Hey everyone, I tried making another round of fresh cow's milk cheese (neufchatel, I'm told is what it'd be called) yesterday and have more mishaps that will prove to be interesting experiments.
So I pasteurized the milk (about 4 gallons) in a home pasteurizer and left it sit for a couple hours thinking it would cool down, but it was still at about 140 F when I was hoping to add culture and rennet (about 9:15 PM). I was pressed for time and ran a bunch of cool water through the vat. I got it down to about 95 F and then added 1/3 cup of whey that had been refrigerated for about 9 days and had 1/2 teaspoon of animal rennet and 1/2 teaspoon of CaCl2 mixed in. Then I mixed it thoroughly and left it until this afternoon. I checked it at about 10 AM and it had coagulated quite well, but the pH was still 6.4! The starter I added had not acidified the curd at all. So at this point I winged it and cut the curd, threw in about another 1/2 cup of whey and let it stand some more. I have been watching the pH drop slowly this afternoon. Right now (5:30 PM) it is at 5.88. I am only gonna wait a couple more hours and then wherever it is I am gonna drain it. I'm running a bit of warm water through the vat to maybe speed up the process a little.
Should be interesting! I'm a little concerned that after it cooled from pasteurizing and being at a high pH for such a long time, there might be risk of pathogens establishing themselves. Also not sure how the texture or flavor will turn out. Unless a lot of acidification happens quickly, I feel like it will be mild.
Anyone have thoughts??
