tasted my first self made hard cheese today! (manchego)

[Justinmctavish]

tried a little slice of my manchego cheese today, although it has only been aging for a month and a half I wanted to try it. It is vacuumed sealed so it was easy enough to unseal it and reseal it again. The taste was not bad at all, but as my father said "it tastes alot like Havarti" which oddly enough it did... the texture was quite creamy and there was a hint of bitterness to it, I did vacuum seal after only 2 weeks of aging in my cave. Any ideas to what might the cause of this texture and taste be? or is this a characteristic of a young manchego?

[zenith1]

Hi Justin-the bitterness could have come from too much rennet. The textural difference as compared to a commercial product could be many things but when you mention Havarti and creamy texture I would guess that you chose the wrong flocculation multiplier and ended up with too much moisture in the curd. How did you determine the time at which you cut the curd? Have a look at the attachments that were previously posted by other members on the forum.
Also search for "spinning bowl method" of determining the flocculation point instead of the "clean break" method.

[Justinmctavish]

I cut the curd according to the recipe which was around 45 min, although I waited roughly one hour as I did not achieve a clean break at the 45 min mark. I have been reading up on flocculation times and Next time I will use the bowl method. This however makes me uneasy about the 4 pound cheddar I have just made as I simply used the designated time to base my curd cutting!

[zenith1]

age it per usual and give it a try, what do you have to lose. I think if you give the spinning bowl/flocculation multiplier method a go you will be pleased with the results. The clean break method is just to arbitrary to produce good reproducible results. The next step for you is a PH meter!