Ah, the dawn breaks (yesterday)…and I jumped in to a new cheese style: Maasdam. I had just received the recipe the day before and it promised to be an exciting cheese. I was going to use my new stackable Cheddar/Swiss molds for the first time. Also, where I had used sodium nitrate as per Jarlsberg guidelines to control late-blowing in Jarlsbergs I've made in the past, I acquired and implemented Holdbac with this make to achieve the same purpose biologically.
Using Alp D and Holdbac from Danisco, I am following their recipe for “cheese with big eyes like Maasdam or Leerdam”.
Starting pH: 6.75
1½ gallons Twin Brooks whole creamline milk
2½ gallons Twin Brooks 2% creamline milk
8 cubes Alp D (mother culture)
¼ tsp Holdbac
¼ tsp Propionic shermanii
½ tsp CACL in ¼ cup distilled water
1/16 tsp Renco dry calf rennet in ¼ cup chilled distilled water
5:15AM - began heating milk with target of 91 °F; added cubes and cultures to cold milk; stirred in after cubes melted.
5:55AM – pH 6.65; achieved .1 drop; added CACL and rennet (recipe called for 30-40min preripening and this was 40min). Temp at 88 °F.
6:10AM – floc’d in 15 min; using a multiplier of 2.5x, my time to wait is 38 (37.5) min; the recipe had a set/floc time of 15-18min and a wait time (coagulation time) of 30-40min. This is right in the sweet zone.
6:48AM – cut the curd to 1 inch; rested 10min.
6:58AM – began heating the double-boiler…temp resisting a move to higher point…86 °F; cutting to smaller size curds (¼ - ½ inch) with whisk, stirring for 20min.
7:25AM – pH 6.60; ready to begin wash; removed 1½ gallons whey, saving for whey-brine and pressing under whey. Added back 1 gallon 144 °F water.
7:30AM – gently stirring and breaking up clumped curds for 15min at 102 °F; recipe calls for 98.6 – 102 °F.
7:45AM – boiled mold and Plyban; tried Debi’s suggestion of cutting Plyban disc for top and bottom and lining for sidewall rather than just a big sheet that contributes fold lines…it worked but seems like I still got some fold lines (it’s a work in progress).
7:50AM – dumped rest of now diluted whey from kettle, exposing curd cake.
7:52AM – filled mold with curd, pushing down to ensure all crevices at bottom get filled.
8:00AM – placed Plyban circle and small needlepoint disc on top of curd, and then small Tomme follower (Reblochon); filled mold goes into a small kettle with warm whey; the small kettle goes into the double boiler to maintain warmth; the double boiler goes to the Dutch press; initially, the pressing is with just the lever arm which delivers 11lbs to the cheese; this goes for 30 min.
8:15AM – I realized that this was a new mold and it wasn’t on my spreadsheet; I edited the spreadsheet to include this mold and my small Tomme mold (Reblochon); I’ll have to add other molds later.
8:35AM – removed everything from the press; removed the cheese but didn’t remove the Plyban (seemed like a wise decision to leave it in place for now); flipped the cheese in the mold and replaced everything; back to the press…11lbs for 30min, under whey.
9:15AM – removed all from press; removed Plyban…pressing naked now (woo-woo!); flipped cheese in mold; back to press…5lbs with 2 pulleys (80lbs, 2.6psi) for 30min.
9:45AM - removed all from press; flipped cheese in mold; back to press…5lbs with 2 pulleys (80lbs, 2.6psi) for 30min; getting nubbins from curd pushing through the drain holes.
10:15AM – pH 6.00; removed all from press; nubbins seem to be growing; put Plyban back on; flipped cheese in mold; back to press…10lbs with 2 pulleys (150lbs, 4.9psi) for 60min.
11:15AM – pH 6.00; removed all from press; nubbins seem to be back under control; flipped cheese in mold; back to press…10lbs with 4 pulleys (250lbs, 7.9psi) for 60min; recipe calls for increasing pressure 4.3 – 8.7psi.
1:15PM – pH 5.50; recipe calls for 5.30 – 5.60 before brining.
1:30PM - weighed cheese and placed in whey-brine (pH 5.28) for 6 hours; in the past I have put my cheeses that are brining into the regular refrigerator; the recipe calls for the brine to be 61 – 64 °F; I have set that temp on my black cave, but the garage has been staying cooler than that so it might be a challenge to reach that temperature; it is warmer than my regular fridge though.
7:30PM – flipped cheese; back in brine for another 6 hours.
3/29/12
1:30AM – out of brine to air-dry at room temp; placed in minicave (ripening box) with lid widely ajar.
Remarkably, everything seemed to track fairly close to the recipe. The target temperature 91 °F was difficult to reach and so I maintained a temp around 86 °F. Cooking temp was right in the ballpark. The stackable molds and use of Plyban seemed to go okay.
One of my chief concerns was what minicave (ripening box) could I use? Most of mine are focused around the flatter Tomme mold and wouldn't accommodate this taller cheese. I did find one that I've used before and it barely fit in there.
When I measured the pH coming out of the whey-brine, it gave me 4.68. I feel the meter is toying with me again. I'll go back later today and check the pH again. If it went into the brine at 5.50, I would expect something closer to that.
I have attached my edited version of the Danisco recipe which changes metric to U.S. and bars to psi. The original version is also attached. Since I used creamline milk, I entered the recipe at the "cooling" point.
The cheese will now air dry and then go into the cave for cold conditioning.
-Boofer-
