CheeseForum.org » Forum

It's been ages since I've had a chance to make a cheese.  Even this weekend I didn't get out to get the milk on Saturday, so picked it up Sunday morning which put me behind schedule (the kids have things to do Sunday mornings, so I can usually get the cheese made up and in the press by the time they get home, provided I get going around 7 or so).  Anyway, not to be deterred, I decided to go with a fairly straight forward and quick make, and chose a montasio.  I made 3 wheels of this years ago as grating cheeses.  In fact, I still have 2 of them waxed, and unopened.  The first of the wheels is still getting used (we go through spurts of pasta and use it then, but haven't had any for ages now).  Anyway, those makes used 1/4 tsp of calf lipase which I find is great for grating but not so great for table cheeses.  So, backed the lipase back to 1/8th of a tsp for this one and will probably cut into this in around 3 months.  The photo shows the temperature rise during the cooking phase and I'm very pleased with how well I kept to the trajectory.  Although, it is better to start a bit under it then catch up later.  If you start fast and slow down, you'll create a skin on the outside of the curds and you don't expel the whey properly.  The curds were very sticky, almost "melty" after draining the whey, so I'm thinking all of this make was going nicely to plan.  Fingers crossed.  :)

Montasio: Sunday, June 14, 2015
6 litres Silver top (cream line), 3 Home Brand Trim 2 Home Brand Blue (pasteurized) (targete 1.19:1 prot:fat – this gives 1.14:1 – close enough))
4 ice cubes thermophillic
1/16 tsp LH
½ tsp 30% CaCl in egg cup of water
1/8th tsp calf lipase in egg cup of water
1.6 ml calf rennet IMCU 280
1)   Add CaCl2 while setting up
2)   Add cultures and lipase, and warm to between 30.5-35.0 (start : 10:49 am; start Temp 21.0 C)
3)   Ripen 30 minutes (31.0 C 1:08 - 11:?? ; note on heat until 33.0 C at 11:15)
4)   Add rennet (33.1 C 11:38 floc time 11:57:00 = 19 m 00sec 3x = 57m 00sec cut: 12:35:00)
5)   Cut to corn kernel size (1/2 cm cubes), heal 10 minutes (cut time: 12:35 heal 12:40 - ??:?? ; temp 32.7 C)
6)   Stir and cook curds while raising temp to 47.8-50 C over 45-60 minutes (start: 1:08 @ 31.8 C - reached 50 C at 1:54 pm)
7)   Let curds settle under whey, gather into large cake and drain 20 minutes: (2:05 - 2:25 [m)
8)   After draining curds, break up curds and stir for 15-35 minutes (release whey) (start time: 2:25 - 2:30) (kept it shorter for table cheese, longer for grating cheese to further dry out curds.  Curd cake was very "sticky" and curds almost melting; will stick when pressing I suspect)
9)   Move to mold and press 45 min (time: 2:35 ; 5 kg : pressed in the pot; 0.36 psi; 30 min)
10)   Flip and redress; press for 1 hour 15 min minutes at 15 kg (3:05 - 4:15; 1.08 psi)
11)   Flipped and redressed, move to room @ 19C Increase weight to 25 kg (1.79 psi) (4:15 pm)
12)   After 2.5  hours (6:46) flipped and redressed, increased to 30 kg (2.15)  (leave overnight in press; fantastic knit)
13)   Removed from press 6:33:am am, Jul 15th, weight 1276g. (15.6 cm x 5.7 cm = 1.17 g/cm3)  Excellent knit
14)   Placed in saturated brine at 6:30 8 hours/kg (4 hours/lbs) (removed at 5:00 Pm ; 1272g)

Made ricotta with the whey.  Heat to 92.1 C, add ¼ vinegar (used malt cider vinegar this time), wait 15-20 minutes.  Transfer to cheesecloth and drain.  Add 1-2% weight in salt Got 360 g, added 4g salt.

Moved to cheese cave: Wednesday, June 17, 2015; 15.7 x 5.3 = 1026 cm3 1210g = 1.18 g/cm3; rind formed very nicely, deep yellow colouring.  Cheese smells almost buttery.  Yum!

Alright, Jeff! Back in the groove!

-Boofer-

I always love to read your notes and seeing your Graff
As usual a great read Jeff
Can't wait to see how it turns out 

Thanks guys!  The weekends have been unusually busy for quite some time and I've become a bit slack.  Hoping to get another cheese made next weekend too.  Will see.

Anyway, this one is looking really good out of the press.  Here it is just before going in the brine.  Knit is great.  Surprisingly, there was no sticking of the cloth as I had expected.  Mind you, the cheese cloth was well soaked in whey, but still, I've had some thermo cheeses stick before. 

- Jeff

Into the cave today, which is pretty quick actually.  Still, rind formed very nicely, and has a deep yellow colour with a buttery aroma.  Hard not to take a big bite right now!   Down to 1210g, and measures 15.7 x 5.3, for a density of 1.18g/cm3.  Thermo cheeses are denser than meso cheeses as the high temperature cooking and usually a small cut curd helps expell a lot of the moisture and packs the curds tighter.  Well, that's my story and I'll stick to it in a court of law too!

Well, I'm suing you for making a to nice looking cheese and AC4U for doing so.
Qdog

Thanks qdog,

my people will contact your people for costs and cheese!

Cut into this one today.  Weighs 994g and measures 14.4 x 4.3 cm, for a density of 1.46g/cm3.  Has a nice sweet and nutty flavour, with a bit of lipase type sharpness on the finish.  Just the right amount lipase for a table cheese (for me at least).  Genesta really likes this one, so will be making this again.  I've got 3 of these as grating cheeses, but the 1/4 tsp lipase used in those makes is too strong for my taste as a table cheese.  Anyway, this is a very straight forward thermo make and good for beginners.  Three months seems to result in a very good cheese, and I suspect it would age very nicely.

Very nicely done, Jeff.

I was amazed at the aged rind you've got going there. Will you lose a lot of that when trimming the rind?

Have a cheese.

-Boofer-

Thanks Boofer.  What I do is trim off the outer mouldy rind, but I don't worry about removing the inner chewy bit, so there's not much loss.  When, I slice the cheese I do so lengthwise as shown, so there are two "triangles" that have the majority of the rind (from the upper and lower face) and the rest are pretty much rind free, except for the end.