Gouda, Take I

[Scarlet Runner]

Dutch "Jonge Kaas" is one of my faves, and I have been impatiently waiting until I have enough Cheese-Sense to try my first Gouda. On Tuesday I couldn't stand it any longer, and dove in to my first 3 gallon hard cheese.

I tried  Linuxboy's Gouda Recipe for it's level of detail combined with simplicity.  The only hurdle I had following this clear and concise recipe was guessing the weight for pressing in whey.  My goals were to get the feel of a 3 gallon cheese and see how my new homemade mold worked (seems good- follower a bit too tight), try to slow my floc time closer to 10min, and try out my new primer culture.  Oh, and my real goal is to have some cheese to eat in a month- I can't stop drooling over my Jack and Cheddar, which are 3 months away...

Briefly:

Heat 3 gallons storebought milk (2 gall 2% + 1 gall whole) to 86-88F.
Added 6oz (~1.5%) of fresh primer culture made from Ricki's Mesophilic DVI packets, "ripen" for ~10min.
CaCl2 (3/8 tsp in 1/4 c water)
Rennet (half a tablet)
Floc time = 6-7 minutes; STILL too fast, working on this.  Will reduce again next time.
Curds at 7x3=21 minutes still soft; waited 10 min. for clean break; cut curds to 3/8".
After 5 min heal, stir 20min, wash per recipe for 26 min, heat on stove to 100-102F (curds matting).
Drained whey to level of curds, sit 10 min
Put curds in 6" mold and press in whey, 8# for 10 min. 
Press at 50# for 6 hrs, flipping 2x in the first 2 hr, 65-75F.
Brine in 22% brine (maybe?!)  made with whey for 10 hr (overnite).
Air drying now- looks fine to me, nice and hard rind, drying out nicely, no mold.

Seeking input on a few issues:
1. Brine didn't fully dissolve; I mixed 7.6lb whey (=0.91 gall) + 2.2lb morton kosher salt per  LB's table. I notice many on this forum use about 2 lbs per gallon for a "saturated brine".  Did I add too much salt, misunderstand the table?
2. Any handy tips on submerging a cheese in brine- or do you flip halfway, salt the top, or just not worry about it?
3. I sort of guessed on the pressing weight in whey-  but from other posts, i gather this is a light press, and someone used 8#, so that's what I picked...ideas?  I saw some just press by hand too...
4. I cheated on the final pressing weight of 50#, because I read that Sailor's final press for a 6" mold is 50#, and didn't feel like hauling 113 lbs of tile (= 4 psi for my 6" mold, right?) into the house.  Am I gonna pay for that later?

I'm proud about coming up with a thermometer holder, and also doing a better job cutting curds (still having a hard time cutting at the bottom)- and still have plenty to work on.   

[Cheese Head]

Great looking cheese (& nice thermometer holder )!

1) There's another brine making table in the Wiki: Making Brine article, that ratio should have fully dissolved and given you about a 23% brine, not quite saturated. To make fully saturated it does take quite some stirring, you are close enough.

2) On submerging & salting top while brining see the Wiki: Brine Bathing Cheeses article. For tricks and traps on turning cheeses in brine see the Wiki: Turning Cheeses article.

3) On pressing weight in whey, good question, 8 lb seems reasonable for a 3 US gallon batch.

4) Only final pressing weight, looks good, I've used slightly higher weights but then I was making 8 USG makes into two side by side 7" molds which have resulted in freedoms, gaps inside the cheese, see pictures here. Next batch I'm going with higher weight to area ratio like you have.

After brining have fun with Air Drying phase!

[Scarlet Runner]

Thanks John!

1- Iguess I didn't stir the salt in enough; both tables indicate the amount of salt I added should have dissolved. Maybe will try heat and stirring next time.

2. The Wiki article makes it sound like forcing submersion with weight is a no-no- what is the problem with that?  I could salt the air-exposed part... but somehow i t feels- unsatisfying.  Like I want the whole cheese under, for some reason!!!!

3. I'll continue to look for people's ideas about weight when pressing in whey.

4.  Some good looking cheese in that post! 

I'm air drying now- all seems good.  Not really sure whether to wax or not- have seen MANY different posts describing simply putting the dry cheese in a cave, waxing it, natural rind, etc.  I'll firgure this out- but it SMELLS SO GOOD!!!!

[Scarlet Runner]

Tasting Day Update!

What would you do with this Gouda- eat it now, or age it longer?

I cracked open this 5 week old Gouda this weekend. After a few comments from family/friends: "I like it"; "It's good!", I return to the cheeseforum for some cheese-minded cameraderie...

Tasting notes: Mechanical openings 1/16-1/4", can slice fine but brittle/on the crumbly and dry side. Mild/bland taste with a sharp finish- it is tart/sour/tangy at the end, which matches the "sharp" smell.  It's HARD as opposed to soft, moist and creamy. Overall an edible cheese, but not a masterpiece.... yet. 

Goals for next time:
1. Could press harder (in whey? final press?) to increase knit and reduce holes.
2. Want creamier/buttery/sweet flavor: use Meso + Flora Danica next time... anything else?
3. Want less sharpness (sour,tangy)- ideas? Less starter? Age shorter?
4. Want softer, moister, more elastic: cut larger curds, cook less, stir less...

I think I've found my test cheese... (You know- everyone says to pick ONE cheese and make it over and over until you perfect it.)  Sigh.  It's so fun to try them all.  time to buckle down now...

[BigCheese]

Without having read much of this thread, I will say that I found the hardness (too-hardness) improved a lot once I got a water bath setup in place. Heating directly is just too unreliable. Also, unless your thermometer can be calibrated (or you can at least test their accuracy in boiling water) I am not crazy about analog. Especially with such a small dial, you are left guessing and approximating.

[Scarlet Runner]

Nitai, this is very helpful.  Can you explain how direct vs. indirect heat impacts hardness of cheese? I would never have guessed this, but all my cheeses are on the hard side, and I use direct heat.

Agreed on your comments regarding thermometers. I actually have 5 thermometers now.  I use primarily a digital, and also a large dial analog.  All have been calibrated as best as I can using boiling and ice water, corrected for my elevation.  I know it's not perfect, but it's the best I can do. Any tips on turning the little adjustment nut while holding a thermometer in boiling water and reading the dial???

[BigCheese]

Nitai, this is very helpful.  Can you explain how direct vs. indirect heat impacts hardness of cheese? I would never have guessed this, but all my cheeses are on the hard side, and I use direct heat.

Agreed on your comments regarding thermometers. I actually have 5 thermometers now.  I use primarily a digital, and also a large dial analog.  All have been calibrated as best as I can using boiling and ice water, corrected for my elevation.  I know it's not perfect, but it's the best I can do. Any tips on turning the little adjustment nut while holding a thermometer in boiling water and reading the dial???

Direct heat is not inherently bad, but it is much harder to control. Say you are looking for 86F. Well it is harder to know when to stop the flame so that the milk will end on 86F, because it keeps heating on account of the hot pot. A water bath makes it so that your vessel and your milk are the same temp, additionally, if you overheat, you can quickly replace hot water with cold, whereas you can do no such thing with direct heat. I have big pots that cannot be lifted if full, so I keep a hose at my cheese station and siphon out hot water and add cold when I need to. Even worse, once you have curds it is important not to heat too fast, but with direct heat it is very hard to ensure a steady gradual heat, and even then, the bottom will be heating much more, meaning it needs to be stirred much more, which means roughing up the curds more, which means, yet again, a harder cheese. Heating the curds to fast means not releasing enough whey, which very well could get you the sour tanginess you did not like. We did like 60 lbs or more with direct heat, so I have some experience:) A lot of it was dry, crumbly, tangy.

As far as the thermometer....hmmm. that does sound tough. I would say you need a calibrating assistant. But if you have done all that you said already, chances are it is probably fairly accurate. I would put all of them in the same pot and see what the different readings are.

[Scarlet Runner]

Nitai, again very helpful. thanks so much for your comments!(I don't know why I didn't see your reply until now- sorry!!).

 I have to say, although I understand theoretically that indirect heat is easier to control, and is especially useful for the slow rise in temp that heating curds requires, I SUCK at indirect water bath heat. It really drives me crazy.  Seems like I fill up the sink with water about 10 or 15 F higher than my target, and wait for 10 minutes while nothing changes in the milk (maybe 3-4 gallons) and then all of a sudden the temp lurches up several degrees, I pull the pot out of the sink for a minute, the temp stops or drops, so I stick the pot back in the warm water, wait another 10 minutes while no temp change, I add more hot water, no temp change and then all of a sudden, too fast temp change... As I said it drives me crazy. Thank you for your inspiration that I need to stick with it and find a way to get the hang of it. Any tips from anyone MOST appreciated.   

I also have a question about your point on temperature variability within the pot of milk. It seems like heating either directly from underneath, or even indirectly in water bath, that there must be variability within the milk.  So, I stir a lot, and move the thermometer around, and I'm never confident that I'm reading an "average" milk temp- and because I stir too much I get dry cheese. Do you have more thoughts on this? Is the variability of temp in the milk significantly less when using indirect heat (surely the sides and bottom still warm faster than the center and top)?  Should I just stick the thermometer in the middle of the pot and don't worry about stirring too much?

PS Yes, I "calibrated" all my thermometers one afternoon using a crushed ice slurry plus boiling water.  they are within 2 deg F in ice slurry (delta from ideal 32F), within 6F of eachother at room temp (65F), and within 4F of ideal (198F at my altitude of 5400ft) at boiling.  I figure that's as good as I'm going to get!

And finally for the finale- the original reason I returned to this post tonight, before I saw these great comments- to update my tasting notes (below)!!

[Scarlet Runner]

Tasting Gouda at 10 weeks- a recognizably Gouda-esque and rather tasty cheese!

Not nearly as crumbly or dry anymore- more elastic and flexible.
Not nearly as brittle- more chewy and melts much easier on the tongue.
Melts in the microwave like a dream!!
Much less tart and sour/sharp- but still a bit sour overall.

It's amazing what time in the cave can do!  Going to eat half now, and put half back in the cave for more magic action. 

[CheeseSnipe]

Yay! good job Scarlett