Direct Salting a Grana? - My "Grana Vecchio" Recipe

[rsterne]

The make went very well indeed.... There was no problem getting it to knit, although it took pressures more like a Cheddar.... Here is the recipe, with photos following....

Grana Vecchio Cheese (Salted Curd Parmesan) by Bob Sterne
(Recipe based on Paul Thomas’ Book “Home Made Cheese” Pg. 115)
Takes Approximately 7.5 hours to Overnight Pressing.

Equipment Needed:
1/2 tsp.                           Two Thermometers
3/16 tsp.                         Flocculation Bowl
1/8 tsp.                           Both Curd Cutters
1/4 cup                            Measuring Cup (Glass)
2 Stainless Cups               Stainless Bowl and Pasta Pot to save whey
Small Cylinder Mold            Cheese Cloth for Mold and Colander
Slotted Ladle                    Colander
Slotted Spoon                  Butter Knife
Dinner Knife                     1/2 tbsp.
Two Timers                      Whisk (Small)   
1/16 tsp. (opt. LH 100)

Ingredients:
8 L Skim Milk (0%) 
850 ml Coffee Cream (18%) 
   Total – 8.8 L at 1.7% Butterfat (Optionally use 4 litres each of skim and whole milk)
1/2 tsp. Calcium Chloride, dissolved in ¼ cup cool water
1/8 tsp. Thermophilic Culture (Su Casu) (Optionally use 1/8 tsp. MA 061 plus 1/16 tsp. LH 100)
3/16 tsp. double strength Liquid Chy-Max Rennet, dissolved in ¼ cup cool water
2 Tbsp. cheese salt

Method:
Heat the milk to 99° F.  Add the calcium chloride solution and stir well to combine during heating. 
Sprinkle the starter over the surface of the milk, wait 2 minutes for the powder to rehydrate, then stir well. 
Cover and allow the milk to ripen for 45 minutes, maintaining 99° F.

Add the diluted rennet through a skimming ladle and stir gently with an up-and-down motion for 30 seconds. 
Top stir for 30 seconds.  Cover and let sit at 99° F based on flocculation time multiplied by 2.5X. 
Check for a “sloppy” break (about 30 minutes).

Cut the curd vertically into 3/4”-1” columns.  Rest 5 minutes.  Cut the columns horizontally to 1/4” slices. 
Rest 5 minutes.  Whisk to pea-size, stirring the curds for 15 minutes.   

Heat the curds to 131° F by increasing the temperature over a period of 45 minutes (~3° F every 5 minutes). 
Curds should be barley sized. Remove from heat, cover and allow to cool for 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes,
until the curds are slightly sour tasting.  They will be firm and squeak, and be about plump rice sized.

Drain curds in cloth-lined colander for 5 minutes (save whey). Separate the curds so they look like cooked rice.
Add 1/2 tablespoon of salt to the curds, stirring in thoroughly with your fingers, allow to absorb for 2 minutes.
Repeat 3 times more, for a total of 2 Tbsp. of salt.  Lift the curds in the cloth and place in mold. 

Gradually press up to 15 lbs., making sure the whey is only dripping out, not running.
Press for an additional for 15 minutes, maintaining 15 lbs. (1 psi).
Flip, and wrap in proper cheesecloth for mold.  Return to mold.
Press at 30 lbs. (2 psi) for 30 minutes.  Flip, rewrap and place back into mold.
Press at 60 lbs. (4 psi) for 1 hour.  Rind should be knit.  Flip, rewrap and place back into mold.
Press at 90 lbs. (6 psi) for 10-12 hours (overnight).

In the morning, trim the edge if necessary, flip and press at 15 lbs. (1 psi) for 30 minutes (no cheesecloth)
to remove cloth marks.  Air dry 1-3 days (at 55° F), turning twice daily. 

Yield about 1 lb. 7 oz. (7.4 %).  Wax in yellow wax.  Age at 55° F for a year. 
We will sample a quarter at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months to assess.

The changes to Paul's recipe were that I added 1/2 hour to the length of time it sits after cooking, to increase the acidification before I salted the curds (which was the major change).... Here is a table of how the curds changed as they cooled slowly in the vat over that 2 hours.... I removed the vat from the water bath and put it on the counter in a 72*F room during this acidification period....

Start - 131*F - sweet side of neutral - no squeak
15 min. - 127*F - sweet side of neutral - a hint of squeak
30 min. - 126*F - neutral taste - starting to squeek
45 min. - 124*F - neutral taste - squeaking
60 min. - 120*F - sour side of neutral - firm and squeaky
75 min. - 118*F - sour side of neutral - firm and squeaky
90 min. - 117*F - slightly sour - chewy and squeaky
105 min. - 115*F - more sour - chewy and squeaky
120 min. - 113*F - definite sour taste - firm and chewy like cooked rice and squeaky

I did one additional test to try and assess the pH (I don't have a pH meter).... I took a teaspoon of whey and dusted a tiny pinch of baking soda into it and watched for any sign of CO2 bubbles.... I thought I saw some at 105 minutes, and my wife confirmed there were definitely tiny bubbles forming at 2 hours.... This proves that the pH is definitely acidic.... At that point we drained the curds (they looked like cooked rice), salted them and put them in an NEC Small Cylinder mold for pressing....

I only used 10 lbs. for the first pressing, and the cheese was so delicate you had to be careful it didn't crumble, in fact a few curds fell off and my wife replaced them before putting on the top cheesecloth for the second pressing (at 20 lbs.).... At 40 lbs., and 2 hours into the pressing, the rind was almost completely knit, with just a few cracks.... Based on these pressing results I have increased the weights by 50% in the recipe above for the first 2 hours of pressing.... Photos of our make follow in the next post....

Bob

[rsterne]

Here are the photos of the make.... After warming the milk to 99*F we added the Calcium Chloride and Su Casu culture....



During the 45 min. ripening, we covered it with a towel and maintained the temperature....



After adding 1/4 tsp. of Rennett, we used the spinning bowl Flocculation test.... It gelled in 8 minutes, so I adjusted the recipe to 3/16 tsp....



After a Floc. Multiple of 2.5 X, (20 minutes) we expected and got a slightly "sloppy" break....



I cut the curd into 1" columns, and jiggled the vat gently to separate them and start expelling the whey during a 5 minute resting period....



I then used my horizontal curd cutter to cut the columns into 1/4" thick layers, and rested another 5 minutes....



During that 5 minutes I twisted and swirled the vat gently to separate the cubes and accelerate the release of the whey....



I used a balloon whisk with the wires bent to a 1/4" spacing to break up the curds to pea sized....



This was followed by 15 minutes of stirring, still at 99*F, to get the curds as uniform as possible and continue whey release....
The curds sank quickly as soon as you stopped stirring them, with just a slight tendency to clump together....



At this point, the curds were fairly uniform, firmed up nicely, and not easily damaged.... Now they were raised to 131*F over 45 minutes (~3*F each 5 min.)....
The photo below was taken at the beginning of heating, by the end they were half that size and cooked completely through....



The next stage was to remove the vat from the heat, cover it and allow to cool slowly over a 2 hour period.... This causes the curds to shrink even more and increase in acidity....
After the 2 hours, they were drained and salted, then put into the NEC Small Cylinder mold and pressed as in the recipe (4 stages)....



This photo is half way through the third pressing, when almost all of the whey had been drained....



After 2 hours of pressing the rind was almost completely knit (photo below), and the cheese was then returned to the press for overnight....



In the morning, the rind was tight and the cheese was very firm.... It weighed 1.5 lbs. before drying...



After a couple of days of drying, we waxed this cheese.... and put it away for 6 months before sampling a quarter of it....



We will consume a quarter each 6 months, with the last portion aging a total of 2 years.... So now the wait begins to find out if you can salt the curds of a Parmesan instead of brining it, and what the result will be.... 

Bob

[awakephd]

Bob, half or more of the fun of making your own cheese is that you can experiment! I will look forward to the results. (Yeah, having to wait two years is a bit of a down side, but ...)

I'm curious about the horizontal curd cutter in your pictures - this looks very similar to one that I made and use. Did you make this, or is this something that is now available commercially?

[rsterne]

I made it myself....

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,19308.

It is indeed a copy of yours, I linked to your design in that thread....

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,14315.0.html

It works great, so much better than the curd harp I made previously....

Bob

[rsterne]

PS.... We opened this cheese today, and are delighted with the results.... We had a small piece of Parmesano Reggiano for comparison, and we definitely ended up with a Parm, but it is still a bit young, at only 6 months....



It is firm and dry, and slices great.... Half of our first quarter we will set aside for grating on Pasta, but we are delighted with it as a table cheese.... Realistically, I can see no difference between brining it and direct salting the curds before pressing, as we did in this original recipe.... We can't wait until it is a year old to see how it improves with age.... This cheesemaking experiment is definitely a success.... 

Bob

[rsterne]

We had our second quarter today, at a year old.... AMAZING !!!!

It is a full-flavoured Parmesan, easily better than what you would buy in a Supermarket, and rivalling any Parm we have ever had.... It is firm and dry, and just a bit salty, as it should be.... The colour has darkened as well, and it tastes better at a year old than the "real" Parmesan we made 2 years ago was after 2 years.... 

We are so enthused about it, we are going to add an extra cheese in between our every-other-week schedule, just so we will have that one ready when we run out of this one at 2 years of age.... We will age it a minimum of 10-12 months.... This recipe is a complete and total success.... 

Bob

[mikekchar]

I'm going to have to give this a try.  My biggest problem is finding a big enough pot (and finding enough milk)...  Usually I'm limited to 4 liters :-P

I will probably modify the draining, though.  I don't have a press capable of pressing fully ripened curds, so I'll probably gather the curds until the whey, put them in the mold an press lightly (like a Beaufort).  Then drain and continue pressing until it's closed.   I think I should be able to get most of the benefit you are getting and it's a bit closer to what would happen in a true parmesan make.

[rsterne]

Sounds good, Mike....hope it works out for you!....

Bob