Colby with a processed cheese texture?

[Spoons]

Hey peeps,

we made our first pressed cheese about two months ago. We tasted it last week and we were pleasently surprised with the final result considering that we made many rookie mistakes throughout the cheesemaking process.

Here's our question : I know Colby is a creamier cheese than cheddar, but ours almost has a processed cheese texture! Anyone know what caused this?


Here are some notes I took while making the cheese:
*Homogenized milk
*4001 culture
*rennet setting time : as suggested by the recipe
*cutting step : cut with regular knife so not the perfect 1/2" cut...
*cooking step : What a mess! temp raised 5 degrees in first two minutes! achieved desired temp with the 40 minutes time period but those first two minutes were horrible. Rookie mistake
*washing step: The recipe recommends washing until temp reaches 80degrees. We achieved that with approx same volume of tap water than drained whey.
* pressing : eye formation in cheese even with recommended pressing. We figured ambiant temp was too cold (we later created a press box with controlable ambiant temp to improve this step on future cheeses).

So... Anyone know what may have caused our cheese to have a "processed cheese" texture to it?

[DeejayDebi]

I am not sure what you mean - like rubbery?

[Spoons]

Thanks for replying Debi 

It almost has the consistency/texture of Kraft Singles. ewwwww.... 

[MrsKK]

I'm sorry I can't answer your question, but good luck on figuring that out.  Ewww is right!

[Sailor Con Queso]

Your pH was probably a little high at draining. I know that Colby is a young cheese, but I would give it another 30 days of aging. At 60 days proteolysis (enzymes breaking down proteins) has barely kicked in. Another 30 days will really change the flavor and texture.