My first Butterkase (and first cheese!)

[DoctorCheese]

Hello cheese people of the internet. My name is Jobe and this is my first real attempt at making cheese. I decided to try Butterkase because it has a short maturation period. I followed a recipe for the most part but added lipase because I like a lot of flavor. Here is my process:

10L 365 (whole foods) milk
1 packet Thermophilic
Half rennet tablet
2.5 ml CaCl
¼ tsp lipase

108 degrees. 40 minute inoculation, 40 minute rennet set. ½ inch cut, 5 minute heal. Stirred 30 minutes, 60% whey removed, 1 gallon water added. 15 minutes stir at temp.

Pressed 10 lb ~ 4 hrs, 24 lbs 12 hrs.
Brined 12 hrs
Aged 30 days at 60-90% humidity (my current situation is highly variable)*
*I keep it under a glass container to make the humidity higher than the rest of my "cheese cave"

It will be ready just after new years and I am very excited! I noticed that the yield from 10L of milk was about 50% of what I expected and would love advice if anyone has it.

[nccheesemike]

Hi Doc! I am no cheesemaking expert but I'm wondering if your low curd volume is due to the rennet tab? Are those the ones you can get at a grocery store? When I started into cheesemaking I picked those up too. I've heard they don't curd milk well. I bought liquid animal rennet and it works great. Just a thought from reading your post.

Cheese looks nice and I hope she ages well!

[DoctorCheese]

The tablets I use are Nova +QSO, the instructions on the back are in french or Italian or something. I got them from a cheese shop in town here but they are the same ones sold on amazon and the like. I guess I could try using liquid rennet but I have read that the results are comparable.

[Danbo]

Nice looking cheese! A cheese for you...

The temperature at 108F seems a bit high for the rennet. Not sure if it's an issue. When I make butter cheese I keep the temperature at 102F (which I think is in the high end for renneting).

Danbo

[DoctorCheese]

Danbo- Are you saying I should bring it to the right temp for thermophilic culture but then let the temp drop before putting in the rennet?

[Danbo]

Well... Even small changes in a recipe could change a lot. There i a lot of different ways to make a butter cheese and the recipe that you use could be just perfect.

I heat up to 39C and then after cutting the curd I heat up a bit more by removing whey and adding hot water.

I thougt that 39 was near the upper limit for the rennet but I just found out that "...a temperature of 40 ° C to 42 ° C is ideal for rennet coagulation."(http://www.azaquar.com/en/doc/cheese-technology).

Most cheeses are renneted at 30-32C but butter cheese are usually done at a higher temp.

When rennet is used at a higher temperature / for a longer time, (I think) the curd will hold more moist resulting in a moister cheese. Also the curd is much firmer when cutting.

:-) Danbo

[Boofer]

Here's another recipe for you to consider.

-Boofer-

[Danbo]

The recipe Boofer refers to is good!

[reg]

Boofer and Danbo, are you guys using the geo in your butterkase ?

[Danbo]

Normally I use it... I'm not sure that it has a lot of effect when ageing for 14-28 days. Not sure...

Do you know Boofer?

[Boofer]

Sorry, never made a Butterkase. Years ago I flirted with the idea, but never did.

I'm in the process of making Fourme d'Ambert #6 right now as I'm typing this. I'm using PLA in this make to help protect the rind. I think if I was going to make a Butterkase I would probably try to include something similar to protect the rind.

-Boofer-

[Danbo]

I agree. I tried to maintain a natural rind on a previous butter cheese and it is hard (but I'm not that good at maintaining rinds)... I wax mine...

[DoctorCheese]

What are geo and PLA?

[awakephd]

Jobe, geo is short for geotrichium, a yeast that is used in the affinage of many cheeses. It can occur naturally, but what you get with a wild variety is of course unpredictable, so when it is specifically desired, a particular variety of geo can be added to the milk or sprayed on after the cheese is pressed. One example where geo is often used (typically included along with PC - Penicillium Candida) is in mold-ripened cheeses such as bries and camemberts.

PLA is a blend of several ripening molds and bacteria, principally some geo and B. Linens. The latter is the bacteria that produces an orange/red color to the typical "stinky cheese" such as muenster, reblochon, or tallegio. Specifically, this is the bacteria that produces a "stinky feet" odor. As you can imagine, not everyone likes it -- but it does add a tremendous depth of flavor to any cheese, so even for cheeses that are not intended to be mold-ripened to the point of softening, B. Linens is often added or encouraged, to develop the rind up to a certain point. Again, it is naturally occurring, so you can encourage B. Linens to develop by following a rind treatment that keeps the rind moist with a 3% brine; often the brine is made partly with white wine. But using PLA, or just a straight B. Linens addition to the recipe, will again give you a more specific and predicable result.

If you haven't yet done so, let me encourage you to explore two sources. One is free - read through the descriptions of different cultures, molds, yeasts, bacterias, etc. in an on-line cheese supplier site such as www.artisangeek.com. The other is to purchase the book, Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Gianaclis Caldwell. This is the "Cheese Bible" for many of us on this forum -- super helpful in understanding what is going on at the scientific level, but still accessible for the lay person / hobby cheese maker.

And one other comment: 108° seems WAY TOO HOT for adding the rennet. Rennet works better up to a point; for example, it will give a stronger/faster set at 98° than at 88°. But then it tapers off and becomes less effective at even higher temperatures. Most cheese recipes add the rennet at somewhere between 88-98°. And most recipes ripen the milk in the same temperature range.

[DoctorCheese]

Thank you for all of the advice and information awakephd! I will do some research on the different cultures and molds very soon. I feel silly because after I posted asking about what geo referred to I actually within a few minutes found it using google but I still wanted more personalized information so I left the question posted.

You say milk is ripened at a lower temp but doesn't thermophilic culture like it hotter?

I am very niaeve to the flavors and names of different mold ripened cheeses, but I just tried Gorgonzola last night and I think I am in love. One of my next few cheeses will be some kind of rougforti cheese so I have a lot of research to do!

Thanks again, I look forward to more interactions between us in the future.