...I tried making squeaky curds this weekend as well, mostly however, to test Lucerne milk from Carrs/Safeway to see if it will work OK for making cheese. So far, here in Anchorage, Alaska, the Lucerne milk is the only reasonable-cost milk that I have found that does indeed work. The other pasteurized/homogenized milks have been exposed to too high of a temperature during pasteurization and produce mush for curds. The Lucerne worked quite well every time that I've tried it (once with skim, once with whole).
But I digress...
This weekend, I made cheese curds according to
this recipe at Ricki Carroll's site, but was not impressed. I suspect that mine came out sort of like yours when it came to texture. They are not rounded like the ones you see in the pictures online (I've never had the pleasure of trying the real thing from Minnesota or Wisconsin), but do look like the pictures that Ricki shows on her web site. Texture is fine and they squeak a tiny bit, but the flavor is fairly bland. Almost like eating a dairy-ish tasting tofu. I'm going to vacuum pack mine and toss them in the cheese cave and see what they do after a few weeks. And as mentioned, I've never actually tried the real thing so I don't know what they are supposed to taste like. My wife had cheddar cheese curds at the Tillamook dairy in Oregon, and she said the texture was more of a slightly rubberier version of cheddar and that the curds tasted pretty close to what the cheddar tastes like ...which to me seems odd since cheese curds are very fresh, so where did the cheddar flavor come from that fast? I suspect that the curds she tried were aged several months or something ...how else could they taste like cheddar???
I'd like to be able to make cheese curds with the following improvements:
1. More cheesy flavor
2. Squeaky (at least for the first 24 hours)
3. Smoother texture with more rounded features.
BTW, Mine had no hint of bitterness at all and I rounded up a bit in both CaCl and liquid animal rennet. I used 1/2 tsp liquid CaCl and 1/2 tsp rennet in 2 gallons of milk. With both, I filled the 1/2 teaspoon measure to the point that the meniscus was bulging above the rim of the spoon. Using the spinning bowl method, I got first flocculation at 8-1/2 minutes and cut the curds at 27 minutes (total, about a 3X floc multiplier). In the recipe above, the milk is first 'scald ripened' for 90 minutes at 96 F (huh?), a thermophilic culture is used, the curds are heated to 116 F then cooked for 30 to 60 minutes at 116 F ...I kept mine at that temp for 45 minutes on this first pass. Then the curds are drained, pressed under about 8# for a couple of hours, then milled. I do believe that mine came out exactly as intended by Ricki ...I just wish for 'more' when it comes to taste and what not.
Anyone?
Brian
PS: More info... I just got feedback from a coworker who HAS had the Wisconsin cheese curds. He said the flavor that I got was very close to what it should be but that the curds in Wisconsin were both a bit softer and more flexible (even a tad rubbery?) than mine. I think a tad less rennet and cooking at a slightly cooler temperature for less time, maybe only 30 minutes or slightly less, might be the final touch. Mine squeak a little but they are at refrigerator temperature. He said to try microwaving them a minute ...
