I cut open two cheeses this morning to once again find a pasty, white, acidic interior that isn't what I had hoped was in there! Two weeks ago I had taken a "gouda" with me to PeterDixon's cheese class where it revealed itself as the above description. This morning I opened a waxed 2 month-old farmer cheese with same disgusting results. A Brick cheese that is a month old, with a nice red rind, was similar but did show signs of non-pasty texture near the rind.
I learned from Peter that I'm usuing too much culture and often too much rennet; but does that expalin it all? Even a recent goat-milk feta ended up more like tofu than feta.
I've been using rennet tabs, often it was a half tab in two gallons of milk.
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The record of the Brick is:
1 gal whole cow milk
scant 1/8 tsp. Lipase 1/8 tsp. CaCL2
Heaping ½ tsp. Flora Danica (mesophillic) culture
¼ tsp. B. linens - 20 minutes @ 90 F
3/4 rennet tab @ 90 F waited about 15 min.
(watched for coagulation point - only 3 minutes - then multiplied by 4)
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Looks like real overdoese, to me.
But the feta was more reasonable:
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1 gal. Goat milk raw.
1/8 tsp Lipase
¼ tsp Flora Danica - 60 minutes @ 90 F
2 drops Annutto
1/4 rennet tab @ 90 F waited about 25 min.
Thoughts and/or advice?
#1...So sorry your cheeses are not working out!!!
#2....can you post your farmer's cheese recipe? I've been looking for one.
#3....are you getting any cross-contamination with geo or other molds? it sounds like they are trying to turn into brie's.
I'm not much help, since i am fairly new to this, too. But mine will not be the last answer, so chin up! Someone will help you figure it out!! THere are a lot of cheese genius' on this board!
Farmers Cheese - David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D
a simple cheese often used for fillings. Cottage cheese drained is called pot cheese. When the remaining moisture is pressed out so it becomes dry and crumbly, it is called farmer's cheese.
Ingredients
Two gallons goats milk
1/4 cup cultured buttermilk
½ tablet Rennet (or two drops of liquid rennet)
Procedure:
1. Warm milk to room temperature (68-70°F)
2. Dissolve 1/2 of a rennet tablet in 1/4 cup luke warm water.
3. Stir in buttermilk, mix thoroughly.
4. Stir in rennet, mix thoroughly, cover, let sit for 24 hours.
5. Check for clean break. The curd should be firm enough to cut into 1/2 inch cubes (see page on Making 5 gallons of milk into cheese for pictures). Some recipes call for stirring the curds into a slurry, and pouring into a fairly tight weave bag to drain. However, if the weave is too loose, such as with a single layer or two of cheese cloth, the fine curd will run through at first. I far prefer to cut the curd as it makes for more easily separated curds and whey.
6. ladel the curds into a sterile cloth in a strainer (or colander), and suspend in a refrigerator or cool place.
Julia Farmer further says that you can
press into small cheese molds for little cheeses
roll them in ashes, place in a jar with garlic and herbs, cover with extra virgin olive oil
Use it in cheese cake
whip the cheese up with some powdered sugar, vanilla extract and a bit of lemon juice until its well blended and then serve as dessert with sliced strawberries over the top.
or...
"You can add a pinch of penicillium mold with the starter and cure them at 50°F for a Brie/Camembert clone." I have not tried that one yet, but have made Blue Cheese with these curds with great success.
First of all, I think they need more time than 2 months. I know it's hard, it's hard for me too, but the longer it ages, the better it will be. It killed me waiting 3 whole months for my first cheese, a traditional cheddar, but once I opened it up, I wish I hadn't, or at least had another. It was ok, but it hadn't really developed the intense flavor of a cheddar. Pretty much any hard cheese really develops its flavor over time.
Secondly, what type of rennet are you using? I've really only had experience with the tablets, BioRen (calf rennet) and a vegetarian rennet that I don't know the name of off hand. For the calf rennet tablets, the manufacturer recommended 1 tab/5 gal, which would mean that 1/2 would be appropriate for 2 gal (per your procedure). The veg rennet, however, calls for 1 tab for 13 gallons--1/4 tab for less than 4 gal--so if you added 1/2 tab of the veg, then that's more than double what you should be using, and would make your cheese bitter. (Forum member Linuxboy has explained the technical reason for this on a molecular level in another thread)
Since your floc time is so quick (under 10 min is not recommended) I'd be willing to guess that this may be the case. The ideal dose of rennet will induce a floc point of 12-18 min in most cheeses.
Quote from: HOPOIL on April 17, 2010, 01:34:31 PM
I cut open two cheeses this morning to once again find a pasty, white, acidic interior that isn't what I had hoped was in there! Two weeks ago I had taken a "gouda" with me to PeterDixon's cheese class where it revealed itself as the above description. This morning I opened a waxed 2 month-old farmer cheese with same disgusting results. A Brick cheese that is a month old, with a nice red rind, was similar but did show signs of non-pasty texture near the rind.
I learned from Peter that I'm usuing too much culture and often too much rennet; but does that expalin it all? Even a recent goat-milk feta ended up more like tofu than feta.
Identical issues with both cheeses, but in reverse. Peter is right.
For your gouda, you used way, way, too much culture, and a moderate to fast acidifier. Just when you were in the mid point of your cooking, it really woke up and produced tons of acid. Also you used about twice or more the amount of rennet you should have. Result? Acid body, poor paste, cheese that falls apart very quickly as it ages. By fall apart I mean proteins break down really rapidly. Yes, this can, but not always cause bitterness. often, it just leads to off flavors, body defects, etc. With rennet, less is more. You can even target a 20 min floc target at first. Your cheese will take longer to age, but will be good. 10 min target is about the lowest you can have and make a good cheese.
About the only way you could have saved that gouda is to salt the heck out of it, and age for a decade at 40F. Even then still wouldn't be the same as a gouda.
Or, you could have changed your make midway and inculated with a mold, or inoculated the rind with a mold, so that it would eat the proteins faster than rennet, and make your paste nice, and take away the acidity.
For your feta, there is not enough acid, that is why it is rubbery. FD is a culture well suited for a slow, mild acidification, like for chevre, or as an adjunct. Tale a look at its acidification curve. Very different beast. Ripening for an hour at 1/4 tsp is not enough. end result is you get a rubbery fused curd mass, almost like a queso blanco. I bet if you sliced it and fried it, it wouldn't melt because you just made a frying cheese where the pH never went below 5.8. Next time ripen longer or use a tad more culture. And if you can, find slightly better was to measure things. milligrams instead of teaspoons. or mililiters in a syringe instead of teaspoons.
Thanks for the help.
I have a small electronic scale that I will start using. I now understand more about using cultures and using rennet. I'm learning in life that 'if one is good, two must be better' isn't a good way to go, mostly!
Think I may switch to using liquid rennet even though I still have about 10 un-opened tablets.
Will try another two-gallon goat milk cheese later this week.