This is my first time writing, so I'll introduce myself. I'm an impoverished college student and I use cheesemaking (along with baking, brewing, and hunting) as a way to lower the food bills. I've been making cheese for a couple years, but it's been very hit-and-miss. I'm looking to settle down to a couple types of cheese and learn how to consistently produce quality products.
I do small batches because I have time to kill and because I want to be able to experiment and learn as much as possible.
Now, this cheese was made according to the Monterey Jack recipe on this site. I don't have pictures, but I'll describe what I did and the results I got through the process. Any criticisms of my technique or suggestions for how I could improve are very welcome.
Materials:
2/3 gal. pasteurized, homogenized milk
¼ cup half and half, ultra-pasteurized
¼ cup buttermilk
4 tsp. non-iodized table salt
Junket rennet tablet
1/8 tsp. CaCl crystals
7:30 Start: milk on heat.
Rennet and 2 tsp of salt in ¼ non-chlorinated water in the fridge.
CaCl in ¼ cup non-chlorinated water in the fridge.
7:55 milk reached 88F, stirred in buttermilk
8:40 milk had cooled to 82F
8:50 heated milk to 90F.
Placed in 90F water.
Added rennet-salt solution and stirred for one minute.
9:30 at 90F, no coagulation
10:30 at 90F, curd too soft to cut
11:20 at 90F, clean break, but still a little bit soft.
Cut the curd into half-inch cubes.
Gently stirred the curds and let settle.
11:30 Increased temperature of water to 100F.
Stirred curd every few minutes.
The curd at this point was still very soft.
It broke into small rice-sized pieces with some smaller bits clouding the whey.
11:47 Curd at 95F
12:00 Curd reached 100F.
Maintained at this temperature, still stirring occasionally.
12:30 Poured off whey.
Returned pot to 100F water.
Stirred every five minutes.
1:05 Poured curds into a cloth to remove the remaining whey.
Added 2 tsp of salt to the curds.
Placed curds into warm press under light weight.
1:15 Removed cheese from press, flipped, and placed under a heavier weight.
Next day: removed cheese from press and trimmed it to leave the ends even.
I like the taste. Even fresh out of the press it has a slightly sharp cultured flavor and 4 teaspoons was just the right amount of salt. But the texture is off. It has the squeaky homogenized milk feel and doesn't melt like a jack should. I'm letting it dry right now and then I'll wax it.
Welcome G -
Jack makes a great curd for skeeky cheese or fried cheeese curds. That being said, some cheeses will become more strechy and melt better with aging due to the changes in pH.
Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. I just opened a cheese that had a terrible texture two months ago, but is perfect now.
And I did another MJ that I should post soon. As soon as midterms finish up I'll be on the internet more.
UGH! Mid terms! Good luck hon!
I opened this cheese on November 5th, with disappointing results. It does not in any way resemble Monterey Jack.
First, it is much too sharp. My theory is that I didn't add enough culture (which would also explain the slow set I experienced). I added two ice cubes of mesophilic starter culture made from buttermilk, but I made them incorrectly. I didn't allow the buttermilk to set in a warm place and develop more bacteria before freezing it. I can correct that in my next batch. I should have realized it would be too sharp after a month aging because it had the appropriate flavor for Monterey Jack when it was fresh.
My other Jack was made with the same amount of culture. Should I cut its aging time short to prevent this problem?
The second problem is texture. It is a kind of open, crumbly texture. This one I don't understand. I believe it was pressed correctly and it seemed fine out of the press. It had a springy feel and would stretch a bit before breaking. Does anyone know what could cause this?
It's still a decent cheese and I'll definitely eat all of it. It just wouldn't pass as a Monterey Jack by anyone's standards.