Gouda With Oil/Cocoa/Pepper Sealed Rind - John's Cheese #053, Gouda #7

[Cheese Head]

This is my third Gouda making with pre-pressing in whey. On this batch altered recipe as follows:

• MILK CULTURING: Reduced amount of manufactured meso starter culture to 1.0 gram and reduced pre-ripening time to 30 min.

MILK CULTURING

• Oct 17, 2009, 2:30AM: Poured six 1 US gallon jugs of store bought pasteurized homogenized whole cow's milk from fridge into large stockpot on gas burner ring on stove. Measured 1.02 grams Danisco's Choozit Brand DVI Mesophilic Starter Culture MM100 onto mini digital scale, tapped off onto milk. Puffed four puffs of Danisco's Choozit Brand Freeze Dried Geotrichum candidum 13 onto milk. Let both rehydrate for 5 minutes then started warming and stirring with large slotted skimmer. Trickled and stirred in 1.5 teaspoons diluted CaCl2. Diluted 16 drops Annatto food colouring and stirred into milk, covered and set aside 45 minutes for culture to ripen. Milk warmed to target 32C/90F, turned off heat and set aside for 30 minutes to pre-ripen.
  

CURD MAKING

• Oct 17, 2009, 3:30PM: Measured 0.45 gram CHR Hansen Brand powdered rennet onto mini digital scale, diluted in 2/3 cup cool water, trickled into milk and stirred in thoroughly for 1 minute and then stopping swirl with ladle. Covered and set aside for curd to set.
• Oct 17, 2009, 4:30PM: OK curd set, cut curd into small ~0.3"/8 mm square rods with bread knife, measured temp at 89.5F/32.0C, let rest 5 minutes, stirred gently intermittently for 20 minutes, curds still soft. Let rest at end for curds to sink.

CURD WASHING

• Oct 17, 2009, 5:00PM: Removed 1/3 original milk volume of whey. Stirred in same amount of 130F hot water, hit target 95F (35.0C). Stirred gently for 15 min, then let curds settle to the bottom of vat for 5 min.
• Oct 17, 2009, 5:20PM: Removed whey-water and placed in second large stock pot.

PRESSING

• Oct 17, 2009, 5:20PM: Placed 1.5-2 kg Kadova Brand Gouda shape mold in whey-water, placed curds in mold and pressed with 10 lb weights, all curds will not fit, decides to break into two Kadova Molds in whey.
• Oct 17, 2009, 6:00PM: Turned cheeses and placed under stepladder as weight overnight, turning few times.

SALTING

• Oct 18, 2009, 9:00AM: After 15 hours, removed cheeses from press, weighed both together at 2.25 kg/4.95 pounds.
• Oct 18, 2009, 5:00PM: Placed cheeses in freshly boiled 21% brine bath.
• Oct 19, 2009, 5:00PM: Removed cheese from sat brine after 24 hours (4.8 hours per pound of cheese, less as smaller cheeses).

AGING

• Oct 21, 2009: After two days room drying (turned every 1/2 day), placed cheeses in cheese cave to age.
• Oct 30, 2009: At 13 days age, painted cheeses with mix of 2 ounces canola oil + 2 tablespoons fine grind pepper + 4 tablespoons cocoa as per Vella Cheese, placed on clean mats back in cheese cave to continue aging.

NOTES

[Cheese Head]

Pictures #1 . . .

[Cheese Head]

Pictures #2 . . .

[Cheese Head]

Pictures #3 . . .

[Tea]

Hope this one turns out for you.  I finally make one last week, and pressed it under whey for the first time also.  Seem to have achieved a much better pressing/curd knit, probably because the whey kept the curds much warmer than I managed too last time.  It is aging as I type.

[DeejayDebi]

Looking good John. I need to make some gouda. Haven't made gouda in my gouda molds yet - everything but! 

[Cheese Head]

Bit late to post this picture, but at 31 days age had a blue mold problem with moisture trapped underneath cheese even though on a mat.

Scrubbed it off and kept aging in humidity box.

[Cheese Head]

Also a bit late post, cut the cheese (gave on to Dad who took back to Canada) at 56 days age.

Hard and dry, expected as not sealed and thus cheese had dehydrated quite a bit, cheese cracked when cut into slices. Nice taste, but not very goudaish, minimal taste impact from rind oil-coca-ground pepper coating, too thick a rind paste, rubs off easily.

[Cheese Head]

Last pictures from today at 3.5 months old, last lump of this cheese has been in wax paper in cheese drawer of family kitchen fridge and thus dried out considerably.

Cut with serrated knife, tasty, but really only good now as a grating cheese.

[DeejayDebi]

I wonder if the coco and peper would have worked better if the cheese were dried for a few days prior to painting it? Maybe it was still weeping?

[Tom Turophile]

Does it have the flavor of a well-aged gouda?  It certainly looks like one.

[Alex]

I didn't see this thread until today. A very interresting rind John, did it affect the taste? The texture looks a bit crumbly indeed.

[Cheese Head]

@Debi, could be, but I think the problem was that the mix of oil, pepper & cocoa had too much oil and thus was too runny, next time I'd halve the amount of oil.

@Tom, was one of my better tasting cheeses but sadly it didn't taste very much like store bought Gouda. But when old and dried out then it does more so .

@Alex, the coating did affect the taste but frankly not a lot, I was trying for this effect, I should have kept it in higher humidity environment as it dried out too much.

[DeejayDebi]

Cocoa is very oilly I would think if you mix the cocoa and pepper then add just enough oil a few drops at a time to hold together you should be good.