Bel Paese

[panamamike]

Today I am going to try my hand at making Bel Paese. Two cheeses each with four gallons of fresh milk delivered 10 minutes ago. Still warm from the farm next door. Also I'm making two gallons of yogurt.
Going to be a busy day sense this is a pasteurized milk cheese. This will be cheeses number eight and nine.

[River Bottom Farm]

Good luck on your make!

[panamamike]

Thanks RBF

[Thewitt]

My first attempt at this cheese is actually ready today.

I'll be tasting it later, wrapping half for further aging.

This one was strange as it ages in the standard fridge at lower temperature and the rind never dried out. It has been moist right up through today, though I've not had to pour any liquid out of the ripening box for a couple of weeks.

[panamamike]

I'm glad your cheese make went well Thewitt.
My make was a fail! Made the yogurt first ad wet well. Next pasteurizing the milk for the Bel Paese. When the temp. reached 145 F, I noticed curds forming in the pots. They were very stretchy and had formed in the bottom of one of the pots. The other pot had curds forming in it to.
PH at start of the pasteurizing process was 6.6 so should have been a problem. I don't know what happened. No acid around the kitchen. I saved the curds that had formed in the bottom of the one pot that were stretchy, but I don't know if it is a good idea to brine and save.

[River Bottom Farm]

I'm sure you will be ok brining and saving them. How long was it between milking and cooling the milk? The theory I would run with is the lag between milking and cooling allowed the native bacteria to become active and start their work then the milk was chilled and bacteria went dormant untill the milk was warmed for pasturizing then went wild causing the milk to acidify and curdle hence the strechy curds dropping out.

[panamamike]

What a disaster. After putting what could have been cheese in the brine theybroke into a million pieces.
Nothing to save!

[panamamike]

RBF, I had just brought the milk up to 145 F to vat pasturize the milk when it formed the curds. And the milk was only two hours out of the cow.

[Thewitt]

I used to use low temperature pasteurization all the time in order to delay cheese making for up to 10 days after milking, and I never saw this behavior with the milk.  I have no clue what would cause it.  Sorry. 

[GortKlaatu]

Hey Mike,
Just curious, but why did you want to pasteurize the milk?  Health reasons? Cuz recipe said? Cuz you're worried about raw milk? Other?
(I make all my cheeses with raw milk, by the way)

[River Bottom Farm]

Has to be a milk issue. I would think if the curds that dropped to the bottom where stretchy they must have become acidic at some point.

[panamamike]

Hi Gort,
I was informed by the dairy farmer that I get my milk from that there is an epidemic of Burcella at many of the dairy farms here. Her milk has tested neg. but her farm also connects to two other dairy farms only separated by barb wire fence. The milk I get is tested by the Government every week.
As you know, it only takes a little dinero to convince the Gov. not to report it. That's why I am now pasteurizing and using NaNO3. Kind of scary.
I have here'd that the milk processing plants were not taking + milk and a lot of it was being sold to individuals and at the auction.

[GortKlaatu]

Mike
That's horrible. No wonder.


Because I use my own milk (well, not MY milk haha) I know exactly what conditions everything is under. Everything is spotless in the barn, there is no crowding, the "girls" are seen by the vet every 3 months, I control everything they eat--no silage. No other goats (or cows or sheep) within several kilometers of me. And the milk is filtered and in the fridge 5 minutes after it leaves the teat. Never have had any "weird" issues with any of the cheeses or other dairy products, so I feel good about my milk.