I had to pick up coffee at work this afternoon at the commissary for the coffee mess and I don't know why but as I walked by the milk case ... I only had another 15 minutes till quiting time. 7 gallons of milk just jumped into my cart!
So I made a 7 gallon batch of Manchego. Only about 4 hours to make start to press time so is a good work day cheese and very tasty. It goes for $12 to $14 a pound here so for about $17 I made about $147 worth of cheese. Not bad for a work night!
very very nice
Very nice looking wheels. How long are you going to attempt to age these? I know that my manchego's never last to my intended aging date! It is one of those cheeses that does go though several changes during aging, and they all taste great. :D
Beautiful cheeses Debi! Do you ude lipase? Which recipe are you using?
Christy
Excellent work Deb. I must say that having good moulds certainly makes for professional looking cheeses.
Thanks everyone. I am thinking the last one I made in July will be ready for tasting here in another few months. The guys at work are driving me nuts they want to try it. So I did a split batch this time. Hopefully I can age one for about 6 months and the other for a year.
Yes I used lipase. Great stuff!
I love the kadova molds they press clean with almost no effort and they are so quick to use. One of these days I need to make gouda in these gouda molds. I haven't made gouda since I bought them.
I basically combined and adapted a bunch or recipes and descriptions as follows:
Ingredients:
1 gallon whole Milk
1/4 teaspoon Mesophilic Type B Culture
1/4 teaspoon CHOOZIT™ TA 61
1/4 teaspoon Lipase Powder
Rennet per manufactures instructions
Salt for brine
Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon Calcium Chloride (if using pasteurized milk)
Procedure:
Heat milk to 86°F.
Add calcium chloride if needed and stir well.
Add Mesophilic and Thermophilic culture and mix well and leave for 45 minutes.
Mix the lipase powder in 1/4 cup water and let stand for 20 minutes.
Add lipase mixture to the milk and stir gently for 1 minute.
Mix Rennet per manufactures instruction in 1/4 cup of pure water and add to the milk and mix completely.
Once a clean break is achieved cut curds to about 1/2 inch cubes and rest for 5 minutes.
Whisk the curds into rice-size pieces.
Heat the curds to 104°F at a rate of 2°F every five minutes. This will take about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep curds from matting together.
Rest curds for 5 minutes.
Pour off excess whey.
Fill molds in whey pressing as needed to fill.
Press with 5 pounds pressure for 15 minutes.
Flip the cheese and press again with 5 pounds pressure for 15 minutes
Flip the cheese and press again with 5 pounds pressure for 15 minutes
Flip the cheese and press again with 20 pounds pressure for 6 hours or over night.
Unwrap cheese and soak medium whey brine for 6 hours at 50-55°F turning every hour.
Remove cheese from mold and air dry at 50-55° F with a relative humidity of 80-85%.
Turn cheese every day for about 2 weeks wash as needed.
Cheese should age for 1 month or longer.
Rub with olive oil to keep rind from drying out.
Interesting recipe. Very different from the one I use (200 Easy...). Why are you adding a Thermo culture?
My understanding is it is supposed to reduce ripening time. It is mainly becuase I find all research papers I scoped that studied Manchego in Spain list a thermo and a meso.
I am looking for recipes for 3 Spanish cheeses - Roncal, Zamorano & Queso Castellano. As you're wandering the virtual Spanish Pyrenees and scouring the digital archives of ancient monasteries - keep your eyes open for these.
Roncal was the first cheese to receive the Spanish "denominacion de origen" name controlled designation.
Queso Castellano I've never heard of before. What I found so far is for the other two is to vague.
Queso Zamorano - Milk from Churra and Castilian ewes. Coagulation with rennet at 28-32°C for 30-45 minutes; dry or brine salting; matured and stored for at least one hundred days.
Roncal - Milk from "Rasa" and "Lacha" ewes. Coagulation at 32-370C for at least one hour; dry or brine salting; matured for at least 4 months.
Greatlooking cheese, what size moulds are you using deejay debi?
These were pressed in the 1.5 to 3 kg molds I split a 7 gallon batch.
Verrrry Naaaaze! It's funny how milk does that. It jumps into my cart too!! ::)
Thanks for the recipe! I'm gonna try it!
You will find this recipe will smell like it needs to be eatten after only about a month but don't. Give it a few months at least - 6 is better.
Debi, those look fantastic. Manchego is on my list this year but life really has this nasty habit of getting in the way of my cheese making.
Man those look good....
Dave
They smell awsome. I am glad they are downstairs and out of sight!