Wayne's Gouda-1/24/09

[wharris]

5 Gallons of Whole Milk
5 drops of Annatto
5/8 tsp of Flora Danica
  (LL) Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis 
  (LLC) Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris
  (LLD) Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis
  (LMC) Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris
5/8 tsp Veg Rennet
2.5 tbl CaCL2

Start Milk temp  38deg F
Start Milk pH 6.75
Added Cacl2
Milk pH 6.45
Ripening Phase Start Temp 86
Ripening Time: 15min
Coagulation Time 1Hr


I have two questions:
Culture question:
I use the DVI culture, I have always added the direct set culture to 1/4cup of distilled water to create my started.  After a little reading i see that the actual instructions say to add the powder to the milk itself.
What do you all do?

Ripening time question:
The  R. Caroll  book says 30 minutes.
The Peter Dixon Site says 10 minutes. 
That is quite a variance. 
My first question is what do you all do for gouda?  What are we trying to accomplish?

[Cheese Head]

Wayne, good questions, my 2 cents:

• I sprinkle my DVI cultures directly onto the milk and whisk in for 1 minute.
• I don't think the time to when rennet is critical as even after renneting the starter culture will continue to work and drop pH. For Gouda like CHR Hansen's Continental Cheese Make Guide says in section 4.2, pH targets after pressing and 24 after adding starter culture are the key control numbers. PS, Section 4.1 says to rennet 15-45 minutes after adding culture.

Hope helps . . . John.

[Cartierusm]

Wayne, what I've been told and read, you can't make a starter from DVI cultures. So it's pointless to rehydrate I would think. I just add them to the milk. As far as lag period figure it's freeze dried and unlike a regular starter culture which has living organisms already pumped up ready to go it needs time to start working. I personally add 30 minutes to any recipe for DVI. This has been confirmed, kind of, by recipes I've got from Egon at Danlac. His recipes for Parmesan, stilton and blue are all double ripening times from what my books say for regular starter.

[wharris]

Wow,  that CHR is a good read,  I had not really looked at it prior.  So much to read.....

I am making another batch this morning and will add starter directly.

Thanks to both of you.

Here is my gouda in brine.


The "floaties" are bits of cheese. Curd shrapnel from around the edges of the mould.

[chilipepper]

Wayne, those look very nice! 

Is that a 5 gallon pot?  Do you reuse your brine? It is water based? What salt? Any other addatives?

Good luck with batch 2 this AM.

[wharris]

2 gallon ss pot.

Saturated salt brine (non-iodine salt)
32os salt/gallon
a bit (pinch or 2) to bring pH down to 4.7

yes I re-use.  Boil Between batches.

[chilipepper]

Thanks Wayne,

Pinch or 2 of what?

Do you find your brine starts smelling like cheese after a while?

[wharris]

Sorry,  that previous post was so rushed.  I added enough Citric Acid, to bring the pH down...

[wharris]

My gouda is about 1/300th the way to being fully mature. (I'm thinking halloween timeframe....)

The two on the left are 8 days old:
The middle 2 are 3 days old.
The right 2 are 1 days old

[Cartierusm]

Lookin' Gooouda...LOL

[Cheese Head]

Wayne, looks great, you have a mini factory there!

[Tea]

Oh wow Wayne  :o   That looks so good.  That must be so satisfying to be able to see the fruits of your labour like that.  Very impressive.

[LadyLiberty]

This may sound like a silly question, but how do you get the rounded edges like that?

[Cartierusm]

I can answer that..you spend the big bucks as Wayne did and buy a very very good mold. Not only do you have the bragging rights but it makes it very easy to press as it's got it's own built in cheese cloth. Not real cheese cloth but better as it's formed into the mold and has screen that acts as cheese cloth does and is removeable for washing.

[LadyLiberty]

I can answer that..you spend the big bucks as Wayne did and buy a very very good mold. Not only do you have the bragging rights but it makes it very easy to press as it's got it's own built in cheese cloth. Not real cheese cloth but better as it's formed into the mold and has screen that acts as cheese cloth does and is removeable for washing.

would that be Dutch Kadova molds?