Chilipepper's Cheese #010 - Parmesan

[chilipepper]

Well here is the first attempt at a Parmesan and I think (hope) it went pretty good.  It is happily sitting in the press now. 

I went with most of the recommendations for the style and took 2 gallons of raw milk and let it sit overnight and skimmed the cream off (actually siphoned the milk out from underneath the cream).  I took another 2 gallons of whole raw milk and shook vigorously and added that to the kettle. Roughly 3.5 gallons after cream skimmed off of 2 of them.

Waterbath heat was applied to get the milk to 90 degrees F.

Added 1 tsp of Meso and 1 tsp Thermo starters and let rest at ripen at 90F for 30 minutes.

Added 3/4 tsp liquid rennet to 1/4 cup distilled water and slowly added and stirred for 1 minute (or more).  Let the rennet do its thing for about 30 minutes.

Cut the curd to 1/4 inch cubes as best I could with my curd knife and my spatula.  Without an actual curd knife this is a lesson in patience.   I ended up using a whisk for a little bit to make sure all was broken up into smallish (very technical term) pieces.

Starting bringing the heat up by periodically replacing water in waterbath with successively hotter water until curd temp was 124 degrees F.  This took a little over an hour with my hot tap water method.

At this point the curd was very noticeably smaller and squeaky when chewed as well as still broke apart easily when press in my hand.

I let it rest for about 5 minutes while preparing the colander and cheesecloth. 

Strained the curd in the lined colander and let drain for about 5 minutes.

At this point I was fairly surprised at how the curd had shrunk.  I was planning a larger mold that I had fashioned but my normal mold worked out OK but was filled to the top.

So far I flipped it once and am pressing now for a couple of hours at 20 lbs before redressing and pressing overnight.


Raw milk showing layer of cream at the top and before skimming


Curds cut


Cooked curd - pressed in my hand and broken apart


Curd draining in my colander


In the press for first time (filled to the top)


Cheese after first pressing

[chilipepper]

Out of the mold and into the brine.  The cheese came in at a little under 3 lbs.  Very interesting as it is pretty dense stuff.  Normally the cheeses I pull out of that mold filled full are a little under 2 lbs.

I have a question regarding aging this cheese... Some are waxing and some are promoting natural rind formation.  The later of which I tend to want to gravitate to.  For a natural rind, are you washing it down with brine every couple of days to keep mold, etc. off and aide in drying it out?  Or do you just throw it in the cave and forget about it for a year? (turning it obviously)

[Cheese Head]

Chilli, I have never made Parmesan, but for fun I just had a quick re-read of this article and look at pictures, and for those Italian Parmigano's, it doesn't look like the wax or rind wash, but then they have a massive controlled temperature and humidity environment and very very large cheeses .

For the French equivalent Parmesan, do they do the same?

The problem is that you don't have a massive cheese or I suspect perfect temp & humidity for months of aging.

[Sing_cheese]

Chili,

My big parma has been in the cave for about a month (~55f with humidity 60-80% (still an issue).  Checked mine carefully this weekend and no mold or cracks or anything, looks like it did out of the press but a tiny bit more straw colored.  decided to leave it be rather than wash with brine, am wondering too of other experience here.  Do you wash with brine even if there is no mold,  or do you want it dry so that the hard rind forms.  What role does the washing play in rind formation?

Gerrit

[chilipepper]

CH, yeah I think the 'big boys' have one up on my little cheese.  My first clue was when it took 2 guys to lift half the curd out of the pot and fill one mold!  Definately outgunned there!

Gerrit, thanks for the info and experience. Tomorrow morning I'll be pulling it out of the brine and drying it in the cellar.  It is pretty chilly in there right now (45F) but I don't think that should matter too much.  I'll let it age without wax and just see what happens.  It would be interesting to see others experiences as well.

Ryan

[Cartierusm]

Chili, I make a lot of Parm. I've never seen it waxed and wouldn't do so. Part of Parmesan is a controlled rind allowing moisture to slowly evaporate out. Wash rind cheeses are for a different kind of rind, such as Muenster which has bacteria in it or when you want to add a tiny bit moisture back in and continue to keep the moisture that's in the cheese in there. As far as Parm you brine it 12 hours for every 2 pounds, but for small wheels I brine for 24 hours. As long as your cave has proper temp and humidity and gets air exchange every now and again you shouldn't be developing mold. After weeks of aging it will start to develop a hard yellow rind. Yes they are very dense.

[chilipepper]

Carter, thanks for the advice.  I'm a little concerned with the humidity in my cave for aging this Parmesan. Open air humidity in there right now is somewhere around 50% so I may have utilize a tub for aging to keep it from cracking.  In containers it seems to equalize at the 90% mark when the temp is low.  Maybe those cigar humidity packs might be an option here...

[Cartierusm]

humidi pack, maybe, what is the size of your cave. 50% way too low. 90% is better.

[chilipepper]

My 'cave' is about 10 feet by 5 feet with a 6 foot ceiling.  I've actually tried adding a small humidifier to the cave and it really had a tough time.  So I will have to resort to the 'plastic box cave' within the regular cave. That is where the humidi pack may come into play. I just wish I could get a really good, accurate hygrometer in there.  I have 3 separate digital ones and they are anywhere from 35% to 48% and no way to calibrate. 

[Cartierusm]

Really, I've got some old Radio Shack ones and some Oregon Scientific and they all seem to be close. You know you can calibrate them? Just look on cigar sites or google hydrometer salt test or salt calibration. Basically it's a solution of salt and water (certain proportions of course) that give off a specific humidity. So you mix it put it in a zip lock and wait an hour or so. Then just make a sticker of how much it's off. Of course the recipe you find for the salt test will tell you what the relative humidity should be. I just don't remember as I haven't done it in a while. The humidity packs should work for an air tight container that's not too big. If you PM your address I'll send you some of the ones I got, I've got 95% ones and decided to go with the freezer cave instead so I have no use for them. Let me know.

[chilipepper]

Well I've dug this one out of the cellar today... it is not quite the 1 year anniversary but my son had a school project in his advanced foods class and needed some Parm.  He let the cat out of the bag to his teacher that his dad made cheese and had a couple of Parmesan cheeses sitting in the cellar forever that nobody could touch.  Well she was quite intrigued to say the least. So I looked at my labels and this one is less than 2 weeks from the 1 year anniversary date of making the the grand event that I've been waiting for before cracking it open.

I did end up waxing this one a while back as it kept growing little patches of mold.  When I cut into this it was quite a task to say the least but eventually popped open for me.  I think maybe it wasn't quite as dry as it would have been if I'd not waxed it but it was very good.  The taste and texture were really good and it was slightly evident that I omitted the Lipase but still made a really great cheese...

Now before I get too many comments about the 'worthless post without pictures..'  This all happened in the morning, before school, fiasco and so I promise I'll update this post later today or tomorrow with some visuals. 

Ryan

[Cartierusm]

This post is worthless without pictures!!

[linuxboy]

Pics or it didn't happen

[chilipepper]

gezz.. no respect even with my appropriate disclaimer! 

If it is any consolation I just had melted some on my Quinoa soup I had for lunch and it was really good!

I'll get them coming... good to hear from you Carter!  Hope all is well in Sunny Cal!

Ryan

[Cartierusm]

Yeah, all is well, how about you.

I think because you made the disclaimer was why it was funny.

I had a couple of parms that are ready to crack open, maybe I'll open one this evening.