Hi, this is my 1st attempt at making an english style coulommier cheese, using basically the Ricki Carroll recipe (no pH testing), although instead of lightly salting at the end I followed guidance on the dairyscience.info site and brined them (2 cheeses) in a saturated brine, but for 20mins only. For 1 cheese I laced some dried thyme through and sprinkled the same along with black pepper on top and on the other just sprinkled black pepper on top. I just tasted the 1st and it tastes quite bitter - could anyone tell me what I might have done wrong, and/or how I might possibly correct it (let it age...or will that just intensify the bitterness?)?
- I used full fat store bought cow's milk,
- a MM100 starter culture (first time using this, having mixed up the powder into a liter of starter (as per the instructions - seemed to go OK. I hope to use some more of same tomorrow on something else..).
- The animal rennet had been sitting around a spell and it didn't separate after the recommended 6 drops so I did add approximately 4 more drops to the 2 gallons of milk. This did the trick and the curd formed nicely after this.
- I layered the curd into coulommier moulds and they drained nicely.
- The next morning I started to flip them to speed up draining (as per instructions) and did this 3-4 times in the next few hours.
- By this time the cheeses had reduced to approximately 1.5inches in height and I removed the moulds.
- I then let the cheese sit at room temp (approx 70 degrees F) for about 30 hours to drain further (I had a work meeting away (forgotten about that!) so they were on their own until I got back.
- I flipped them again last night and added the seasoning on top.
- This morning I cut a piece off the 1st one - and pretty bitter!
Are there any number of things I've done wrong? And is there any way to rescue them? The dairyscience.info site says to refrigerate and eat the cheese within 3-4 days, the RC recipe says to eat immediately or age 1-2 weeks (doesn't specify at what temp). I may try ladling honey over them to improve the flavour but would like to understand what probably went wrong.
P.S. I now have a couple of gallons of fresh organic cow's milk (semi-skimmed) non-homogenised but pasteurised that I'd like to use on a soft cheese that could be ready within 2 days - since I'm not sure I want to repeat this, any recipe suggestions?
Thanks for any guidance.
P.S. I also have some chevre starter (powder) but only have access to cow's milk - do you think it would produce an OK soft cheese using non-homogenised organic (pasteurised) cow's milk? If so, can someone direct me to a link for a recipe? Thank you.
Store milk quality or infection are most likely causes. Seems like some kind of enzymatic imbalance leading to premature proteolysis and/or lipolysis.
Is it possible I used too much starter culture or too much rennet to create this imbalance? I was pretty careful on sterilising - dishwasher sterilising, then hot water bath with small amount of bleech, then hot water rinse and finally a low boil on the stove. Sounds like no recovery possible and a quick death advisable..?
Too much starter wouldn't do it. Too much rennet might, but not this quickly. I think there's something off about the milk if everything was sanitized.
Thanks for this help. Think I want to repeat the experiment with my non-supermarket milk (local organic) - if it fails again I guess it would point to my sanitation .. Successes are so great but cheese failures are so disappointing!
I'm pretty sure it was too much rennet (I used more than double as it didn't seem to be coagulating.. lesson: the rennet appears to be working after all!) - the cheese was also rather rubbery. The 2nd one wasn't too bitter to start but became more so after a couple of days.