And so it goes....
While a lonely, unpublished Tilsit #2 sits in the cave and challenges me with blues, as I try to bring forth the orange (linens), I press on into the void with a challenger to its throne.
Attempting to follow the recipe published by Danisco for Tilsit, I purchased a new culture to try to capture the essence of an authentic Tilsit cheese. Looking at the Alp D pdf, it's quite a mix. Then combining all that with the PLA...this should be an interesting cheese.
4 gallons of cream line milk
1/4 tsp Choozit Alp D
1/8 tsp Choozit PLA
1/2 tsp CACL diluted with cool distilled water
1/16 tsp Renco dry calf rennet, dissolved in cool distilled water
Checked milk at start: pH 7.05 @ 55F
5:20AM Heated milk to 88F.
6:15AM Added cultures, waited 5 minutes to rehydrate, stirred in.
6:50AM pH 6.87 @ 87.4F
7:50AM pH 6.85 @ 88.7F (virtually no change)
9:50AM pH 6.77 @ 88.4F
10:30AM pH 6.61 @ 88F (looking for pH 6.50 to add rennet)
Don't blink!10:48AM pH 6.48 @ 88F (hey, wait a minute!) Added CACL and rennet
10:59AM Floc'd in 11 minutes; using 3.5x factor, that gives me a time to cut in 38 minutes
11:35AM pH 6.12 @ 85.1F Cut the curds, rested 5 minutes, stirred
Whisked curds gently to pea size.
Began cooking curds.
Removed 1 gallon of whey to use for brine.
Added, in increments, 1 gallon of 130F water, stirring, to bring curds up to 100F.
12:10PM pH 6.00 @ 99F (I had expected that the addition of the water would bring the pH up, but that was not the case.)
After washing and cooking curds for 30 minutes, and testing for curd friability & cohesiveness, I drained the curds and hand-pressed them into the Plyban-lined brick mold. I placed the cutting-board follower on top of the lined curd mass. I emptied out the cooking pot and placed the curds and mold into the pot. I haven't quite figured out the missing piece that would elevate the whole shebang so that the whey can drain more effectively. I tried a piece of plastic grid material with my
Esrom #2 and was rewarded with an alligator skin effect after pressing.
12:45PM pH 5.46 in whey at first pressing in pot using 10 lb weight
1:15PM Flipped, rewrapped, pressing in pot using 10 lb weight
2:00PM Flipped, unwrapped Plyban, going naked, pressing in pot using 10 lb weight
5:00PM Removed from mold, into the whey-brine for 7 hours (really flexible before brining and quite rigid after)
12:00AM Flipped, back into the whey-brine for another 7 hours (14 hours total; recipe calls for a lot longer)
1/27/127:00AM Out of whey-brine and into minicave to air-dry at room temperature
Trying to maintain control over the pH drops was a little disconcerting in this make. Nothing happening for hours...and then -
BAM! - over the cliff! Seems like if I use Alp D again, I will try to anticipate its sudden decision to jump into oblivion and do everything earlier. Rennet would be added earlier, curds cut earlier...everything done more aggressively.
Then again, I promised myself that 2012 would be my indoctrination into mother culture use. That will change everything too. I didn't get a lot of culture in that Alp D bag.
It would appear that Tilsit can be a wheel or a brick. My Tilsit #2 is the former, while #3 is the latter. Two totally different interpretations of the style.
-Boofer-
