Thanks, Pav.
I did some additional reading last night (including many of our old e-mail exchanges, in which you covered a lot of this stuff- was good to review). I realized, too, that I have been loosely referring to "LH" to mean both L. helveticus, as well as LH100, the blend I buy from Dairy Connections; my ambiguity can lead to trouble. I saw more of the industry's response to helveticus's strongly proteolytic nature, by more and more commonly blending it with - ugh, was reading this in bed in the middle of the night, can't recall whether the article cited the development of helveticus and delbrueckii bulgaricus blend, or helveticus and delbrueckii lactis blend.
I'd really like to try and get a handle on this, Pav; I'm hopeful it's interesting and helpful to others, as well, as technical as it is. A few questions - and maybe Sailor, if you're reading, as it your recipe, you'd care to comment as well?
You don't want beaufort tasting like parmesan. That's why you add a little bit. [of LH100]
I think again, I was loose in my usage of what we're talking about with "LH". Sailor's recipe uses more LH100 (1/12 tsp) than ST (1/16 tsp). You're saying "little bit" of LH -
helveticus - because in this case, LH100 is 50/50
helveticus and
del. lactis (Dairy Connection's indication), so if the recipe is 57%
LH100 and 43% ST, it's only 28.5% L.
helveticus, 28.5%
del. lactis, and 57% ST - in other words, the actual amount of helveticus is muted; this is what you're saying, yes?
Can you elaborate on what LH strain Pat Fox et al. are referring to? I ask, in part, because among my readings late last night was some Beaufort AOC documentation, in French, put out by the Polytechnique Lille. Among the things I found most immediately interesting:
The cultures utilized for the fabrication of Beaufort are of the thermophilic type, and made up by a majority of lactobacilli.
Obviously, this doesn't specify which lactobacilli - helveticus, delbrueckii, or thermophilic, adventitious NSLABs (I say adventitious, as I know the AOC prohibits the use of added adjuncts).
General comments, from my reading of the Beaufort documentation.
Compositional comparison, comparing Beaufort to (French) Emmental Grand Cru and Comté:
- Salt, g/kg: EGC: 3-6; Comté: 4-10; Beaufort: 8-13. Among these 3, Beaufort is most heavily salted. Makes sense to me, both in terms of its relative propionic inhibition (see below), and flavor, among other things.
- Propionic Acid, g/kg: EGC: 2.5-5; Comté: 1-4; Beaufort: 0.05-0.2. I find this striking, and helpful in terms of trying to achieve the profile.
- Calcium level, g/kg: EGC: 9-10; Comté: 9-11; Beaufort: 8-10. Lowest of the three, though not dramatically so. Gives me a "hmm" in terms of thinking on whey drain pH, etc.
Cooked/stirred curd size. The stirred/cooked curd is cut to the size of anywhere from wheat grains to corn kernels - seems a pretty wide range. Additionally, the document indicates that:
The use of high-milkfat milk imposes a curd cutting in grains more fine than the other cooked-curd cheeses (Comté, Emmental). A study undertaken in 30 creameries (Chamba, 1988), shows that Beaufort grains have an average diameter of 2.45 mm (3/32") against 3.5mm (5/32") for Emmental.
Aside from the fact that both "corn kernels" and wheat grains seem a heck of a lot larger to me than 3/32", I know with this make, I thought I was too small, more like "smaller rice grains" (last time, I'll simply call it "rice grains"); perhaps my cut was acceptable. I'm still getting used to using a whisk (Wayne, whenever you're ready...), but now wonder if I'm pretty close on cooking curd size.
Salting: Emmental is salted in saturated brine; Comté, dry-salted. Beaufort, both - brined for 24 hours, followed by dry-salting. "This explains well the higher salt content of Beaufort (8-12 g/kg) against 3-6 grams and 4-10 grams, respectively, for Emmental GC and Comté."
Going back to earlier discussions on salting regimens, I realize one has to take into account these criteria are for true Beaufort wheels - on the order of up to 70 kgs - and not my faux, 2-2.5 kg wheels. Still, interesting, nonetheless. I did not know of the higher salting in Beaufort.
Finally,
slower acidification (and incidentally, milk quality). Part of what Pav has suggested during our discussions, is the importance of using good milk, if proceeding in the way discussed. The document also stresses this importance, particularly in what I find to be a striking difference in acidification curves.
In effect, it takes less than 2 hours before a wheel of Emmental drops 0.5 pH; but it takes 6 hours for Beaufort to drop the same amount.
The Polytechnique stresses that because of this particularly slow acid development in Beaufort, there is a relatively significant risk of gas-producing bacteria, and thus a risk of early swelling. Hence, as all these cheeses use raw milk, the need in particular for good, clean, high-quality milk in Beaufort.
A chart (from
Chamba J.F., Delacroix-Buchet A., Berdagué J.L., Clément J.F.. Une approche
globale de la caractérisation des fromages : l’exemple du Beaufort. Sciences des
aliments, 1994, 14, 581-590), shows a much slower acid development under pressing for Beaufort than for Emmental:
0 Hr: Both are at roughly 6.45.
2 hr: Emmmental, 5.8, BF, 6.4.
4 hr: Emmental, 5.6, 6.25.
6 hr: Emmental, 5.4, BF, 5.91.
8 hr: Emmental, 5.25, BF, 5.4.
12 hr: Emmental 5.2, BF, 5.25.
(Interesting too - both indicate a drain pH of 6.45. Pav suggested the same, a range of 6.3-6.45, a high drain pH. Once again I missed this note during the make and shot, and achieved 6.3; not a tragedy, and I know this is acceptable for the style. Next time, I want to isolate out calcium preservation, and one way will be to try for a higher drain pH).
Which leads me, Pav, to:
When we talked yesterday and I said to try a 10-25% TA with the rest LH and .75% meso, that was to lengthen out your acidity curve. There are many ways to make this cheese without affecting flavor profile.
I'm puzzled, still, on why I still seem to be getting such a fast drop under press. I used .78% MM100 primer, and in terms of the thermo mix, 10% ST, 90% LH100. Unlike my usual procedure, I finally made common sense and planned my make so I could sleep...
... and left the wheel to press overnight, with seedling mats, for 8 hours. I presumed this time, I would safely see a pretty slow curve. After 8 hours, as I indicate above, I was basically at 5.0, a disappointing result. Do you have any thoughts?
I know Francois indicated something interesting to me, as mentioned above:
to slow the acidification curve, heat the wheel up; hold the surviving mesos at bay (or kill them, presumably, lyse and aid the thermo development accordingly?), and encourage the (presumably?) slower thermos to take over the remaining acidification. In explaining my continuing fast drops,
is it possible the seedling mats aren't hot enough? Should I be shooting for a higher drain temperature - perhaps, per our discussion, Pav, something on the order of what the alpage chalets undertake, a draining in the same room as the direct-fired copper vat?
To say it plainly, and to conclude this novel: to achieve a slower press acidification, should I truly be warming my wheel to above, say, 110F?
Phew.
Ps: Pav, in the absence of raw milk (for now, and for a while, yet), since LH100 is apparently 50/50 L. delbrueckii lactis and helveticus, and I want to play with your recommendation of 30-40% ST 60 or 70, 30-40% l. del. lactis, and 20-30 l. helveticus, I'd imagine you have a bead on where to obtain the defined-strain ST 60 or 70, single-strain helveticus, and the delbrueckii lactis?
And, (I'm fairly serious), any thoughts on where to obtain an alpage screw press?
