Hispanico

[AnnDee]

I made hispanico last week using Jim Wallace's recipe and my new manchego mould.
There was some near disastrous moments but thanks to some kind people in this forum all went well in the end.

I used:
4 litres raw jersey cow milk
8 litres lightly pasteurised milk
1/8 + 1/16 tsp of MA4002 culture.
Renco calf rennet heaped 1/8 tsp
Cacl 1/2 tsp


Heated the milk to 86F (30C). Then in the culture.
Ripen for 30 minutes.
Then add rennet diluted with 1/4 cup of water was added. Mix well for 1 minute.
Flocc in 12 minutes x 2.5 ~~ 30 minutes
I was supposed to cut vertically, rest 2 minutes, then cut horizontally. But instead I cut both ways, then rest for 5 minutes.
Then I used whisk to cut it into smaller size, I don't think it was rice grain size but in the end of cooking it was that small.
Stir for 20 minutes.
Cooked curd slowly to 97F (36C) in 30 minutes. Added 10 minutes more of stirring because I thought it hasn't cooked enough.
Then I let it settle under the whey. Drain the whey until curd level and gather the curd under whey and using muslin I press it under the whey for 20 minutes.

Drain all the whey and press

30 minutes at 6 kg.
60 minutes at 12 kg
5 hours at 18 kg
Overnight no weight

The next day it was brined with heavy brine for 12 hours.
Now it is sitting in my cheese cave 13-15 C with 80% RH.
I will oil it in a couple of weeks.

Attached some pics of my make.

[Al Lewis]

Beautiful cheese Ann.  Glad to see you got your mold straightened out.  AC4U!!

[Kern]

Nice cheese, Ann.  Have another on me.

Your curd cutter looks awfully much like a wire cooling rack.  Is that what it is?

[AnnDee]

Thank you for the cheeses! 

Yes Kern, you have a good set of eyes. I am rather lazy when it comes to cutting curd so I found this 'tool' aka wire cooling rack, it works well for now. 

[Boofer]

I am rather lazy when it comes to cutting curd so I found this 'tool' aka wire cooling rack, it works well for now. 

Clever!

A cheese for that inventiveness and for the sweet-looking Hispanico.

-Boofer-

[AnnDee]

Thank you Boofer! 

[AnnDee]

Update on this one, I rubbed some olive oil and paprika today. The cheese is 4 weeks old now. Smelt good before the rub, but the rind is dry 
I put it inside a plastic box now, following what Al Lewis did on his manchego.
How long should I age this cheese? It is only around 1.3 kg now.

[Boofer]

Wow, no responses? 

What type of taste and texture you are targeting determines how long to age out any semi-hard to hard cheese. My personal preference is somewhere between 4-6 months. That typically gives a fairly mature yet sliceable cheese. If you want a grating cheese, you'll want to extend the affinage out further to perhaps 12-18 months. HTH.

-Boofer-

[gjfarm]

Absolutely beautiful cheese at all stages.  What mold is that?

[Al Lewis]

Beautiful cheese!!  AC4U!!

[AnnDee]

Thank you Boofer, I think I will age it for 4 months only as I want sliceable cheese and because of its size. It sits inside a box now with he lid ajar, so the rind has dried up further but of course...the mold has start to come and play.
But it's ok, I can handle a little mold.

[AnnDee]

Absolutely beautiful cheese at all stages.  What mold is that?

Hi gjfarm, I use a manchego mold for this one. I got it from here.

[AnnDee]

Thank you Al! How very kind of you.

[jasperfarm]

Wow, beautiful!  I'm going to start my first Hispanico today.

I have a large basket mold from NE Cheesemaking that I thought I'd use - can you fill me in (or send links) to what came up for you as you were molding (you mentioned something happened)?

Also, is that a square cake/casserole pan that you have the milk in?  Really great idea to do that along with the improvised curd cutter, very creative.  Do you do it on the stove top?  Our current stove is just four round electric burners - in a few months we will have gas and I think that will be easier to handle - any tips for even heating using a big rectangular pan like that?

And finally, is that belper knolle in your profile pic?  One of our new favorites!    Guinevere

[AnnDee]

Hi Guinevere,
Welcome to the forum!

So...It was my first time using the manchego mold with the pattern attachment and I did not realise that I had to sand the insert a little to loosen the insert otherwise it would be nearly impossible to get the cheese out in one piece as I was pressing the cheese without cloth. So the first press I did without sanding the insert and I had to bang the mold, smacked the bottom of the mold and poked around until the cheese finally out of the mold ( it was still pliable).
I think basket mold will work wonderfully, it also has a rather nice pattern that I love. I think using 2 baskets will be ideal, 1 for the mold and the other as a follower so top and bottom of your cheese will have the nice design.

I am using stainless steel food pan, I have a 12 and 16 liters capacity, above that I still have to use my trusty round pot. I used a rectangular steak/bbq stone on top of the stove, then I rest the food pan aka vat on top of it so it doesn't get direct heat, the bbq stone absorb the heat and transfer it to the vat. The rate of heating is similar to when I use hot water, around 5-7 minutes per degree Celsius.

Yes! That is belper knolle, a staple in my house. We are using it as a parmesan substitute