Hi, I'd like to make my first gouda but I have a question about the kind of water.
I know that I have to use distilled or non-chlorinated for adding rennet and CaCl, but can I just use tap water for washing the curd? Does it matter if the water is chlorinated after the rennet has already set the curd?
Thanks!
PS. I did try a search, but do you know how many times the word "water" appears? lol
Chloride kills bacteria. Also good lactic bacteria that the cheese needs to develop. The work of bacteria does not stop after adding rennet, so the answer is: yes it does matter, don't use it. In The Netherlands we are lucky to have high quality non-chlorinated water from the tap, so I can use that directly.
I use carbon filtered tap water.
Thanks for the clarification!
I'm actually not 100% sure if the tap water in Korea is chlorinated ( I think it is), so I'll just stick with bottled. Luckily it's cheap here :)
Thanks!