Author Topic: CoJack....behold the power of cheese  (Read 5301 times)

Likesspace

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CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« on: January 06, 2009, 02:27:14 AM »
Okay, this section has been dead for the last day and a half. I am here to rescue it from the bowels of obscurity.....
Saturday my middle daughter and I made a Colby Jack cheese with her taking care of a three gallon batch of Monterey Jack while I worked on a three gallon Colby.
In short, this became the cheese from hell.
Upon putting the cheese into the mold I noticed that it was still really moist and soft. I've since found out that this is becasue I used whole milk on the Jack and instead should have used 2% for a more firm curd.
Anway, after about two hours of pressing, I tried flipping the cheese and it was nearly falling apart in my hands. I knew this wasn't going to work, not matter how long I pressed so I took some drastic measures.
First of all, I took the curd out of the mold and broke it up into it's original curd state.
I then transferred it into a cooking pot and re-heated it to 102 degrees F while constantly stirring. Basically treating it as you would a stirred curd cheddar. I did this for 60 minutes while pouring off the whey when it rose to the surface.
After this cooking stage the curd was still way too moist. I knew that if I put it back into the mold I would have the same problem as before. Well as a last ditch effort I wrapped the curd into a VERY LARGE cheese cloth bag and treated it as I would a Stilton.
I took the bag of curd and placed it between two cheeseboards and pressed it with 20 lbs. of weight. This did expel a LOT of whey and when I removed the bag it had formed into a solid mass that was easily broken up into walnut sized pieces.
I then repacked this into the mold and pressed with 80 lbs. of force for an hour.....flipped and increased to100 lbs. of force for 12 hours......flipped and pressed again at 100 lbs. for another 12 hours and finally topped it off with 140 lbs. for 12 hours.
Well this morning I removed the wheel from the press and had a nice firm, HUGE wheel of cheese.
This sucker is 8" diameter x 5" tall and weighs a little over 6 lbs.
After spending a day in the wine fridge the surface has dried completely  and looks and feels great. I'm going to give it another day and night in the fridge and then give it a waxing tomorrow night.
So, without further adieu, here is my Stirred Curd, Stilton style, CoJack hybrid cheese:

Likesspace

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2009, 02:38:08 AM »
Oh, by the way....
The first picture shows the true color of the cheese. I decided to play with my photo editing software on the second pic and came to the conclusion that I'm not very good at it. I guess it would be more appropriate to say that I suck at it. At least I said it before Cartier had the chance to. :-)
This cheese was supposed to be 5 hours, start to press. Instead it took a little over 12 hours. I had gotten to the point that I hated this cheese with a passion but now I'm hoping I've got something that will turn out really good.
I've always been unsatisfied with my colby style cheeses because they have been too moist (compared to the commercial varieties). If this works, I plan on playing with all of my Colby and CoJack cheeses to see if I can make them better.

Dave

Cheese Head

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2009, 11:31:18 AM »
Likesspace/Dave, fun story, thanks for morning chuckle, although while reading Cojack my mind kept thinking Kojack and "Who Love's Ya Baby" (cheese) ;D.

Tea

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2009, 08:08:21 PM »
Likesspace, great cheese.  What did you use as your mould?  Lets hope that is ages beautifully for you.

CH, Kojack, now doesn't that bring back memories.  ::)

Likesspace

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2009, 10:36:10 PM »
Tea,
Sorry for taking so long to answer you. I guess I missed your question earlier.
The mold I used is an 8" hard cheese mold I found on New England Cheesemaking Supply's site. I've also seen these on just about every site that sells cheese molds.
They claim you can do a 5 - 10 gallon cheese in this mold but I'm thinking that 7 is about the max on a Colby or Gouda curd although you could probably get closer to 10 to 12 gallons on a swiss or cheddar curd.
Basically I bought it because I felt the price was right ($28.00) and I wanted to move to making bigger cheeses.
The only problem with making larger cheeses is figuring out what to do with them once they are ready to eat. This really did make one big cheese (probably enough to last my family 3 months) so I'm thinking now that I will cut out a wedge.....wax the opening and continue doing this until it's finally gone.
I do like the looks of the larger wheels but it also triples the amount of stress when a mistake is made during the making process.
Regardless, this wheel does look really nice in my cave, alongside all of the other various sized wheels I've made.

Dave

Tea

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2009, 10:43:06 PM »
Hi Dave, Carter posted a video on stilton making yesterday.  There is also a video attached on how to cut it.  I thought it was interesting as a method of cutting the larger rounds.  Might be worth watching just for some ideas.  They also gave tips on freezing.  Now I realise that this was for a stilton, but it would be interesting to see if it also worked for ther cheeses.

Thanks for the other info too.  Looking at upgrading myself to larger portions, so just wondering what everone is using for their moulds.

Likesspace

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2009, 03:41:51 AM »
Tea,
I saw that post just a couple of minutes ago and did a "copy" on the site. I plan on giving it a visit as soon as I stop reading (and posting) here.
I've been to that site about a thousand times and can't believe that I didn't notice the video options. I'm really looking forward to checking it out.
Carter....if you read this, thanks for the link. Surely it won't be long before you and I are both giving those so called Stilton experts, some pointers.  :D

Dave

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2009, 07:59:10 AM »
DAM right!

Wasn't Cojack Bald? You should make a smoky and the bandit provolone.

BauerHaus

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2009, 01:15:21 AM »
Well have you tasted this CoJack from hell yet? Months in and what was the favor?
« Last Edit: September 04, 2009, 01:48:45 AM by BauerHaus »

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2009, 11:31:00 PM »
I give you big kudos for hanging in there Dave! To often people give up to soon the throw it away when it could be saved. It looks wonderful!  ;)

Likesspace

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Re: CoJack....behold the power of cheese
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2009, 11:55:06 PM »
Hey guys....
I'm just now back from my extended vacation from cheesemaking so I apologize for taking so long to answer.
I have tested this cheese and honestly it turned out about as I expected it to.
The taste was nice but the texture pretty much sucked.
It was pretty dry and pretty crumbly. It would not slice but instead just sort of fell apart when running a knife blade through it.
I was sort of surprised that the cheese was not at all sour and did have a nice colby/jack cheese flavor but the excessive handling of the curds really took it's toll on the texture.
Most of the cheese was made into "salad crumbles" and some of it did end up in the trash.
This was a LOT of cheese to try to eat and it eventually went bad over time.
Thanks for asking about this and again, I'm sorry it took so long to answer.

Dave