My fourth cheese making, used Gouda recipe/directions posted here (https://cheeseforum.org/Recipes/Recipe_Gouda.htm).
INGREDIENTS
- 1 US gallon of store bought Homogenized, Pasteurized Whole Milk
- Five 0.8 oz ice cubes of frozen previously prepared from Cultured Buttermilk Mesophilic Starter Culture, recipe/directions posted here: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=15.0 (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=15.0).
- 25 drops Malakai Brand Vegetarian Rennet.
APRIL 27, 2008 - Making Gouda
- 10AM Let milk warm to room temperature.
- 12PM Warmed and added 5 ice cubes of Mesophilic Starter Culture and then rennet.
- 2PM Cut the curds.
- 3PM Raised temp of milk and started removing whey and replacing with warm water.
- 4PM Drained the whey from curds in muslin sock and placed sock in press and pressed with almost 20 lb / 19 kg (used bells screwed off of hand dumbells & tied in place with top of sock so they wouldn't fall off).
- 6PM Removed cheese from sock and put insalt saturated brine bath.
- 9PM Removed gouda from brine bath, (outside harder, inside still feels soft), dried and placed on sushi roll mat and placed in fridge to start aging.
AGING
- April 28, 2008 - Aged 1 day, turned Gouda over, firmer, still white, hair line crack (yellow colour in picture is due to indoor light and my poor photoshop skills).
- April 30, 2008 - Aged 3 days, still whitish, hair line crack is now large crack, measured fridge, 37 F / 3 C, is that the problem?
- May 1, 2008 - Aged 4 days, 3 in cold dry fridge, 1 in 62 F / 17 C mini-cave with ice block and 1/2 cup water for humidity, crack healing!
- May 4, 2008 - Aged 7 days, 3 in cold dry fridge, 4 in 55 F / 13 C mini-cave with ice block changed twice daily and no water for added humidity, crack still there.
- May 10, 2008 - Aged 13 days, 2/3 in cold dry fridge, 1/3 in mini-cave, see picture #14 (rind is not as yellow as picture). Worried that taste is poor, so ate piece even though not aged 25 days as per recipe. Rind is bit hard but tastes great! Picture shows rind as very yellow, it's more white, thn that, just camera and indoor light.
- May 16, 2008 - 19 days, ate the last of this delcious gouda. Didn't get to age very long!
THOUGHTS
- Quite salty, next time, don't soak in saturated brine bath for recipe's 3 hours.
- Need better cave to age cheese in.
First 4 pictures . . .
Second 4 pictures . . .
Third 4 pictures . . .
Fourth 3 pictures . . .