I want to make some hot pepper cheese. Can I add some dehydrated peppers to my curd before I pack it in the mold. Will a dry ingredient like this make the cheese dryer? Will I need to adjust the weight/time pressing?
Thanks,
Judy
I boiled some hot pepper seeds/flakes (the type you buy in the grocery store) in a bit of water for 10min - to make sure they were sterile, then added the cooled liquid to the milk, and added the drained seeds to the curds at the mixing/adding salt stage. I then pressed and aged as normal. Next time I might try adding the boiled water and seeds to the milk - since my draining bag would catch the seeds anyways. Dont have any experience with actual dehydrated peppers.
"Will a dry ingredient like this make the cheese dryer?"
It depends on the cheese, most semi hard cheeses expell whey anyhow so its not a big of a deal.
It is a bit of a deal if whey gets trapped inside so chop it up good to prevent any cavities if your pressing lightly.
The cheese is farmhouse cheddar and will press at 50 lbs.
Am I understanding correctly that I can chop my dehydrated peppers into very small pieces, mix with curd when I add salt and then just press as I normally would? Any idea how much pepper to add to 4 gallons?
Are these hot or sweet?
50lbs sounds too light for a chedder. what size mould are you using?
the mold is 2 pounds. It's about 5" diameter.
The recipe is Farmhouse cheddar in Ricki Carol's book. The peppers are jalepenos and they were spicy---HOT! They made me sneeze chopping them! I decided to cook them and mix them with the curd when I mixed the salt. It's very pretty.
Cooking them was probably a good move. Besides the moisture issue, you have to worry about introducing contminants. By cooking them you can effectively 'sterilize' them.
Susan