I used Pav's recipe again with substitutions and notes indicated below. This was my first 6 gal. make (of anything), as I wanted to test a 8" deep full-size rectangular steam table pan and new cutter sized to the pan. Posting this in "cheese making equipment" as it does show some of our products.
Recipe and notes:
6 gal. whole cows milk (low-temp pasteurized, non-homogenized)
3/8 tsp P. roqueforti
1½ tsp rennet
¾ tsp MM100 (substituting for Aroma B)
2 cups cream
4 tbs. salt
Pre-warmed milk in sink
Added 6 gal. milk + 2 cups cream to pan
Warmed milk to 86F; pH 6.4
Added ¾ tsp MM100 and 3/8 tsp P. roqueforti
Ripened 60 min.; pH 6.4
Added 1½ tsp CaCl diluted in 2/3 cup cool water
Added 1½ tsp single strength rennet diluted in 2/3 cup cool water
Surface gel in 10 min.; recipe calls for 4 x gel but first cut wasn't clean so I added another 10 mi.
Cut curd into 1" cubes with new prototype curd cutter*
Let curds rest / heal 10 min
Stirred very gently with spatula for 10 min. while curds were fragile
Continued stirring another 20 min.
Let curds settle until pH 6.0
Siphoned out most of whey
Pitched curds by tilting pan and moving curds to higher end of pan while removing collected whey at lower end-
Covered pan and let curds drain in pot for 6 hr. removing whey as needed (final pH 4.9)
Removed slab and milled into 3/4" cubes
Salted with 4 Tbs. non-iodized salt (1 Tbs. at a time between tossing curds)
Added milled curds to 6" dia. x 10" tall cylindrical clear polycarbonate mold
Flipped mold twice in one hour (should have been 4 times, see below)
Flipped every hour for two times (should have been 4 times, see below)
This is day 2 and curds will stay in mold for another 4-5 days flipping daily. As for my "missed flips" these were unforced errors. As you will see in pics one end has larger-sized crevices so I plan to put some added weight after next flip. Also, I had reserved some curds for "icing" but somehow they got into the cheese mold (sigh).
Additional notes:
1. While there were some issues with the 8" deep pan (my stirring spatula was way too short) it handled the 6+ gal. make very well.
2. Rectangular pans are great for allowing the whey to be poured out when pitching but a 6 gal. make is way too heavy. A simple siphon tube / pump works good using some plastic mesh to filter the curds.
3. The wide aspect ratio (length vs. width) of the pan lets you put a block under one end to drain the whey while "moving"curds to higher ground. Almost as good as a draining sack and a whole lot easier.
4. The 9" square curd cutter shown in the pics worked great and we plan to add it (along with the 8" deep pan) to our product line in the near future.
5. I chose to mill the curds by cutting rather than breaking because there was so darn much cheese! Much faster and I think it does encourage good crevice "gaps" compared to hand milling (as long as you remember to flip the mold as recommended).
6. Got ready for the 1st flip of the mold and realized how do you do this :-\?? My flat mat would just slip and I knew I would dump the thing and have half my curds on the floor. Ended up molding some plastic mesh into "lids" and while it was a quick fix it worked.
I'm thinking about wire-cutting about a quarter-inch from the "rough" end and use the residual for the final coating. Good idea or not??
John, what kind of pump is that for the siphon? I think I need something like that so I can stop spraying whey all over the floor when trying to get it started with a turkey baster!
And is it sterilizable?
Susan
Quote from: scasnerkay on July 01, 2014, 02:57:35 AM
John, what kind of pump is that for the siphon? I think I need something like that so I can stop spraying whey all over the floor when trying to get it started with a turkey baster!
And is it sterilizable?
Susan
It's just a cheap one I got from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00866CNV4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). It works ok (and can be steam sterilized) but I'm looking for one that's better quality.
Nice photo essay, John. Lots of things to like there. I was intrigued with the clear mould so that you can see the progress of the pressing. 8)
Quote from: John@PC on July 01, 2014, 12:08:59 AM
6. Got ready for the 1st flip of the mold and realized how do you do this :-\?? My flat mat would just slip and I knew I would dump the thing and have half my curds on the floor.
Yeah, I've been in similar situations where I started out with a broad idea of how things
should work, but then reality reached up and threatened to slap me alongside my head when the moment actually arrived. Quick thinking and fortuituous inspiration resolved the issue, thank goodness. ;)
-Boofer-
This was fourth day and time to "ice the cake". Because of the lack of flipping (I presume) I had a few good-sized crevices. Since I hadn't reserved curds for filling in I took a wire cutter and cut about 1/8 to 1/4" thick slice from the roughest end and used that for filling the large crevices. Between this and using a butane torch to keep the spatula warm the spreading went very well (I did take my time - maybe 30 min. start to finish). The final product weighed in at 5.4 lbs. Plan to age 60 days then scrape outside and wire cut into 1" thick disks and wrap individually.
Nice job on smoothening!
Great job :) lots of nice crevasse's for P/R to grow lookin nummy ;D
Have another cheese :D
Thanks :)! I learned a lot from my earlier trys and took my time on this one. All in all very happy with the 8" deep pan and 6 gal. make. Next try will be to try to make two 3-lb tandem cheeses. I need to restock my cultures though.
A cheese for you, John! I really like your setup. Now I'm thinking ALL cheese moulds should be transparent. Too cool!!!
Thanks Eric. When I first started making cheese 3 yrs. ago I bought a very nice 6" dia. x 7" tall stainless steel mold with follower from a well known cheese equipment supply co. and paid about $100. SS is popular, efficient and durable but is a bit opaque ::). Aside from being clear the 1/8" thick polycarbonate molds are light weight, less expensive and pretty much indestructible (and don't dent). I get 6" dia. parent lengths from McMaster Carr and trim them to size and bandsaw out the followers. Now that I've moved up to 6 gal. makes I'm thinking about going up to an 8" cylindrical "clear" mold and offering that on the PC website if anyone is interested. By the way I didn't mention (I don't think) in my original post that I roughly measured the volume of the curd slab and used it to calculate the mold height I needed. Turned out to be right at 10" tall so I made a mold to that size.
Nice job on the smoothing indeed John - have a cheese for a lovely-looking stilton.
And thankyou for the link to the siphon. I've been looking for a whey-draining solution. I found a cheap similar siphon locally and have bought it to give it a whirl.
Okay, the siphon came from Amazon, but no instructions..... How does this thing work anyway?
Susan
Quote from: scasnerkay on July 11, 2014, 03:15:13 AM
Okay, the siphon came from Amazon, but no instructions..... How does this thing work anyway?
Susan
You want to tighten the red screw at the top and pump the bulb. Once it starts up you can stop pumping and it should siphon. If it stops there is either an air leak somewhere or an obstruction. One thing that will help you is to cut the suction tube (at an angle with scissors) off so it's only as long as you need and that will help promote the siphoning. I use a poly mesh screen to form a dam to keep the curds from the siphon tube.
By the way, it's been 12 days so it was time to skewer the air holes. I have never done a blue cheese this large and quickly realized how much harder it was to make the holes without breaking-out on the back side. I use a skewer I made out of Delrin because it seemed to "stick" less than the knitting needle but it was still hard to push and pull through even if I warmed the skewer a bit. Ended up "drilling" them and that seemed keep it from sticking so bad and made cleaner holes on the back side. I know there is probably better advice here on the forum for skewering techniques but I had the cheese out and got impatient :-[.
Ah yes.................the Binford 2000 variable speed cheese piercing tool. ;D
I can picture you now , Walking around the kitchen , wearing a hard hat , safety goggles , and a tool belt full of cheese making tools. ;D
A cheese to you for that !!
What you don't do that jw? you must have the proper PPE you know.
I have a cheese I'll have to cut tomorrow. I'll need to put the electric chainsaw to work. ::)
-Boofer-
I like the drill idea. I have a 15cm long, 1/8" diam. bit that I might use on my next blue. That would reduce the chances of the holes closing up.
The drill is a great idea, John! Where did you buy the cheese bit for the drill? I asked at Home Depot and they looked at me funny :o ;)
Quote from: Boofer on July 13, 2014, 02:53:26 AM
I have a cheese I'll have to cut tomorrow. I'll need to put the electric chainsaw to work. ::)
-Boofer-
I have found that my DeWalt sawzall with a fine toothed metal blade works well :o
The saws will work fine for softer cheeses, but be aware that for hard cheeses (especially a well-aged cheddar or even more a parm) you really need a plasma torch.
the plasma torch helps with heating the cheese up to room temp also 8)
Quote from: H-K-J on July 15, 2014, 06:26:52 PM
the plasma torch helps with heating the cheese up to room temp also 8)
And for heating your Raclette (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette). ;)
-Boofer-
Quote from: Raw Prawn on July 13, 2014, 03:01:32 AM
I like the drill idea. I have a 15cm long, 1/8" diam. bit that I might use on my next blue. That would reduce the chances of the holes closing up.
I just used the regular skewer I use which is a plastic (acetal) rod with the tip sharpened. I didn't use a drill bit because I was afraid it would remove too much cheese. The "spinning" does help keep the skewer from sticking and the hole from closing. The suggestion to let the cheese come to room temp first sounds like a good one as well (and which I'll try for the second "drilling" later this week. I would think you could use any type of sterilized skewer or knitting needle (4 or 5mm??).
Since this thread has gone off on a technical tangent, I'll give you the exact recommended dimensions. You will get the best results if your skewer is exactly 4.37225 mm. Please note that the commonly available 4.37228 mm skewer is NOT an acceptable substitute.
Please provide an objective definition of best, and avoid using subjective terms. ;)
- Jeff
Quote from: awakephd on July 22, 2014, 03:14:27 PM
Since this thread has gone off on a technical tangent, I'll give you the exact recommended dimensions. You will get the best results if your skewer is exactly 4.37225 mm. Please note that the commonly available 4.37228 mm skewer is NOT an acceptable substitute.
well so much for us home cheese makers, I know I don't care what my skewer size is as long as I get some veining in the cheese ;D
Quote from: JeffHamm on July 22, 2014, 08:26:10 PM
Please provide an objective definition of best, and avoid using subjective terms. ;)
- Jeff
No problem at all. Best is whatever is produced in a given cheese by the methods used by yours truly. As in, "Daddy, this cheese doesn't taste right." "Sorry, you just don't know how it is supposed to taste. What you have here is actually the best [fill in the blank type of cheese] that you have ever tasted."
:)
Hm, ok, backed up with appropriate citations and you're done.
- Jeff
Look at that, what I'm assuming is a blue cheese, size! Nice work, but hey I'm compelled to know why you are drilling into that lovely cheese where it has color all throughout it? When you moulded and dried your curds, they had a lot of air space between and seemed to set up really well and the colors! but you pierce the cheese still? It is gorgeous! but I guess I'll have to wait for more images to see your mastery. I'm excited for you to see what happens in weeks to come when you finalize this awesome cheese.
simply blown away, Blue cheese is my favorite.
Thanks MooKit. Yes, the recipe calls for piercing several times during aging. Blue cheese mold requires air to grow, and all of those nice crevices you see during molding tend to close up and hence the need to "aerate" the cheese to help get the blue throughout. I've added a picture I took of the cheese after 45 days; it had a bit of fuzzy white mold that I brushed off. I plan to peirce once more (with a smaller dia. skewer this time) and it should be ready in a couple of more weeks. I was thinking about cutting this in half (crosswise) and continue aging one half. Any thoughts as if this is an ok thing to do? ????
Quote from: John@PC on August 15, 2014, 02:01:39 PM
I was thinking about cutting this in half (crosswise) and continue aging one half. Any thoughts as if this is an ok thing to do? ????
I do it all the time, we just vacuum bag and cut and rebag.
I have half of one we bagged back in 12/13 the cheese was started in 10/13 and also have one that was started in March and bagged whole in June.
we are getting curious about both, I am about out of blue in the fridge so we will be cutting a piece of the half soon :P
Thanks H-K-J. Going to see the kids this coming weekend and will cut a round to take and bag the rest. I actually bought an commercial English Stilton that I"m going to compare in a blind taste test with my family (they say they will do it as long as I pre-taste it and don't go blind 8)).
Sliced a round off about a week ago and took it up to family to sample along with a "store bought" English Stilton. Mine was a good cheese and got good ratings from the stinky-cheese lovers, but compared to the "control" wasn't quite Stilton-esque. My p.R was a bit long in the tooth and while there was blue there it didn't dominate. It had a more creamy (than crumbly) paste and a great aroma and flavor (and was very "spreadable" which made it nice for a toasted baguette). All in all a satisfactory result :D. Reserving the remaining 4 lb. for more ripening.
Here she / he is (I've decided to let it identify it's own gender when it "matures" :)) at at almost 4 months. I cut a thin slice a month ago and one a week or so ago. In that month it's gone from "stinky" to "robust". Bottom line is that's it's the most compelling (to eat) cheese I've made. Don't know if it's the best but it may be in a couple of months. I can report it contains a lot of probiotics (won't go into detail there).
I've eaten only one Stilton so I can't compare that well , but the taste is a combination of limburger and blue with a very soft, almost spreadable paste and VERY, VERY aromatic as well as a very colorful rind. When I was sampling this a couple of days ago while enjoying a Coors Light I noticed that if I ate the cheese the beer would taste like sugar water. I decided to wait and have it for a desert cheese so I could enjoy my beer before dinner.
I'm very happy with the outcome but I would have done a few things different next time: (1) would not have spun the skewer with a drill: It may have done too good a job and left holes to large (as you can see in pictures), (2) I would used a smaller diameter skewer (maybe 3mm instead of 4); (3) use Caldwell's recommended method of piercing which is go "mostly" through from top and bottom, and not from side, and (4) do a better job of spacing the piercing holes. That said it's my pride and joy and I may keep it around for awhile (kind of like "my pet Stilton" ^-^).
Good stuff. Got to be worth a cheese if only for the great array of colours.
WOW! John that has to be the most colorful cheese I have seen yet,
Red white and blue, a cheese 4 you
Thanks guys. I need to work on the piercing though.
Wonderful looking cheese, John. Great to hear its a huge success too!
A cheese for you!
John---great looking cheese!
A question on the kerosene pump-----tried one a couple months ago and ran into the same problem I ran into with all the pumps I bought and or made---issues with cleaning----how do you get all the residue out of the crevices and flap valve? I'd use these devices for 30 seconds and then spend an hour and half cleaning---went back to my simple strainer jar.
Definitely interested in 8"mold---what height will they be--will they handle 5-8 gallon makes?
Qdog
Quote from: qdog1955 on October 19, 2014, 12:12:14 PM
A question on the kerosene pump-----how do you get all the residue out of the crevices and flap valve?
This was the second time I've used it and am giving up for the reasons you state. I went back to 3/8" ID silicone tubing for 4+ gallon makes and am very happy.
Quote from: qdog1955 on October 19, 2014, 12:12:14 PM
Definitely interested in 8"mold---what height will they be--will they handle 5-8 gallon makes?
I've decided to offer these in both standard (6" or 8" high; not sure yet) and custom heights. The 8" polycarb tubes we use are not cheap but are (like the 4" and 6") indestructible and clear so you can see the level of the curds and how the consolidation is progressing. Note that it will be a week or so before we have everything up to date on the website.
Thanks Eric. By the way I did find a red wine that stands up to this: a sweet red called Rex Goliath; pretty expensive at $6 but a good story (http://www.rexgoliath.com/about-us.php#.VERInvl4qKI). My preference is beer, but when you eat the cheese and can't taste the beer you have to improvise ;D. By the way I've acquired the habit of cutting thin slices and breaking it into small "chunks" so I can grab a bite here and there (to hell with the crackers - in fact my favorite way of eating strong and even other milder cheeses is "cheese only" in small portions so you can sample more varieties; like the toothpick things they do at weddings :)).
qdog - I also use the same siphon, and have never had any trouble getting it clean. After the curd settles, I put a ricotta basket in the whey. Then the straight part of the pump goes in the basket. No curds seem to get sucked up in the pump. At clean up time, I siphon cold water through, then hot soapy water. Before use I sterilize by running star san through, letting it rest for 30 mins, then siphon clear water again.
This has been much easier for me then trying to start a siphon with tubing and a turkey baster!