My month-old
Reblochon #3 was just wrapped up today when I decided I would try to conform to
iratherfly's Reblochon Dictum.
I tried to stay somewhat true to the spirit of
The Dictum, but I did run into some tangential diversions.
Starting pH: 6.61
(Sorry, right off the bat I'm breaking the rules: I didn't use all RAW milk.)
1 gallon Pride & Joy Creamery whole raw milk
1.5 gallons Twin Brook Creamery whole creamline milk
.5 gallon Twin Brook Creamery 2% creamline milk
1 pint Twin Brook Creamery whipping cream
This culture mix has done well for me in the past. The only change is that I didn't use PC here:
1/8 tsp MM100
1/16 tsp TA61
1/16 tsp LH100
1/16 tsp Geo13
1/16 tsp SR3
1/32 tsp KL71
1/2 tsp CACL, in 1/4c distilled water
1/32 tsp Renco dry calf rennet, dissolved in 1/4c cool distilled water
10:05AM Raised milks to 94F, added cultures and CACL
looking for pH6.55
pH seemed to begin dropping almost as soon as the milk was heated or the cultures were added.
10:15 pH6.50, added rennet...pH6.47 (yes, it was dropping while I was adding the rennet)
10:31 flocculation in 16 minutes.
Here I break the rules again and plug in my favored 4x factor rather than the recipe's stated 3x factor. That makes the time to cut in 64 minutes...11:19.
11:19 pH6.40 (This is pretty active/fast culture and/or milk.)
11:20 Cut the curd to 3/4 inch. Rested 5 minutes.
11:28 Began further cutting with whisk closer to 1/4 inch. Rested 5 minutes.
I'm kind of in a race right now to conform to the recipe and not get beaten over the head by the pH rushing for the exits.
I removed 1/2 gallon of whey to make my whey-brine. (Oh-oh, breaking the rules again
...
brining instead of
dry-salting.)
Then I prepared my four Reblochon moulds with their PlyBan.
I scooped the very soft and wet curds into each of the moulds, wondering if I was going to have too much curd for the moulds I had ready. Wow, the curds mounded up in the moulds, but I was able to use them all.
I then carefully placed the lids on each of the four curd mini-mountains and pushed down gently. Then I was able to place the cutting board on top of all four of them and stack the 15 pounds of weight on top of that. That effectively delivers 3.75 pounds to each mould. (I wouldn't call that a rule violation.
)
12:30PM I flipped and rewrapped each cheese after 30 minutes. Wheels are very soft and pliable.
1:45PM pH5.70 I flipped and removed PlyBan after another 75 minutes.
3:00PM pH5.36 Time to brine...need to stop the pH freefall.
4:30PM Flipped cheeses in brine.
6:00PM Removed from brine, dried, weighed. Into minicaves and out to Black Cave.
My Black Cave has been cleared of all other cheeses and the controller has been reset to 58F +-1F. It has been running a little warmer than the set temp probably because of the warmer garage temperature.
This should be interesting.
-Boofer-