Hi,
My wife and kids were going to be out for the day, so I decided to make a traditional cheddar. I've made other cheeses in the cheddar family, but not an actual cheddar itself. I decided to follow the recipe in 200 Homemade Cheese Recipies, but I extended the cheddaring time to 2 hours from the 45 minutes indicated in the book. I cheddar/mill Wensleydale for 2 hours, and the Riki Carrol book lists 2 hours, and I've always understood it was a fairly lengthy procedure. 45 minutes seems like nothing, so, after following the "flip every 10 minutes for 45) I decided to continue with every 15 until 2 hours was reached.
So, all in all things have gone pretty well. My plan is to wax this one and keep it until next Christmas / New Years. No photos yet, but will get one tomorrow morning when it's completed the press. I'm thinking I'll make another gouda to age for a year too given how nice this one turned out.
Anyway, here are my make notes. The only picture to go with it is the heat rise chart. That went really well, with just one blip early on. I also had a longer floc with the calf rennet then last time (15 min 30 seconds) so might have to increase to 1.7 ml next time.
Traditional Cheddar Sunday, Dec 18, 2011. Overcast, 21.5 C (fr 200 Easy Homemade .but extended cheddaring time..)
10 L Homebrand Standard
2 ice cubes buttermilk, 1 ice cube FD
¼ tsp CaCl (50%)
1.6 ml Calf Rennet
2 tbls salt
1) Warm milk to 31 C
2) Add culture (added and melted with temp reached at 8:31 31.4 C, moved to counter)
3) Ripen 40 min (start 8:31-9:11)
4) Add CaCl
5) Add Rennet (added at 9:13:30)
6) Floc time 9:29:00 3x 15:30 = cut wait 46 min 30 sec Cut time 10:00:00
7) Cut into 1.25 cm cubes
8) Heal 5 minutes (10:05-10:10 temp 30.8)
9) Raise heat to 39 C over 45 minutes (start 10:10 @ 30.8 – finish 10:55 @ 39.2 C – good rise profile)
10) Hold at temp for 40 min (start 10:55 – 11:35)
11) Drain whey (11:35; temp 37.7)
12) Return curds to pot in water bath at 39, to form a cake (put jug with 2 l whey to press into cake)
13) Flip every 10 minutes for 45 minutes flip at 11:55, 12:05, 12:15, 12:25, done at 12:35)
14) Flip every 15 minutes for 1 hour 15 min (flip at 12:50, 1:05, 1:20, 1:35, 1:50 done)
15) Cut into 5 x 1.25 cm French fry strips (mill into hazelnut sized curds)
16) Add salt
17) Put in mold
18) Press in the pot 1 hour flip redress (2:05 - 3:25 w 15 kg ; 1.08 PSI – knit progressing well; got busy with other things, so pressed an extra 20 minutes)
19) Press in the pot 1 hour (3:25 – 4:25 w 20 kg; 1.43 PSI)
20) Press over night (35.2 kg; 2.53 PSI; finished 5:40 am; final weight 1248g; 15.6 x 5.5 cm gives 1.19 g/cm3 density)
Made ricotta from 8+ l whey & ¼ cup white vinegar: heat to 93.3. Tried without vinegar, got a bit. Then, let it sit for a while and GL dumbed all the vinegar in at once and a lot more formed. Seemed like the biggest, fluffiest batch yet. Will add 1 tsp salt when drained. recovered 356g.