Colby #2 Success!

[Susan38]

I just opened my second Colby at 5 weeks of age and am so excited to report a complete success!  My first one was a little bland and a little harder than ideal.  This one has a flexible texture and a true Colby taste, or at least very close!  I credit the success to tips and tricks I learned on this forum.

Notes of interest:

1.  Aging temperature warmer than what has been used in the past...55-58 degrees F.

2.  Pressing time much shorter than what recipe calls for, monitoring pH.  Instead of overnight pressing, target pH happened at midnight.  I was ready for this due to several posts stating this could occur!

3.  Since I seem to have chronic over-acidity issues in most all my makes, I decided to dry salt the drained curds rather than to wait for a brine.  I'm thinking it slowed acid production much quicker and thus do not have an acidity problem with this cheese, yay!

4.  The 2 lb mold I am starting to use results in a fresh pressed cheese that is about as tall as it is wide.  I'm finding when I don't press as long, with a moister cheese, gravity will create a bulge in the sides when air drying.  I need to flip the cheese 3-4 times a day the first day, and at least twice a day in the days thereafter to "balance the bulge" in the middle of the cheese, otherwise it will sink to the bottom and create a somewhat trapezoidal shape, if you will.

5.  Not pressing the cheese as long does create a moister cheese, and it took several days longer than my previous makes to finish air drying.

So here is a pic of this thing.  I did not use annatto so it does not look like a classic Colby.  It also has more holes in it than I thought it would, but I read somewhere the first Colbys did have holes in them...also I used Flora Danica as the culture so I did expect some gas production.  Anyway, thanks for having a look! --Susan

[mikekchar]

AC4U!  It looks delicious!!!

[Jules]

Wow, that does look amazing!

[awakephd]

Well done - AC4U!

[Susan38]

Well, thank you all!  I just wish I could share it with you, to see what your tastebuds think!  --S.