20 C is plenty warm enough to bottom out the pH in 16-20 hours and is fine for a semi-lactic (which Langres is). 30 C would be OK too. It kind of depends on what you are trying to do. The lower temperature will produce smaller curds than the higher temp. Keep in mind that this is a semi lactic. It is *not* coagulated by rennet. There is not enough rennet there to coagulate the curd. This is an acid coagulated cheese (i.e. lactic coagulated). The rennet is simply there to help dry out the curd a bit and help it drain.
Not really sure I understand the technical terms (I thought the point of the rennet was to do the coagulating and the culture provided flavour), but 20C definitely didn't work well for me. The curds were very weak and the remaining liquid looked nothing like whey!
Honestly, looking at his video, his cheese is a bit more coagulated than I would have expected. He's also using 1/10 the normal rate of rennet (I would usually use 1/4), but I also know that he uses raw milk and I suspect this is where the trouble is occurring. If you are going to use pasteurised, homogenised milk, I would definitely up the rennet rate by quite a lot.
Again, don't really understand this. I def could not have gotten away with using lower than the normal amount of rennet (not sure why he used 1/10th). Even with 16 drops in 4 litres I couldn't get a decent curd. Any less and I would have just had warm milk!
(He used pasteurised milk for this btw)
excellent - glad Waitrose obliged. You need to turn the cheese in the mould by turning it onto your hand and 'catching' the curd before transferring it back to the mould upside down. This facilitates the drainage. Turn it every couple of hours. Don't worry about dropping it - it's a technique and it requires practice. You will gradually see the shape forming and eventually you can turn it out onto a board. I find paper towel initially is helpful. You need to salt it when its is solid - one side at a time You are already twelve hours in which means you curd will be a bit acid. Taste to see if it's sharp. Treat this as an experiment not perfection - next time turn it after two hours or so. mikekchar is absolutely right about the lactic/rennet set balance in this cheese . Having not made Langres myself i'm not sure about timings. Are you working to a recipe ?
Remember that what you end up with will probably not be what you intended but will be interesting and edible in itself.
Even after a couple of days it doesn't look solid enough to turn by hand and I don't want to risk it all falling into a wet mess on the floor! Here's how it looks at 48h (still using the mould as it looks a bit too sloppy still, what do you reckon?)
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0793szD02QjnJbEBltv0CqMWAYes, I am working to a recipe (see youtube link in original post)
Looks absolutely perfect! I do a lot of lactic cheeses, though I've never done Langres style. I agree with broombank. When it is solid enough to handle, it's good to salt. Be a bit careful with the amount, though. I like *at most* 1.5% of the weight of the cheese at salting and often go as low as 1.0%, depending on my mood. It's easy to over salt these kinds of cheeses. And you should definitely weigh the salt, because a small difference in the amount of salt can make a big difference in the final product.
Having said that, lactic cheeses are pretty forgiving on when to salt because you have mostly bottomed out on acidity anyway (the cultures don't work very well at low pH/high acidity). Sometimes if it's having trouble draining, I'll salt a bit early just to draw out the moisture. Broombank's comment of salting one side at a time is also a good idea. I actually usually wait 12 hours between salting -- salt one side, wait 12 hours, then salt the other side. Remember to cut the amount of salt in half for each salting :-) The reasoning is that if you have geotrichum, etc in the milk, you want to keep the overall salt level low so that it can get established on the rind. This can also be a good reason for delaying the salting a bit (the yeasts can get started, though 24 hours is usually enough).
thanks for this. Not started salting yet, hopefully it will be firm enough for that in a few days. I'd heard 3%, so thanks for suggesting a lower amount. 3% seems like an awful lot of salt!
