Jalapeno Cheddar Using Traditional Cheddar Recipe?

[Lennie]

The wife wants a jalapeno cheddar and Carroll's book has one for a stirred curd, but I'd rather do a trad cheddar if I can.  Is this do-able?  I boiled the jalapenos and drained the bit of water into the milk, its ripening with some buttermilk culture right now.

Would I add the chopped jalapenos right before I load the mold, or during the initial curd cooking stage?  I'm leaning toward the latter.

[Lennie]

In the absence of advice to the contrary, and after a couple of glasses of wine, I'm giving it a shot.  Also making ricotta, wondering if this will have residual jalapeno flavor.  Plus theres a pot of ham and beans on the stove too.

[FarmerJd]

Definitely right before placing in the molds. Before this you risk losing some of the flavor to the whey. The last   pepper jack I made I added the liquid and peppers together to the curds right before the hoop. The whey and extra "juice" squeezed out but left a lot of flavor.

[Lennie]

Makes sense, I'll have to add some more since I put these in before I cut slabs for cheddaring.

[Lennie]

I milled at 5.7 and pressed at about pH 5.5, as usual time ran short.  Thats one thing I have been slow to learn, timing my cheesemaking so I'm not up late.

[FarmerJd]

Looks great. Good luck. I know what you mean about timing. Many nights of getting out of bed to flip the cheese in the press.

[Lennie]

I forgot to mention that I used a mesophilic culture I made from commercial buttermilk that I had made a few days ago and stored in the fridge.  Seemed to work pretty well, the pH moved down at a reasonable rate.

[FarmerJd]

I have found that my buttermilk cultures always work faster. The flavor they produce is quite different though and sometimes is too strong for me.

[Lennie]

Strong in what way?  Should I not age it as long?  That'd be fine with me.  I don't really care for the taste of buttermilk but I hope that doesn't mean I won't like this cheese.

[FarmerJd]

Just unique. The meso cultures I buy online always are bland when I culture them but the cheese they produce is great. My buttermilk cultures just produce a cheese with a unique flavor; not bad but not the same as commercially produced cheese. Your buttermilk may not have this affect so try it first and let me know how it goes. The aging doesn't change this aspect for me. i would age like normal. Good luck.

[DeejayDebi]

Looking good there Lennie!