Last Sunday we made a Wine-Infused Gouda style cheese that we are dubbing the "Drunken Dutchman"....
We basically followed Jim Wallace's Online recipe from the NEC Website, using 8 litres of 2% P/H milk and 1 litre of 18% cream, for a total of 9 litres of 3.8% BF.... We used an MM 100 culture, cut the curds to 3/4" and were very gentle with them, they were Hazelnut sized when we removed the whey and washed them with hot water, as per the recipe.... A half hour later, after the 140*F water had been slowly added, they had shrunk considerably, and it took another 30 min. of stirring to get to the "Grip Test" described in the recipe.... So far, it looked like we had a Gouda....
The next step is to drain the whey and put the curds back in a warm pot and "ripen" them for an hour, breaking them up gently with your fingers to keep them from matting.... The curds continued to shrink, and after the hour we drained them again and soaked them in my own very dark red wine for an hour, again as per the recipe.... When we drained them they were quite small, and once put in the medium cylinder mold and carefully pressed (just drops of whey running out, never a stream) at 20 lbs. for a hour they were still almost falling apart, some falling off when we flipped the cheese and rewrapped it.... The next pressing was 2 hrs. at 40 lbs., and it still was not knit, so we did the overnight (16 hr.) pressing at 85 lbs. instead of the 60 that the recipe called for.... The rind was still not completely closed, so we rewrapped it, added another set of springs to my press, and pressed it for another 16 hrs. at 170 lbs (7 psi).... The result is what you see above, not a very good knit, and an undersized cheese with a much lower than expected yield of only 1 lb. 11 oz., which is only 8.5%.... Considering you get about 10% with a Gouda, with a lower fat content, I think for some reason this cheese dried out MUCH more than it should have....
I suspect that the hour of ripening is partly to blame.... and perhaps the wine soak dried the cheese as well?.... We have waxed it and put it away to be tasted in a month, the plan is to consume a quarter each month until it is 4 months old (assuming it is tasty).... I assume it will be dry and probably crumbly.... Does anyone have any suggestions, such as omit the hour of ripening, and/or shortening the wine soak next time?....
PS.... We opened this cheese at 1 month, and were quite surprised at how good it was....
It was only slightly crumbly, sliced OK, and smelled and tasted like wine!.... The paste was a bit dry, but neither the cheese or the wine dominated, but complimented each other very nicely.... Depending on how it develops when aged more, we will probably repeat it, but try and make sure it does not dry out as much during the make....
PPS.... This cheese never really impressed us.... It was dry, and rather bland, and the added wine never really made it "pop".... Not to our taste.... Bob