With a whole 6 months of Cheesemaking experience under our belts, we thought it was time to try something quite different - a Cantal....
We used the recipe in Ricki Carroll's book, with some modifications from Jim Wallace's online version, but scaled the size down to just over 2 gallons.... We used 8 litres of 2% P/H milk plus 1 litre of 18% Coffee Cream, giving a total of 9 litres of 3.8% BF.... We used the MA 4002 culture suggested, and the make went very fast, as there is no "cooking" stage, the ripening and coagulation, cutting and stirring is all done at 89 deg. F.... After a Floc. multiple of 3.5X, we cut the curds into 3/8" columns, let it set 5 minutes, then did the horizontal cuts with my curd cutter.... https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,19308.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,19308.0.html) .... and let it set and additional 5 minutes before stirring....
We spent the first half of the 30 min. stirring time barely turning over the curds to keep from shattering them.... as without heating they are pretty fragile.... After 1/2 hour, we drained them into a cheesecloth lined perforated tub, folded the cloth over the top and put a non-perforated tub on top, filled with the warm water from our water bath, like we would for a cheddar.... After 30 min. we opened the cloth, cut the curd mass into six 2" wide slices, rolled each slice 90 degrees, rewrapped them, put the warm water tub back on top, and added a 4 litre jug of warm water.... We did this a total of 4 times, until we ended up with this....
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/oo221/rsterne/Cheddaring_the_Cantal_Email.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://app.photobucket.com/u/rsterne/a/51b71c5f-e26c-457c-b4e4-d8c7586aae7d/p/b78cafbc-d9bc-4941-b16d-568564fe245d)
This is the way we do our cheddaring, but with the addition of an extra 9 lbs. of weight each time we turned the slices.... We ended up with nearly 50 lbs. of weight pressing down on the curd strips, which measured about 10" square, so that is 0.5 psi.... Here are the curds after this process.... They are very dry, as Jim's recipe calls for....
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/oo221/rsterne/Cantal_After_Cheddaring_Email.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://app.photobucket.com/u/rsterne/a/51b71c5f-e26c-457c-b4e4-d8c7586aae7d/p/16d87cc3-72ce-40aa-950c-2be7b1ba3586)
We broke them into 2" long pieces, covered them and left them 12 hours overnight to continue acidifying.... this step being noted as important for flavour development in both sets of instructions.... The next morning we milled the curds into thumbnail sized pieces (they were quite sour at this point) and added 1 tsp. of salt, three times (a total of 1 TBSP), mixing well each time.... and then loaded up an NEC "Medium Hard" mould, and pressed it 3 hrs. at 25 lbs (1 psi).... Here is what it looked like after that, it lost a lot of volume, but without losing very much whey....
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/oo221/rsterne/Cantal_at_1_psi_Email.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://app.photobucket.com/u/rsterne/a/51b71c5f-e26c-457c-b4e4-d8c7586aae7d/p/dc73edad-bcdc-4056-a443-1d5e09e5bc7c)
We turned and rewrapped the cheese, and pressed it for 6 more hours at 50 lbs (2 psi) and then turned and rewrapped and pressed it overnight at 85 lbs (3.5 psi).... Here is what it looked like this morning.... It has lost about half the volume it had when we piled the milled curds into the mould....
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/oo221/rsterne/Cantal_at_3.5_psi_Email.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://app.photobucket.com/u/rsterne/a/51b71c5f-e26c-457c-b4e4-d8c7586aae7d/p/8aebe262-a740-42ee-87be-bca9a5d38d33)
It is pretty well consolidated, but the instructions call for a lot more pressing, so I installed the second set of springs in my cheese press, which allows me to double the pressure to 170 lbs (7 psi).... Here is the way it sits at the moment.... It is no longer losing any whey....
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/oo221/rsterne/Cantal_in_Press_Email.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://app.photobucket.com/u/rsterne/a/51b71c5f-e26c-457c-b4e4-d8c7586aae7d/p/53c11ef3-4670-4a87-a0f0-c78226b88f51)
It will sit like this until tonight, when we will turn and rewrap it and then leave it for another 24 hrs at 7 psi.... That will be a total pressing time of 57 hours, not including the weighted cheddaring period or resting overnight before pressing.... I will weigh it and take another photo before we wax it....
Bob
Here is our Cantal, fresh out of the press.... I honestly don't think it needed the last 24 hrs. in the press, not a drop of whey was visible, and the cheese looked exactly the same after the first 12 hrs. at 170 lbs.... but we followed the recipe, so it can't have hurt.... ::)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/oo221/rsterne/Cantal_040421_Email.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://app.photobucket.com/u/rsterne/a/51b71c5f-e26c-457c-b4e4-d8c7586aae7d/p/0e48c5bd-115b-4fce-9b44-836d648f850e)
It weighs 2 lbs. 1 oz., for a yield of 10.4%.... It is very dense, not surprising I guess, for a moist initial make, cheddared under pressure, then milled and pressed at 7 psi.... I would imagine it will be dry enough to wax tomorrow, and then into the cave for a year, with samples at 3, 6 and 9 months.... 8)
Bob
looks really good - I am interested in trying Cantal using winter milk and then Salers using summer grass fed milk as the french do. The Salers is a much richer more complex flavour judging by what we have tasted in France. I suppose it depends where your milk comes from and whether you know about what the animals feed on. The actual recipes are identical as far as I know but of course they use raw milk which I can't emulate.
Looks so great! Can't wait to "taste" it vicariously through your description.