I recently tried my hand at making Havarti — a cheese that I absolutely love (along with many other cheeses).
Sadly, when I broke into it on Sunday, while the taste was good, it was exceptionally dry.
I am hoping to learn from this first try and make it again. Any ideas as to what I did wrong, and how I can prevent that from happening again? I used a cream wax to age it. It aged about 7 - 8 weeks, give or take.
Many thanks!
Hello cheddarhead-in-dc.
Looks very dry. Like a Caerphilly.
Not knowing your recipe, these are a few of the main reasons your cheese is dry and crumbly:
Cheese may have been over acidified
Too much culture
Curds may have been too small
Stirred too much and lost a lot of whey
Rough handling the curds
Too much rennet
The curd cooking time was too long
The curd cooking temperature was too high
Good luck with your next batch.