Debi,
Thanks for taking the time to offer your advice.
I did know that raising temp would help to stall the bacteria, but I sort of panicked when I saw what was happening. It was then that I remembered Peter Dixon's washing step and figured this would reduce the amount of lactose available to be used as food. It sounds as if I did exactly what I should not have done.
I'll let you in on a little secret.....it's not the first time I've done that.
I will say that I didn't know that with extended aging that a cheese could possibly recover from this kind of mistake. Thanks for that information Francois.
Now if this were a large wheel (and one that I thought had a chance) I might just give that a try but it's only a 4 gallon batch and my cave space is limited so I guess I'll probably just give it a taste in a couple of months and probably end up pitching it.
Again, I appreciate the advice and insight you both have given me.
I guess it's back to the drawing board on this one.
I would like to ask what I should have done differently on this cheese...
I started the cheese at 90 degrees......added 1/4 tsp. of MA culture.....let ripen for 1 hour and then proceeded from there.
By the time I had cut the curd the Ph was already dropping rapidly but I can't believe that 1/4 tsp. was too much culture for a 4 gallon batch.
Did I ripen too long before adding rennet? Every recipe I looked at said to ripen for one hour but I know I should have been checking the Ph along the way.
Anway, if you have any ideas I'd love to hear them.
I love pepper jack cheese but this is one cheese that I suck at making.
Thanks,
Dave