Author Topic: My 15 lb. Goudas ...  (Read 3626 times)

Baby Chee

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My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« on: March 04, 2010, 04:39:00 PM »
I'm going to consolidate my gouda making posts here, so I can just expand one post instead of starting new ones for each cheese I make.

Recap: September 2009
I began cheese making with a typical 4 lb. mold.  4 goudas were launched one day after another...


Then waxed...


These 4 tasted excellent.  To me.
Starter: M4001 Danisco
Rennet: tablets



My girlfriend stayed here in November and ate some of the last of these goudas.
She claimed they were too salty, but I thought they were excellent.
However, she comes from Germany only a dozen miles from the Dutch border.

Recap: October 2009
Things were getting carried away, I knew I would have to make bigger cheeses.
Taking a day a week to make cheese was too time consuming.
So I designed a large press for $20...


The mold is a simple bain marie pot for $30 or so.
The follower is a wood disk soaked in olive oil.

Recap: November 2009
I made a couple 15 lb./15 gallon goudas...


I used old a brewing pot to set the curds and cook the curds.

Used the giant press in my kitchen...

And had two nicely formed, giant goudas.

These two were made with ...
Milk: 14.5+ Gallons
Starter: M4001 Danisco
Rennet: tablets
CaCL2: 6 Tablespoons
Coloring: 2 Tablespoons Annatto
Flavoring: liquid smoke

Opening the first in the beginning of January, it tasted too CaCl2.
The cheese was Velveeta orange.
Overall, the taste was bland with some chalky CaCl2 tinge.
Not enough salt.  Smoke didn't stand out.

My girlfriend returned in February and loved it.
I watched her eat about 2 lbs. with crackers through February.
We used it in a variety of sauces for nachos and pasta--it worked well when mixed.
The cheese was a little soft.

Recap: February 2010
We made another large gouda with changes.
Dropped the liquid smoke, 1 Tbsp. CaCl2, 1 Tbsp. Annatto.
Longer brining in salted whey (3 hours/lb.)

The smell of the curds was excellent.
I expect a better gouda.
There was a slightly smaller curd amount due to lower CaCl2.


(the second November and the new, waxed gouda)

I opened my second large gouda from November.
Age helped!
The CaCl2 flavor subsided by half, but it is still a relatively bland cheese.
Not hard to eat alone, better with cracker.

March 2010
Planning to make 2 more giant goudas next Sunday.
Gotta buy 30 gallons of Sam's Club milk.



My other gouda is being eaten up daily.

August 2010
Made 3 large goudas--2 normal goudas, 1 Bloudas - experimental blue gouda.

Milk: 14.5+ Gallons Whole
Starter: M4002 Danisco (a smidge of blue mold in the blue)
Rennet: 2 tablets
CaCL2: 1 Tablespoon
Coloring: 1 teaspoon Annatto

I will speared the blue with a knitting needle about 100 times.
I'm hoping that by December 20th I have amazing blue!!

Because of the weather at this time, I use my living room and a cake dome as my "cheese cave".
It works well!  Just elevate the cake dome and the 15 lb. cheese sits under and does its thing.
The room stays between 59ºF and 65ºF, usually 61ºC through all day and night aside from late afternoon.

« Last Edit: September 19, 2010, 12:01:39 PM by Baby Chee »

Alex

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2010, 05:29:05 PM »
Baby Chee, 3-4 hours for 1 lb soaking in saturated brine, is perfect. Don't forget to flip 2-4 times, depending upon the cheese size.

MrsKK

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2010, 01:23:02 PM »
Wow, Chee, I am impressed.  By the process, by the cheese press, your kettle, all of it.  the cheese looks really good, too.

Thanks for sharing and re-capping it all together.

Cheese Head

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2010, 02:29:57 PM »
Baby Chee, nice post/recap :).

A couple members have had poor curd results from using WalMart brand milk, but sounds like your SamsClub (WalMart's warehouse store in US) is fine, good news.

Sad you dropped the liquid smoke I was soon going to try it.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2010, 04:28:22 PM »
You've come a long way in a short time baby bro - congrats!

Baby Chee

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2010, 07:35:24 PM »
I brought in my "serious" scale today.  Used for grains in beer.

Put these guys up on there... and it overloaded.
The damn thing goes to 11, then is full circle and gets stuck at 13 lbs.
These things are over 13lbs.

My 3/4 left gouda hits 13, so I am thinking these cheeses, with wax, are over 16 lbs.
Not bad for 14.5 gallons of milk, especially since each has had a little extra curd tossed away.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2010, 11:41:59 PM »
If I stacked them and took the shleves out I might be able to get those in my mini early aging cave - Maybe!

Baby Chee

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2010, 07:18:53 PM »
Sunday I did two more 15+ lb. Goudas...

They just came out of the brine after 70 hours of dunking.

I am estimating, but I have figured that I get well over 15 lbs. of cheese for 14.5 gallons of milk.
So 1.x lbs. of cheese per gallon.

The sad and unappetizing indentations are from the knitting mats I used under the cheese to stop the cloth from snapping on a few on my ill drilled holes in the bain marie mold.  It worked, but tore off some curd and left that texture.
A couple members have had poor curd results from using WalMart brand milk, but sounds like your SamsClub (WalMart's warehouse store in US) is fine, good news.

Sad you dropped the liquid smoke I was soon going to try it.

My Wal•Mart milk comes from dairies in Minnesota where they say they don;t use funky stuff or hormones.  I think they have good product!  Seems I am getting 1+ lbs. per gallon, even with only 1 Tsp. CaCl2 for 14.5 gallons!  And I tend to have as much as another lb. of curd that gets dropped, flushed, squeezed out of the mold around the follower, etc.

Today I gave a chunk of my November gouda to someone and they nibbled, then said, "Wow!  Smokey!" and yet I can't taste it.... tastes differ between people, and I pick up the CaCl2 but no smoke.  -_-; grrrr  The November gouda was made with 3 Tbsp. CaCl2 (or was it 6?  I can't remember).  This weekend I used only 1 Tbsp.  For smoke, I used about half a bottle (from stores) for each cheese... smelled and tasted it before the mold, after aging I tasted nothing.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2010, 07:26:47 PM by Baby Chee »

FarmerJd

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2010, 08:54:20 PM »
Great looking cheeses Chee.

Baby Chee

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #9 on: April 06, 2010, 05:31:51 PM »
Thanks Farmer.

I just opened and ate some of my Feb. Gouda.  GOOD!  I hit that right with pressing amount, salt bath time, and maturation.  Excellent.  Even has the tiny holes of a gouda. 

Somehow, despite using 1/3rd the coloring, it has a bright coloring.  I gotta use half!  Like, maybe 1 tsp. of color per 14.5 gallons.  Sheesh!
I just want a light yellow tinge, not velveeta orange.

Just finished the earlier cheeses today as well.  They needed to be eaten with crackers due to the high CaCL2.
I'm very happy with my new cheese.  In 5 weeks I will open the others I made in mid-March.

linuxboy

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2010, 05:42:49 PM »
Sounds wonderful. Now pack a few lbs away from each wheel and put away for a few years and "forget" about them. So, so good.

FarmerJd

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2010, 06:23:14 PM »
That's what i am trying to do too linuxboy: forget about them. Will they age the same way vacuum sealed over a year? I have several that are approaching 8 months.


Chee, congrats again. I will consult your process when I try another gouda.

Baby Chee

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2010, 02:08:55 PM »
My web space had problems, server trouble, so I just restored a lot of photos that went missing for the past few months.

I haven't hade any cheeses since Mar. 17, 2010: still have 18+ lbs. of Gouda.  I'm going to make another batch, 3 giants, in August.  Maybe even 4 or 5 giants.  They turn out OK, but I'm still learning and they aren't quite excellent, yet.  Last batch was pressed too light (not a huge problem) and I misread the ingredients measures, so I used 3x too much M4001 in the milk.  What came about was a slightly veggie-flavored cheese which got a really neet-o-keen creamy-cheddar taste when left out under a glass cake hood for a day.  Edible, certainly.  Gouda, no.

Another thing I discovered is that blue cheese mold is tenacious!!  I think the pot I use is just blue'd up despite months of dry periods.  My gouda sprout typical blue mold all over where air gets to it, even in the fridge!  So under the wax at points, or where there is a pinhole gap in wax, there's blue.  Some cracks in my giant goudas have a wonderful blue marbling.

August 20th or so I will make a new batch and I want to try an experiment: 15lb. Bluda.  Just a typical gouda, but a taint of blue in there, left to grown without wax in the fridge.  I'll needle it to get some streaking inside as well.  By Christmas I hope to have a large blue to take home to my mom, we can dig it out, pour port in it, etc.  A kind of Stilted-ton.  The taste of my present Bluda-bits are really spicy and crisp while the meat of the cheese is a different flavor relying on mildly tart acids and rounded cream flavors.

Sounds wonderful. Now pack a few lbs away from each wheel and put away for a few years and "forget" about them. So, so good.

I have to agree with this.  Though I try to eat quick, 60 days aging, I found that the more and more time they go, the better and better the cheeses become.  I'm sure there is an upper age, but they will NEVER last that long.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2010, 02:45:00 PM »
Cheese is an interesting animal. Much like people - as it ages it develops different personalities. What starts out as a nice baby cheese or a great toddler cheese can become a to die for mature cheese.

Baby Chee

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Re: My 15 lb. Goudas ...
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2010, 03:59:10 PM »
Cheese is an interesting animal. Much like people - as it ages it develops different personalities. What starts out as a nice baby cheese or a great toddler cheese can become a to die for mature cheese.
I'm beginning to get that understanding.  Cheese can age quite amazingly.  Just some extra time and it's possibly incredible compared to what was expected at a certain time interval.

I have another Mar. 15 super gouda I will open around mid-August.  150 days might be really good, but I bet 300+ would be incredible.