"Rat Trap #5"/ "Hoop Cheese"

[Sailor Con Queso]

My guess is that the liquid is not as concentrated.

[feather]

What does it taste like?

I chewed on a whole seed, which had a mild flavor that I could best describe as claylike. Others say it's slightly sweet and peppery, musky, or has a flowery scent. In Mexican Everyday, Chicago chef Rick Bayless calls achiote paste (a mixture of annatto seeds and other spices) "a flavor that tastes as though it's been unchanged since pre-Columbian times."

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-the-heck-do-i-do-with-annatto-176177343/#9Djd0VdzGRfjDB8x.99

The annatto coloring liquid comes from the outside of the seeds.

I'm going to make your cheese tomorrow, we can't wait to try it.

[lovinglife]

This looks amazing!  I am going to make this on the weekend.  I get 4 gallons of milk a day from my goats and that is milking once a day, so I will save part from Friday night to add with Saturday's milk.  Is this a soft bendy cheese?  Does it melt?  I have found my cheese gets too dry, I think it's because I didn't make adjustments for raw goat milk.  I have been slowly making changes and so far I am seeing better results.  It will be nice to be able to follow a recipe and not have to re-think it.

[feather]

I ought to be able to cut it open around the 4th of July.

[GortKlaatu]

Hey feather. That looks great.  I sure hope it comes out like you want it. AC4U


Lovinglife--have you made yours?

[feather]

Thanks for the cheese Gort. And thanks for your recipe.

I used your recipe except I use pasteurized homogenized cow's milk, w/cacl2, scaled it down to 4 gallons to fit in my electric roaster. I've used flora danica previously and I like the buttery smells it creates. I went back to my old orange colby recipe and found 1 teaspoon of annatto was used, so I used that much and was more comfortable with that than drops. It is pretty orange-y. In my cheese recipe log, I noted that I pressed for an extra hour because it still seemed a little wet/jello-y.

I've never seen a recipe that lets the curd sit after the renneting, for 4 hours. Almost universally in the recipes I've adapted, the curd sits about 45 minutes before cutting. So I thought it was pretty different and I wanted to see how it worked out.

I'm look forward to trying it.

[GortKlaatu]

Cool.  Keep us all posted, please.

[feather]

We cut the rat trap #5 today, independence day here. It's only 2 weeks old.

The texture is very solid, the slices crumble a little but not overly much. The taste is excellent! Mild colby-ish and delicious. The texture in the mouth is very creamy.

We decided to test it for melting, a slice in a bowl in the microwave. After 30 seconds it was a shiny mass of melted stringy cheese, just like a mozzarella is stringy. This will be a fabulous grilled cheese sandwich cheese.

Gort, thank you for the recipe, it was a great success and I'll be making it again. I never in a million years would think to leave the curd sit 4 hours before cutting it. There must be some magic in that part of the recipe.

[GortKlaatu]

Feather
Mine usually isn't crumbly --maybe that's the difference in the pasteurized cow milk.
I'm so glad you made it and that you are happy with it.
Yes, it makes a good grilled cheese, and it grates well for any casserole, nacho, etc.

Lovinglife, have you made it yet?


I think it's so cool that I work it out here in Costa Rica, and now it's showing up around the world.

[feather]

Feather
Mine usually isn't crumbly --maybe that's the difference in the pasteurized cow milk.
I'm so glad you made it and that you are happy with it.
Yes, it makes a good grilled cheese, and it grates well for any casserole, nacho, etc.


I think it's so cool that I work it out here in Costa Rica, and now it's showing up around the world.

I think that the cow's milk pasteurized and homogenized does make a difference. I'm plagued by crumbly cheese but I imagine this will get better with the age of the cheese. I get smooth non crumbling cheddars, swiss, mozzarella, provolone but the cheddars and swisses age for months, so there is something happening during the aging process. I've had a smooth non crumbling harvarti, tilsit, raclette, and goudas. My colbys have crumbled but they were young.

Well Gort, you'll be famous some day. 

[Curdlessness]

Gort, I have GOT to try this!

I've been hoping I could find a cheese that was like a cheddar, but more tasting like a colby, but we called it "Longhorn" here in Georgia. I guess, because it came in a package with a drawing of a longhorn skull on it. I  don't think it was the name of the cheese, but rather the name of the company that made it. Everything in the stores today is Kraft or Sargento, and none of the smaller companies seem to exist anymore.

Anyway, I wonder if the Annatto is a requirement for anything other than color? I think I have everything on hand to produce the cheese, except for the Annato, so is it able to be made without it?

One other question about a topic that has prevented me from attempting a couple of varieties... It involves waxing. Is waxing necessary for this cheese, or could I just vacuum-seal it? I don't have the capability of doing wax, but I do have a great vacuum-sealer. It would seem to me that wax is just as impermeable to gas as a vacuum bag, so couldn't it be done?

Thanks for publishing your recipe. I am looking forward to attempting it!

[GortKlaatu]

Curdlessness
Thanks for the feedback.  You do not have to add the annatto--it is only for color. (But remember the old saying, "You eat first with your eyes"  So if it doesn't look like what you expect, it might not taste like you expect.  LOL


And yes, you can vac this one....just make sure it has pressed and dried well before you do.  I don't like to long age cheeses via vac pac, but for very young cheeses like this I found that I can't tell the difference. 


So:  Go for it!  Keep us posted

[Curdlessness]

Curdlessness
Thanks for the feedback.  You do not have to add the annatto--it is only for color. (But remember the old saying, "You eat first with your eyes"  So if it doesn't look like what you expect, it might not taste like you expect.  LOL

And yes, you can vac this one....just make sure it has pressed and dried well before you do.  I don't like to long age cheeses via vac pac, but for very young cheeses like this I found that I can't tell the difference. 

So:  Go for it!  Keep us posted

I'm thinking that natural beige/cream color that I got when I did the Havarti that failed would be just fine for me.

My concern about "bagging" as you put it, is that the outgassing of the aging process might create problems. If you think it'll be okay, then this one will be my next attempt!

I'm talking with a friend of mine who knows a guy who has cows, and I'm trying to figure out a way to get milk straight from the tap. If I can do that, it might be the perfect thing to make this cheese with.

I wonder, if I'm making it without the annatto, and vacuum-bagging it instead of waxing it, aren't I making another type? I'm not exactly following the full process, but I am doing something different, ergo, it will be a different cheese. I shall name it "Gort Smooth".

Let me get the blues out of my cheese fridge (should be the end of August for the big one), sanitize it, and this one will be my next go! 2-gallon make, of course, since I don't have the facilities to make anything bigger.

Awesome sauce!

[GortKlaatu]

Curd
Not putting the color in and vac pac-ing will not make it a new cheese.  I routined vac this one, too. But if you want to name it after me, who's gonna argue here?  Not me.  LOL
And if you do vac it, then you don't have to worry about the blue in your cave.


And yes, the gas exchange--out-gassing as you called it--is affected by vac versus other methods.  That's why I don't like to vac young cheeses that will be aged a long time.


I do vac cheeses like this that are not really aged much, like this one or Butterkase for example.  Or if after I have aged a cheese for a few months, developed a good natural rind and I want to age it much longer, I will vac then.  Of course once a cut a big wheel I then vac the rest for further aging. That's my process, because I absolutely do notice a difference in the same cheese that has been vac-packed vs waxed vs natural rind....I have done blind taste tests on more than one occasion and without fail, everyone every time rates the vac cheese behind the others. There is some disagreement about this from folks who always vac everything--it is easy and it does preserve moisture.  So maybe for them, if they don't have the best environment for aging with a natural rind their cheese does come out better that way.  It can be a hot topic. LOL

[Curdlessness]

Curd

Not putting the color in and vac pack-ing will not make it a new cheese.  I routinely vac this one, too. But if you want to name it after me, who's gonna argue here?  Not me.  LOL

And if you do vac it, then you don't have to worry about the blue in your cave.

And yes, the gas exchange--out-gassing as you called it--is affected by vac versus other methods.  That's why I don't like to vac young cheeses that will be aged a long time.

I do vac cheeses like this that are not really aged much, like this one or Butterkase for example.  Or if after I have aged a cheese for a few months, developed a good natural rind and I want to age it much longer, I will vac then.  Of course once a cut a big wheel I then vac the rest for further aging. That's my process, because I absolutely do notice a difference in the same cheese that has been vac-packed vs waxed vs natural rind....I have done blind taste tests on more than one occasion and without fail, everyone every time rates the vac cheese behind the others. There is some disagreement about this from folks who always vac everything--it is easy and it does preserve moisture.  So maybe for them, if they don't have the best environment for aging with a natural rind their cheese does come out better that way.  It can be a hot topic. LOL

Well, heck, man! I absolutely must disagree with you on the "new vs. old" thing!    To my way of thinking (and I have been cooking for much longer than I have been making cheese, but that's another story...) if you make changes to the way a particular recipe is done, then you are making a new thing. Oh, sure... It might be considered a variation of the original thing, but it most certainly isn't the original thing. It's different by virtue of being made by a different recipe or process or both. So it's a new cheese.     

For a guy who wasn't going to argue about it, you sure are doing a reasonable facsimile of making an argument   You may consider yourself the inspiration for the non-orange version of Rat Trap. To be called henceforth, "Gort Smooth" Whether you like it or not, if I do say so myself... Therefore, you are the one for whom it must be named. Again, 

See how easy this is?   

Geez, I love this board. All you guys (and gals!) are bloody awesome!

I wish I'd found it a couple of years ago when I started down this road!