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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => RENNET COAGULATED - Semi-Hard "Sweet" Washed Curd => Topic started by: Cheese Head on August 21, 2009, 07:19:13 PM
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This is my first try at making Havarti, a washed curd cheese, lightly pressed, short aged semi-soft cheese.
MILK CULTURING
- Aug 21, 2009, 1:35PM: Poured four 1 US gallon jugs of store bought pasteurized homogenized whole cow's milk from sink where warming without hot water into stockpot on gas burner ring on stove. Measurements 17C/63F, 5.65 pH (on my uncalibrated cheap gauge). Started warming slowly (stirring occasionally to reduce hot spot on bottom).
- Aug 21, 2009, 1:35PM: As milk pasteurized, to standardize - help coagulation, trickled and stirred in 1 teaspoon/5 ml diluted CaCl2.
- Aug 21, 2009, 1:40PM: To give cheese the typical Havarti cream colour, diluted 20 drops Annatto food colouring and trickled and stirred into milk.
- Aug 21, 2009, 2:00PM: Readings 78F/25.6C & 5.77 pH. Measured 0.58 grams Danisco's Choozit Brand DVI Mesophilic Starter Culture MM100 onto mini digital scale, (roughly 1.5 times manufacturers up to recommendation as mine is now 1 year old). Tapped off onto milk and stirred in with slotted ladle.
- Aug 21, 2009, 2:30PM: Milk warmed to target 31C/88F, measured pH at 5.76, turned off heat, covered and set aside 30 minutes for culture to ripen.
CURD MAKING
- Aug 21, 2009, 3:00PM: Measurements 31C/88F, 5.76 pH. Measured 0.25 gram CHR Hansen Brand powdered rennet onto mini digital scale (less than normal, trying to test how much need), diluted in 2/3 cup cool water, trickled into milk and stirred in thoroughly for 1 minute and then stopping swirl with ladle. Covered and set aside for curd to set.
- Aug 21, 2009, 3:45PM: Poor curd set, wait longer.
- Aug 21, 2009, 4:20PM: OK curd set, cut curd into ~0.4"/10 mm square rods with bread knife, let rest 5 minutes, then stirred gently intermittently for 15 minutes. Let rest at end for curds to sink. Measurements temp at 89.5F/32.0C, whey pH at .
CURD WASHING
- Aug 21, 2009, 4:45PM: With measuring cup, removed whey equal to one third of original milk volume.
- Aug 21, 2009, 5:00PM: Filled a used plastic milk jug with hot tap water, measured at 110F, microwaved to bring up to 130F/54.4C. Then while stirring curds, added hot water to replace volume of whey removed, had to add a little cooler water to reach target 98F/36.7C.
- Aug 21, 2009, 5:10PM: Stirred in 30 grams of salt.
- Aug 21, 2009, 5:15PM: Stirred intermittently, gently for 30 min to stop matting, then let curds settle to the bottom of vat for 5 min.
PRESSING
- Aug 21, 2009, 5:45PM: Removed and drained whey until 2 in/5 cm covering over curds, stirred curds hard, drained remaining whey. Curds are consistency of scrambled eggs.
- Aug 21, 2009, 5:50PM: Placed drained curds in 6" diameter hoop lined with cheesecloth, packing curds down with slotted ladle to ensure no voids/air pockets. Had to slice up curds as ladling into hoop as knitting and forming a mat. Placed follower on cheese and pressed with 10 pound/4.5 kg weight for 10 minutes.
- Aug 21, 2009, 6:10PM: Turned cheese and replaced weight and pressed for another 15 minutes.
- Aug 21, 2009, 6:25PM: Turned cheese and replaced weight and pressed for another 15 minutes.
- Aug 21, 2009, 6:40PM: Turned cheese, replaced weight and added 40 lb weight.
SALTING
- Aug 21, 2009, 9:45PM: After 4 hours, removed cheese from press, forgot to weigh, and placed in saturated brine bath.
- Aug 22, 2009, 7:45AM: Removed cheese from sat brine after 10 hours (2.5 hours per pound of cheese) and placed on mat to dry.
AGING
- Aug 22, 2009: Age 1 day. Weighed 1.87 kg/4.11 pounds, placed cheese on mat in plastic Tupperware box with lid on but cracked and placed box in fridge to start aging.
- Aug 24, 2009: Age 3 days. Turned cheese, checked that mold free, and placed in plastic box with lid on but cracked back in fridge.
- Aug 27, 2009: Age 6 days. Turned cheese, checked that mold free, replaced mat, and placed in plastic box with lid on but cracked back in fridge.
- Aug 29, 2009: Age 8 days. Checked that mold free, bathed in saturated brine for 4 minutes, when lifted found shear cracks at one side, placed on clean mat in clean plastic box in fridge with lid on but cracked.
- Sep 1, 2009: Age 11 days. Checked, slight whiting on outside and very slight mold spots, bathed in saturated brine for 4 minutes, placed on clean mat in clean plastic box in fridge with lid on but cracked.
- Sep 11, 2009: Age 21 days. Turning cheese and bathing in brine every ~3 days, more fine white good G candidum mold on rind but some bad unknown mold spots, placed on clean mat in clean plastic box in fridge with lid on but cracked.
- Sep 13, 2009: Age 23 days. Worried about this moister cheese as mold spots so cut open with cheese wire and started using in lunch sandwiches. No problems inside, taste good although light and not well developed, texture is firmer, drier than Havarti should be.
NOTES
- Do not use china bowl to submerge cheese in whey, left indent on top of cheese!
- Need much bigger brine bath to avoid having to vertical pull cheese out of brine with fingers and thumb thus creating cracks where thumb was.
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Pictures #1 . . .
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Pictures #5 . . .
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I find i get a better press with a fiberglass, not an aluminum ladder.
lol
nicely done.
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When re-brining this cheese to ensure no mold, I lowered the cheese in and out the brine bath by holding from the top, effectively pinching it, which resulted in shear cracks in picture 14 above where my thumb was and load was concentrated.
I've posted about how to place cheeses into and remove from brine baths here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1944.msg14333.html#msg14333), any comments on that welcome in that thread.
My question here is given that the cheese fractured, is my cheese the right consistency/elasticity or could/should I do something better in the making phase of my next batch?
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Gee that's a great question John. I find mine fracture when I drop them. I think I have dropped every one I have made this year at least once! I swear one of them just doesn't like the mini cave it jumps out everytime I open the door! :D
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Well I'm still eating this cheese in lunch sandwiches, mild taste, I shouldn't have gotten chicken from the surface mold and cut is so early at 23 days old.
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It looks good and creamy. 23 days is short but if it tastes good go for it. Havati is a funny cheese it has a point that it is perfect melt in your mouth cheese then another few months and it gets icky. Kind of bitter and crumbley.