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I've wanted to do one of these for a long time, ever since reading Schnecken Slayers thread on the one he did, but fate seems to have gotten in the way every time. Finally a good friend of mine, Floyd, gave me a 3 pound Manchego mold for Christmas this year.  Actually the title is a bit misleading as this is my first Manchego, period.  First let's talk about the mold a bit.  I've seen a lot of Manchego's with a straight bar down the side from the insert not meeting properly.  This one was made as a full circle and then cut in a "S" form to hide the break.  The problem was they didn't remove enough of the edge to make the insert fit into the mold.  If you pushed it in you needed to pry it out.  No good.  This required that I use a sanding drum on a Dremel motor to carefully grind one edge to a point where the insert fit perfectly.  It didn't take as long as it sounds but be careful as Dairylene will NOT hold up to a high speed sanding drum.  Very gentle.  With that taken care of I enlisted the advice of Schnecken Slayer and SOSEATTLE with regards to the treatment of the saffron prior to putting it in the milk.  Bill (Schnecken Slayer) soaked the whole threads in 3 Tbsp very warm milk when the culture was added and then poured them in just before adding the rennet.  Susan (SOSEATTLE) crushed 1/8 tsp saffron and boiled in 1/4 cup water, then cooled and added to milk.  I did both, well kinda.  I crushed 1/8 tsp into a small amount of milk which I had heated in the microwave for 30 seconds.  I also put 1/8 tsp of whole threads into the same milk and mix it with a spoon.  In a very short time it got very yellow.  I also added another 1/8 tsp of whole threads to the goats milk once I started the make.

With that dilemma solved I set out the items I would need for my make.  I actually used 12 quarts of goats milk but they wouldn't all fit on the counter for the photo so four are already in the pot.  I used Mary Karlin's recipe from her "Artisan Cheese Making at Home" increasing it by 1/3 for the three gallon make I did as opposed to the two gallon make in the book.  The goats milk came from Trader Joes for $3.69 a quart.  My make consists of:

3 gallons goats milk  (Mary used cows)
3/8 tsp saffron threads
3/8 tsp MM100
3/8 tsp Thermo B
3/8 tsp calcium chloride 32% solution in 1/4 cup of non-chlorinated water
3/4 of a vegetable rennet tablet dissolved in 1/4 cup of non-chlorinated water

Mary also adds lipase powder to hers but I didn't feel that was necessary using goats milk.

First off we heat the milk to 86° F.  I always put my calcium chloride into the pot when adding the milk.  Then I added the saffron infused milk and the whole threads and stirred them in well.  I then sprinkled the cultures over the milk and allowed them to rehydrate for 5 minutes.  I stirred this, up and down motion, with a large whisk and let it set for 45 minutes.  Note the threads will continue to float to the top the entire make.

I then added the dissolved rennet and stirred it in using the same up and down motion for 1 minute all the while maintaining the 86° F temperature.  I let the mixture set for 1 hour, Mary used 30-45 minutes, after which I cut the curd into 1/2" squares.  I then let if sit for five minutes after which I stirred it gently with my large whisk breaking the curd up into what Karlin describes as "rice size" pieces.  Looked like tiny bits to me.  I then stirred this gently for 30 minutes.  After that increase the heat to bring the temperature up to 104° F over 30 minutes while stirring all the time.  Once it reaches the temperature turn off the heat and allow it to rest for five minutes.  You now ladle off the whey to expose the curd.  I pour this whey through a butter muslin lined colander so as to not lose any curd.  I then moved the curd to the colander and allowed it to drain for 15 minutes.  This, in fact, made a very solid curd mass which I then had to break up in order to put it into my mold.

With the curd now in the mold, I didn't dress the mold with muslin as it's patterned, I pressed it with 15 pounds for 15 minutes.  I then flipped the entire mold over and repeated pressing at 15 pounds for a further 15 minutes.

Once this is complete I moved the mold, right side up, to my press where I pressed it with 30 pounds overnight.

The following morning I found a beautiful pastel yellow cheese, I was really shooting for this color.

I removed the cheese from the mold and trimmed the edges.  I then placed it into a 14% brine at 54° F and place it in my cave where it will remain for 8 hours.  More to follow.

Here's a shot of the gap where the two edges of the insert met.  The ridge on the left is actually the gap.  The other patterns are in the mold itself.  It should also be stated that these cheeses can be done in three stages as a Fresco aged 5 days, Viejo aged three months or more, and as a En Aceite coated in olive oil and aged for over a year.  We'll see where this one goes.

It's beautiful!  Have another cheese from me.


Susan

Thank you dear!!

Looking really good, Al.  Worth a cheese for sure!    I'm curious about how you flip this cheese in a patterned mold.  Yoav at Artisan Geek sells such a mold but it looks like it has a fixed patterned bottom.  I can see where you can remove the cheese leaving the patterned strip in place or at least easy to realign.  Same with the top plate.  Do you simply just drop the flipped cheese back into the mold with the patterned side strip in place, position the top plate in the former bottom pattern and let the pressure take care of impressing the new bottom (former top) or is there something more to this?  I am assuming you used this mold.

Yep, that's the one I used.  I did it the easy way.  I turned the entire mold over and sat the weights on the bottom without ever removing the cheese.  Has the exact same effect as flipping and redressing.

Looks great Al, I love the fact you added some whole threads as well, which will bleed into the cheese, and gives it a bit of extra character.

ac4u also.

Thanks Bill.  I agree about the threads.  I knew I wanted them in there but wanted that pastel yellow as well.  I guess you can get what you want, sometimes.