First Colby (and first post), actually getting the hang of this

[thwaps]

Hi all,

This is my first post. I only discovered the forum about a month ago, having listened to all of Gavin Webber's Little Green Cheese podcast (binged in a month)  . I have been trying to make cheese for about two or three years now. I've had some spectacular failures and some good successes.

Today I opened my first Colby and it was great! I was hoping for a mild, springy, orange cheese of my midwestern (USA) childhood. It was perfect, even with the small mechanical holes. Aged 5 weeks. Could try for a few more weeks next time.

I compared a few different recipies and did sort of a version of Ricki Carroll's but with the brining step instead of adding salt to the curd. For 2 gallons of non-homo milk I used 1/4 t. of annatto for a great cheesy color. I have also now learned to reduce the starter culture (many hard and crumbly cheeses) and used only 1/8 t. of Meso II.

I am glad I planned to make this true American cheese to be ready to open on the 4th of July.

I also made a Jack to have with it today, which I tried to mold in too big a mold (lesson learned). Couldn't keep the wild blue mold off it. But it tastes pretty good anyway.

Happy 4th everyone!

[Hambone]

very professional thwaps.... !

[GortKlaatu]

Congrats thwaps   AC4U


I had been searching for that springy, elastic atomic orange cheese of my childhood for a long time. It was usually called Hoop Cheese in the midwest and Rat Trap in the South.  I discovered that it was the original Colby...not the Colby of today.  I developed my own recipe.  You might want to check out this thread:
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,17088.0.html