Gouda no 1 looks good but I bypassed so many of the instructions (see earlier posts) for Gouda no 1 I'd like to try it again properly.
Stage 1 : Make Starter Acc Instructions
1. Raised 200 ml full fat milk to 90 deg
2. Allowed temp to drop to 22 deg asap
3. Added previously opened dried starter culture from freezer, stir
4. Fill thermos with boiling water to bring it up to temp
5. Empty water and fill with starter
6. Leave for 20-24 hours
Picture below includes horrible instructions,thermos with starter incubating and gouda press on the right.
Using the Gouda starter on sale from Ascott Uk
Immediate problems :
1. Dutch companies instructions for starter very badly written. Even my husband who had to read the german translation instead (he is german) and who has fluent english admitted the english translation was appalling.
2. Mother rang in the middle of the process with a crisis and it took a while longer to get the starter into the thermos....:-)
Estd actual temp was 19-20 deg when it went in the flask...
So far so good with the good intentions :-)
Looks good so far Sal, even with tough instructions, there are some Gouda recipes posted here but sounds like yours as Dutch sounds more authentic. I've made the recipes posted here and while it makes nce cheese, frankly it is not very Gouda like as too crumbly. Keep letting us know your results! Nice Gouda mold and follower from Ascott's :).
I like the cheese mold the have there. Hopefully things work our this time for you.
Ok This is based on a recipe by Katie Thear
1. pasteurised milk at 66 deg for 30 mins
2. dropped to 32 deg and added starter
3. waited 20 mins added rennet
3. left for an hour and a half.
Again not a great set but better. Starter looked fine. remembered to dilute rennet this time.
Next stage
1. heated to 38 deg stirring all the time
2. continue to stir for another 30 mins replacing 2.5 litres whey with fresh water at same temp of 38 deg 3 times
3. Drain whey
4. press for 20 mins with 20 lbs
5. flip and press with 30 lbs for 20 mins
This is the whey. I posted this as a result of reading a discussion about colour. It is greenish, but not as green as the pic.
Now the pressing
1. finally increase pressure to 40 lbs for 3 hours
2. put in a 20% brine solution for 3 hrs
Finish.
Please see very heath robinson press below. Hubbies going to make me something better tomorrow.
Interestingly from the same amount of milk, had a fair amount of curds more than the previous occasion as you can see in the drip pan. last time I got it all in the mould but this time a fair amount left over.
Also I have added a pic of the kitchen after I finished. Last time it looked like hell, now not so bad. It seems to be a lot about getting into a rhythm.
Anything I can do with the leftover whey?
Make ricotta, dead easy, and great to use in a lasanga.
Ooo Tea how and do I need to get it in the fridge now??
Pic of heath robinson press with 40lbs of pressure on, tying the bottles together really does give it more stability.
OK tea no probs I think I ve got a plan for the whey. It is indeed fine to let it sit for 12-24 hrs whilst making ricotta.
Now where this gets really cool is, I need a decent ricotta to make Austrian Kasnudel which are unspeakably good.
A large pasta ravioli with a potato / ricotta filling, black peppermint and chervil as the herb mix and pure butter (unsalted) poured over.
Simple and fantastic
I have never let the whey sit for any length of time, so I can't help you there, although if it is going to be kept in the fridge you might get away with it.
I usually make it while I have everything going making cheese.
In the recipe exchange section on page three, Cheese Head has a recipe for ricotta. It says to keep it at a temp for 1 hour. Personally I have never done that, so I don't think that is imperitive. I add 1 cup of wholemilk to what ever whey is left over, usually from a 10lt batch of cheese, and add the vinegar until it starts to lump.
Would love for you to post your recipe in the recipe section it sounds great. I have a pumpkin ricotta recipe that I was thinking I might add.
HTH
Ricotta was a complete failure. Got 1 tbsp from 5l of whey, so I'm going to try another recipe!
Making feta today so might try again later.
Gouda no 2....
Did everything according to the instructions this time. The major diff is the level of rubberiness. This one is not so dense but squdgy. It feels like a rubber ball!
Well it certainly look great. What size is that mold, and what is the final weight of the cheese. Sorry, just trying to envision it. Sorry about the ricotta too. Keep trying.
521g, first gouda was 450g so in following the recipe better we got a better yield.
Salmac,
I am interested in understanding how to properly press cheese. I am reading your post, and you indicate you are applying 40lbs of pressure.
I see two water bottles on top of your cheese.
Assuming these are at most 2 gallon jugs, this will yield 4X8lbs=32lbs of wieght.
Now, if you divide that by the surface area of your cheese, you will get your pressure that is actually being applied to your cheese.
So, assuming a 4 inch wheel, and 32lbs of weight, this gives you about 2.5PSI
If you were going to make a 6 inch wheel, or a 10 inch wheel, would you increase your wieght to maintain the 2.5PSI?
Do other folks care about PSI?
That Wayne is a class question.
Actually its 4 X 5 litre bottles. So 20L which is 20kg or near 40-45 lbs which is what it says in the book, however common sense would suggest it is indeed pressure that counts not weight per se.
Yes I would say you do need to monitor the psi but dont have any idea of the metric, I'll let you know if I find anything.
At the metrics I use for the small gouda the cheeses work well.
Best of luck
Sal
Wayne
To make a 5lb cheese approximately 5X the small gouda, one of the experts on another site says use 75lb of weight, so there probably is a relationship, it didnt unfortunately mention the size of the mold but my guess is it would be 10-12 inchs.
Sal
Hi Wayne, I have to admit that I don't worry about PSI when pressing, I usualy just use what ever weight is recommended for the cheese.
This has been interesting though, and I would think would be important if we were wanting to create the same cheese we had mastered, but is a much bigger wheel. I am going to keep looking into this, and see what I find.
I knew I'd seen something somewhere.
Please see the following from a cheese book I've got
"The pressure of a large commercial cheese press is normally expressed in kN/m squared Kilo Newtons /square metre where 6.89kN/m square=1lb force per square inch.
The area referred to is the surface area of the top of the cheese.
The amount of force applied varies directly with the overall weight of the cheese. A cheese with the same surface area but twice the weight of another would require twice the force applied.
A small cheese with 50lb exerted on the top surface area of 21.7sq in (Wheeler) would experience a force of 2.3 lb/sq.in or 16 kN/M sq"
Using an online tool it tells me the gouda I make which is an approximately 5 inch diameter cheese has a 20 square inchs surface area of the top of the cylinder. For this a 500g cheese it is approx about 4 inchs tall.
Hope this helps. I'm not quite sure I completely understand this explanation.....<scratches head> or more importantly how to work out what weight would be required on say a 10 inch diameter cheese which is 80 sq inches surface area and a weight of 2.5 kg and again 4 inchs in height.
Answers on a postcard please....
Sal
Thank you for the response. I am getting wildly differing points of view on this topic.
But there seems to be a consenses around the 2-5 PSI range of pressure. Not the 25-40PSI ranges that I have also seen.
I am also seeing some evidence in my own cheesemaking that backs up your statement about cheese of the same diameter that weighs more, needing more weight.
I am beginning to thinking that my 10 gallon batches need more PSI than than my 2 gallon batches. Even using the same diameter mould.
The other sense that i am getting is this. Noting all the other extremely technical details that are well documents such as acid, pH, cultures, temperatures, it is odd that there are some, really simple details like psi are that are vague.
I am beginning to think that certain details around cheese making are kept vague for a reason.
Trade secrets.
Am I alone in this suspicion?
Yep all manufacturers want to protect their methosdology and ingerdients, guess that goes back through the artisan craft guilds a couple thousand years. Someone on this forum posted that they were looking for a Jarlsberg recipe, I hunted all over the web, nothing, a secret I guess.
Basically I think other than the mass manufactures where it is a science, for most, cheese making is an art, that frankly is tougher to repeatedly do on small home cheese making scale, due to all the variables, thus the interest in this forum.
The good news is that some of us are inventing some new cheeses ;D.