So I've been making panela (mexican fresh basket cheese) for a long while now. So I wanted to experiment a little. Now normally panela cheese doesn't even use a starter culture but I wanted to add one. So this is what I came up with. For a one gallon batch I used.
1 gallon of 1% (p/h milk)
17 ounces of heavy cream
1/16 teaspoon of MW 036 R
1/8 teaspoon CaCl2
1/4 teaspoon veal rennet
I heated the milk to 90f degrees added the MW 036 , CaCl2, ripened for 30min then I added the rennet and I got 21 till flocculation I used a factor of 4x. Am looking to cut into this one in about a month. So I didn't cut my curd to small or cook it for to long. From 90f I started stirring till it hit 100f (around 20 min) turned off the heat and stirred occasionally for another 15 min. Drained it put it in my basket mould with a 5 pound weight and after 1 hour I took it up to 10 pounds and pressed for 6 hours. I rested it in the mould no weight overnight. In the morning I put in the brine bath for 6 hours.
Now its in the cave and I plan to age for 4 weeks or so. So far it smells wonderful. Here are a few pics
Very nice looking cheese this way. A C4U! So it's going to be a natural rind?
Quote from: hoeklijn on June 15, 2015, 05:37:19 AM
Very nice looking cheese this way. A C4U! So it's going to be a natural rind?
Yes am going to keep a natural rind. It's going to age for a short while anyway there's not much I can do with it. It smells wonderful its going to be hard to wait that month.
So I pull the cheese 2 weeks earlier than I was supposed to due to the fact that the that I am having humidity troubles in my cave. But all in all the cheese came out great. Very creamy and nutty flavor. Next I think I'll vacuum seal it and leave it for a few more weeks.