Hey,
I'm quite new to cheese making and the first hard cheese I made was colby back at the end of September using the Mad Millie recipe. It was waxed a week later and stored in an improvised cheese cave (a chilly bin with ice packs to keep the temperature down).
When I went to turn it over a few days ago, I noticed that the wax had expanded at the top and bottom and it was starting to seep whey. The wax later cracked after I put it back in the cave as I couldn't deal with it right there and then. I removed the wax and the cheese seemed okay, but was very moist. There wasn't a lot of whey under the wax nor was there any mould to speak of.
As it had been ageing for 2 months I decided to cut it in half, rewax one half and eat the other. It was very crumbly inside, plenty of gaps and a split in the curd about 1 cm into the cheese. Upon tasting it, I found it was very acidic to the point of almost being unpleasant. I haven't rewaxed any of it as I am not sure whether than will make any difference.
I have a few theories as to what might have caused this acidity, but was wondering what other, more experienced cheese makers might think.
Jules
Did you write down make notes?
Yes I do. I will put them up when I have access to them - probably later today.
Thanks.
Usually acidic cheese is from the ph dropping too far before salting .
When following a recipe that uses just time as a guide for the steps, every tiny variance from the exact conditions the the person who wrote the recipe used will cause changes in the final product .
The one good thing though is that if you do not end up too far off in the final product it is usually quite edible even if it does not resemble what it was supposed to be.
Aging the cheese longer may help lessen the sharpness of the acid to some degree. You could also age it really long and let it dry a little and use it more like a Parmesan .
Melted cheese also has a tendency to taste more mild than unmelted so maybe try a grilled cheese Sandwich with it .
Thanks Gregore. I might try rewaxing half of it and seeing if a few more months will do the trick.
Stinky, this is what I did to make it.
6L unhomogenised milk heated to 30 degrees C.
Added 3ml calcium chloride and 1 smidgen tsp of Mesophillic culture (MW3). Ripened for 1 hour.
Added diluted annatto then 1.5 tablets of vegetable rennet dissolved in filtered water. It was supposed to rennet for 1 hour wbut it was 1.5 hours before I got a clean break and even then the curds were quite soft.
Once set, cut into 1 cm curds. (I struggle with cutting curds to even sizes and have to continue cutting them while stirring). Rest curds for 5mins.
Heated curds to 39 degrees C over 20 mins while stirring. Then another 20 mins stirring at target temp.
Poured off the whey to the level of the curds. Was supposed to add cool water until temperature reached 27 degrees C. This took a lot of water, more than twice as much as the recipe indicated (which was about 5 cups) and even then I could only get it to 29 degrees. Kept at 29 degrees for 10 minutes, stirring.
Drain curds for 10 mins. Then blend 1.5 tsp salt through curds.
Pressed at 10kg for 30 mins.
Flipped and pressed at 10kgs for 30 mins.
Flipped and pressed at 15kgs for 30 mins.
Flipped and pressed at 20kgs for 18 hrs (was supposed to be 12hrs).
Air dried at room temp (varying between about 12-20 degrees C) for eight days before waxing and storing in a chilly bin kept cool with ice packs. The temperature usually stayed below 15 degrees C but did creep up occasionally as the weather has warmed up.