Worked on Gouda #3 this weekend and the make went well. For all my previous cheeses, I’ve strictly followed the recipes from Ricki Carroll’s ‘Home Cheese Making’. And, to date, I’ve had pretty good success using the standard store bought milk. However this time around, I decided to go with the flocculation method to determine curd set time instead of the preset time recommended in Ricki’s book. I also recently discovered that the Whole Foods in my area stocks a locally produced organic, grass feed, low temp pasteurized, un-homogenized milk. So, this was a no-brainer for Gouda #3.
Everything went really well, good curd formation, knit, pressing, etc. Pulled it out of the brine last night and Gouda #3 has joined his brothers in the cheese cave for drying. (pictured below) And yes, I know there's a lot of room in there. I'm working on that...
Final thoughts... I tasted a few of the curds prior to pressing and they had this wonderful grassy taste. Waiting for this cheese to mature is going to be difficult!!!
