (2009 edition). There is no variation in there for pepper jack, so I looked at her other variations for jalapeno cheddar and followed the steps to prepare additives for that. I chopped, very finely, 2 jalapenos and 1/3 of a sweet red pepper (there were no serranos, or red jalapenos available so I used the red bell pepper mainly for color). Boiled them on the stove for 10 minutes maximum, and drained the liquid, which I added to my milk BEFORE heating. As I was checking for a clean break, and perhaps you can see on the photo I could detect small particles (perhaps some capscacin) in the curd. I then added the peppers themselves during the salting/milling stage. I did not reserve the whey for anything. Since I brushed the wax on (I've since bought a pot for the wax to dip) I was concerned about mold under the wax...(I couldn't tell if the spots were the peppers or some mold) so last week I cut the wax off to check. Sure enough if that isn't the best smelling cheese! There turned out to not be any major mold, so I cleaned it and re-waxed two days later after letting it dry a little more. I am really excited to try this one, even though I only made it to satisfy my coworkers!
