Raffine Challenge...

[bansidhe]

Sir OzzieCheese suggested we do a Raffine challenge in which I make Raffine and on the other side of the globe he makes it.  Today was my cheese day so a I brought up the Raffine recipe from NE Cheesemaking. https://cheesemaking.com/products/raffine-cheese-making-recipe

I was first interested in this cheese because the picture on the NECheesmaking site make it look so darn pretty. It looks like a delicious dessert, though I am sure it wont taste like one.. and I suspect my version will not be as beautiful but I digress. 

My ingredients:
2 gallons Natural by Nature Whole Milk.  This milk is flash pasteurized.
1/4 tsp MA 4002 culture
1/32 tsp GEO13 GC.  Recipe called for GEO17, but I dont have that.
1/64 tsp B Linens
3/4 tsp Single Strength Rennet
1/2 tsp CaCl2

1) Put milk in warm water bath and heated milk to 90F. 
2) Added CaCl2 in 1/4 cup distilled water, mixed well.
3) Sprinkled on 1/4tsp MA4002 & 1/32 tsp GEO13.  (I forgot BLines!). Let sit 3minutes to rehydrate
4) Mixed well.  Temp=92 so removed from bath
5) set for 60min. 20min in when thinking of the delicious pink color.. I realized I forgot the BLinens! 
6) Added 1/64 tsp BLinens, let hydrate and mixed in.
7) Allowed to sit 40minutres (total time 60minutes)
80 Add 3/4tsp rennet in 1/4 cup distilled water.  Mixed for 30seconds,  T=87F
9) at 5minutes, I had flocculation.  Not knowing what the multiplier was to be, I cut curds after 25minutes.
10) Made one set of vertical cuts space 2" apart.
11) waited 3minutes
12) Made second set of vertical cuts perpendicular to first set and spaced 2" apart.
13) waited 5minutes
14) tried horizontal cuts.  I can never get this right.  I tried using the cheese ladle but I didn't like that.  I Tried using a long knife, but didn't like that either.  I may need to invest (or make) a cheeseharp.
15) Let rest 15minutes.  Ladled off collected whey. Recipe says to not stir but gently separate curds.   I tried but I don't think I was successful, curds still broke up anyway.
16) repeated this every 15minutes for 2 hours.
17) Ladled curds into my cheese mold.  I didn't;t have the right molds so I used one regular basket mold, One small hard cheese mold, one homemade cheese mold (plastic ice cream container with holes in it).  I chose these because they are roughly the same dimensions as the molds mentioned in the recipe.  (The hard cheese mold has no bottom)
18). Sprinkled 1/2 tsp cheese salt on each cheese.
19). Allowed to sit until they shrank about 1/2 way. (~2.5 hours)
20) Cheeses were flipped and 1/2 tsp salt sprinkled on top again.
21) ~5 1/2 hours later the cheeses were removed from the molds and placed on bamboo mats.  The are still very wet but can hold their shape.
22) Allowed to sit out ~65F and covered with butter muslin

The cheeses are supposed to spread considerable.  We'll see in the morning!  Stay Tuned. :-)

[bansidhe]

The next morning the cheeses did not appear that much different.  I had expected them to spread a bit and have a lower profile.

[bansidhe]

ABout 6 days after the Raffine make and the cheeses are developing a pale orange hue and a covering of white molds. I've been giving it a wash every other day, letting it dry then recovering. Temp control is a bit tricky since the temp should be between 60-65.  When I noticed the temps around 68, I moved to the cooler basement.  Humidity is a problem now, too.  After weeks of low humidity the past few days have been very humid here.  The basement is a bit drier because we have a dehumidifier there.  Another thing I noticed is these cheeses smell like pee!  They just developed this odor.  None of the cheeses I have made have smelled like pee before.. They have stunk to high heaven but not like urine.  I know urine has urea which can degrade to ammonia but this doesn't smell like the ammonia right out of the bottle.  Anyway, here's a pic of the cheeses!

[bansidhe]

One week in.  Cheeses are developing a pale orange hue.  I've been keeping them in the basement where it is a little bit cooler but with the heat wave we are having may be a bitt too warm.  Humidity in basement is about 60%, I have a little partially on in hopes of creating a slightly moister environment.  The basement smells like stinky feet.  When smelling up close the cheeses smell like ammonia. 

I've been washing every other day.  But they felt a little drier this morning so I gave them a light wash.

[OzzieCheese]

Well, it is my turn today. Sorry but life happened and I couldn’t start when I said. Just reviewing the recipe and I will adjust the the rennet. The original description said 3/4 tsp. or 3.5 mls. Which produces a an initial floc time of 10 to 15 minutes. And a cut time of 30 minutes. This is highly subjective is this depends on rennet strength, milk quality and culture strength resulting in pH after ripening time of 60 minutes. Using the rennet I have I will need about 2.5 mls to set with ten minutes and given that the total coagulation time could be as long as 45 minutes I would use a floc factor of 3.5 to 4.  Seeing this is the first time making this cheese I will use initially 3.5 and check for a clean break and adjust from there.
Should be fun.
Images added

[bansidhe]

ooh Cannot wait to see your process and how your cheeses develop.  :-)

[OzzieCheese]

Just waiting for the stainless gear to be sterilised. I’m making this on in hindsight of a few cheeses but mainly the comment of after a week the was a ammonia smell, something that indicates that it’s maturing too fast. So to combat that without altering the cheeses character too much I will be adding 600ml of cream to stabilise the curd. It might not go so soft in such a rush. The rennet will be adjusted as per the notes above and I’ll try to shown how I cut the sort of horizontal curd cuts. Apart from that it will be the same recipe as above.

But for now, the milk is calling me.

[bansidhe]

Yeah.. I though it might be maturing too fast, also.. I moved to a cooler spot... but may not be cool enough.  It's hot here at the moment.  My cheese fridge is at 53F (~11C) which is a bit too cool.. Maybe I should move it there anyway for this next week...  Well, no matter... I will soldier on. I am glad I have not had any blue appear.... yet....

[OzzieCheese]

There is a few temperatures missing and I think that as in section 6 I would assume that 60DegF - 15 DegC is a bit high but I see that the recipe is setting up a fast rind ripen followed by 3 weeks at 7DegC. I’ve set up my fridge for 15 DegC for the first part. For the floc factor I added 3mls of rennet and a floc factor of 3. Which started to set at 11 minutes 30 secs which worked out at 28 minutes. Pretty close to the 30 minutes so, I’m happy with that.

[OzzieCheese]

I am up to the curd cutting point. I have stuck to the recipe (apart from the cream) timing and temperatures. At the cutting time I had a clean break and decided to cut the curd. The curds are very, very soft. The first cuts done and waiting for the second. Though it not always possible to get perfect cubes I find that running the curd knife at 45 degrees, turn the pot 1/2 turn and recut, turn 1/4 turn and recut, turn half turn and recut. It may sound a little excessive but the curds come out at around the same size. With this cheese it is very soft and cutting to much will end up losing to much milk into the whey. So, I’m going to leave the last set of cuts for a few more minutes.
Images Added
The curd at cutting was very fragile and the whey removal was very milky. In comparison with even my Malembert images there is a large amount of fat loss seeing in the whey.

[OzzieCheese]

For those interested I have been keeping a pH log.
The milk started at 6.67
After culture added and ripening for 60 minutes pH of 6.58
After rennet and curd cutting pH of 6.55

I’m reasonably confident of reaching a safe pH of anything under 5, 4.7 would be awesome.

Updated
The pH was tested in the morning and hit 5.08 - I'm happy with that.

[mikekchar]

There is a few temperatures missing and I think that as in section 6 I would assume that 60DegF - 15 DegC is a bit high but I see that the recipe is setting up a fast rind ripen followed by 3 weeks at 7DegC.

I've done a few side by side tests of higher vs lower temps for this kind of rind.  I err on the side of high.  I actually prefer 16 C until I get geotrichum growing.  However, a couple of asides: I no longer add geo to my milk and I think adding b. linens to the milk is a waste of time.  If you add geo to the milk and rest it at 16 C, you'll get full coverage in a day or two.  Similar to the description in the "Raffine Info" section (hard to find on the page, but find the title and click on it), I prefer using my bamboo mats from an old cheese to innoculate the cheese.  If I don't have any old mats with appropriate residue, I just wait for geo to show up from the air/my cave.  This seems to produce a better flavour.  After the cheese gets slimy, I give it a good rub with my fingers (yay b. linens) and then set the cave to 13 C.  To be honest, I frequently start my geotrichum rinds in the mid 20's which I prefer to starting them cold.  If the house is significantly over 25 C and my fridge is full of cheese that needs a colder aging, I'll resort to starting them at 13 C, but it's not as good.  The only real downside to high temp is that you really have to watch the humidity.  This is normally not a problem for me since 25 C temps only happen just before the rainy season.

In terms of b. linens, it won't grow until the pH of the rind is about 5.8 (it depends on the variety and can show up anywhere from 5.5 to 6.0).  Adding it to the milk makes no sense to me at all.  Instead, add it to the wash if you want  a particular strain to grow.  It *will* show up from the wild, so it's not necessary at all to buy it.  My wild b. linens (or equivalent) is a bit "hot", so I've got FR22 in the freezer (which is nice and mild).  But I almost never use it.  I put the cheeses in the normal fridge at 6 C once I get the sign that b. linens is going (rind darkening and the smell picking up).  Long, cold aging is the key to nice b. linens flavour.

Bansidhe, one thing that's nice about washed rinds is that you *never* need to worry about blue.  There is literally no downside to washing a washed rind (provided that you are using a light 3 or 5% brine).  Once b. linens is actively growing, blue has very little chance and if it *does* show up, you can *always* wash it off.

[bansidhe]

Awesome!   This is great stuff!  Today I see my rind is more light orange (peach?).  One of the cheeses, however, lost a part of the rind. The paste does look nice and creamy though and the part of the rind that came off has a delicate taste.  I have also noted that the ammonia smell seems to have decreased somewhat.  So, that's good.  Not sure I should continue aging at this temp since it is higher than prescribed ..  should I move it to 52degrees so so it down and then after a week move it to cooler 45F.  Here's a pic of my cheeses...  Note, one is beautiful. I used the small hard cheese mold for that one, the surface is nice and smooth. I like that.  The others have a much bumpier surface.

[bansidhe]

Upon turning my cheese babies this afternoon, I felt they were a bit too dry. So I moved them to my cheese cave where upped the temp to 60. The Havarti that is there will do fine for a week at 60.  I should have done this before  but initially the temperatures were fine in the house. 

[OzzieCheese]

I turned the cheeses at about 3 hours and the cheeses now were still very soft and didn’t easily slide down in the molds. But, good ole gravity finally persuaded their eventual movement downwards. During the afternoon the smell of the lowering pH was evident. I left them in the molds until I retired for the evening as I knew they would still be very soft. My molds are closed so i couldn’t salt the end until the evening. So, just be fore bed I removed the molds and salted the cheese and left them to do what they will overnight.
The next morning house temp dropped to 16 DegC overnight I was greeted with 4, only very slightly spread cheeses and measured the surface pH - on both sides - as 5.08. So, I’m pretty happy with that. The humidity will be a problem here in Brisbane at this time of year - nice cool days and nights but the humidity is very low. I have set up one of my fridges with a cave cube and it should be able to keep the humidity at 90% and temp at 16 DegC without too much trouble. If anything, It will be keeping the fridge that warm that will be interesting as I don’t have a independent thermostat for the fridge.
Sorry there are no photos at the moment but I will address that today.
Images added
The temperature in my Kitchen during the day was quite cold so, I needed to wrap it up.