Ellen's Gouda #1

[ellenspn]

Gouda won by it's familiarity and the fact I love eating it.

2 gal whole p/h milk (Oberweis)
1/4 t MM101 (Choozit)
1/2 t CaCl2 solution
1/2 t calf rennet

Warmed milk up to 85 deg F

Let culture sit for 10 minutes to rehydrate before adding CaCl2 and rennet.
Flocculation time 16 minutes (wow)
Cut curd at 48 minutes
let sit 5 min
stir 5 min
let sit 5 min
stir again 5 min
let sit 5 min
Drew off 3 cups whey and replaced with 140 deg F water warming it up to 92 degrees
Stirred 10 minutes already seeing substantial curd shrinkage.
Let sit 5 min
Drew off whey to top of curds
Replaced with ~110 deg water
Stirred on and off for 20 minutes, by this time carpel tunnel was making itself known.
Let sit 10 minutes
Knit at bottom of pan not as good as I hoped.  Not sure if the pot cooled off too much or not.

There were more curds than the mold could hold and at first I over filled the mold.  Sigh.
Pressed for 30 minutes under whey with 7.5 lbs weights
Changed over to what I affectionately refer to as the leaning tower of Gouda and it's now pressing  with 25 lbs of weight.  Brine is ready and now I go to bed and wait until 2:30 when I can get up and plunk that puppy in the brine.

Goodnight! 

[smilingcalico]

I'm not sure how much this helps as I rarely make gouda in small batches, rather in 100+ gallon batches.  My curds are well knitted though by the time my whey is drained off.  I drain at 98-99°f, and it usually takes 15-20 minutes to release all the whey.  Perhaps you could let the curds settle for about that length of time before draining off yours.  I press gently by hand under whey as soon as half the curds are showing.  Where I press, the curds quickly go under the whey, causing my good knit to get even better.  I begin hooping as soon as whey is fully drained.  Finally they go on the press.  Granted, I have a pneumatic press, but if you achieve the proper psi, we should achieve similar results.  Take this all with a grain of salt, as I  don't know with a certainty that my practices for larger batches are 100% suitable for small batches.

[ellenspn]

Thanks smilingcalico.

I think I let it get too cool.  I forgot to remove the water bath from under the pot, which had long cooled off to about 80 deg.  Of course I didn't hand press it either.  Now I think back to the videos and how they pressed it with either weights and a sort of tamping device on a long pole. 

Anyhow, I reviewed the pressing detail I decided to pull it out of the press just short of 8 hours.  Other books using smaller molds have it using less weight than the 25 lbs I put on top of my little 5.25" mold.  Next Gouda make needs larger mold that's for sure.

It's in the brine now.  I turn it at 11:30 my time and grab a quick bit of sleep before pulling it out at 1:00 AM to start drying well out of dog nose range!

[smilingcalico]

Hey, your cheese looks great.  Sometimes gouda has mechanical holes or even small gas holes.  I wouldn't worry too much since you have a well formed exterior.

[ellenspn]

Today my gouda goes into the cave (along with the eggs and feta from my non-working kitchen fridge).

I hope I got this correct, I let it age from 2-3 weeks turning 3 times a week then I can vacuum wrap it. This is a tiny 5.25" tomme mold I used.  Should I cut the time down before I vacuum wrap it?

In the mean time do I wash it? brush it?  Is it my choice?  And what if I do wash it, what do I use?  Whey based brine similar to what I made to brine it in?

Reading the different books just left me more and more confuzzled 

[ellenspn]

It's in the cave 

[pliezar (Ian)]

Your cheese looks like it has a good rind on it.  You could let it go for a while longer and rub some olive oil on the rind.  I usually use a brine (1tbsp pickling salt in 1/2 cup distilled water) to keep the rind "clean".  You could wash it with anything you want.  I did one with olive oil/salt/sage blend.  I vacuum sealed my last Gouda at 2 months.

Ian

[ellenspn]

Ian, how big was your last Gouda?  Mine is only around a pound.

[pliezar (Ian)]

My last Gouda was about 1.5 lbs (I had to go back to my notes to double check).  I only used 8L of Milk for that make.  I only aged it for 5 months.

[ellenspn]

Okay yours is about the same size as mine.  I should have weighed mine before taking it downstairs.

[smilingcalico]

Sorry Ellen, I can't speak much to vacuum sealing as I only vac portioned pieces. I have vac'd before, but wasn't thrilled with the results.  To keep mold off, a simple brine will do.  I am a big proponent of natural rind cheese though, so my advice is flip it regularly and let the mold grow.  I understand though since you are working with a small amount that you'd like to age it longer, hence vac seems like a good way to go.  Keep reading the posts till you decide.
@Ian, how did the sage turn out? I have a couple sage going now, wondering what they'll be like

[Leasa]

Hi Ellen and gang.   
I'm abit confused as what to do with my gouda? The book i used said to flip each day for a week and then wax.  Was about to wax this weekend.   After reading these post I'm not so  sure that the best thing to do.

Any ideas would be great.   
Leasa

[ellenspn]

A simple brine of something like 1/2 cup boiled water and 1 t of salt?  Also I saw it was recommended to not re-use brine from one day to the next, but to throw it out and mix a fresh batch for each time you need brine.

I'm just trying to avoid having the whole cheese be one big rind that's why I was thinking of vacuum packing it.

[Tomer1]

Whats your fridge RH?

Its ok to reuse the brine just dont double dip it because thats a sure case to get things growing in there (which is ok if you want it,but not if your looking for a natural mold\yeast free rind).

As long as its just water and salt nothing is really interested in it so I advice you to make the brine and just pour the amount you need for cleaning to a small boul ,use it and throw it.

[ellenspn]

Sorry Tomer, I just added the bucket of saltwater so I'll be checking later to see what the humidity is up to.