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Hi Cheeseforum!

I'm sure the titles already says it for most, but here's the long version.

I was trying to make the Jarlsberg like cheese from cheesemaking.com last Saturday and as I usually go, I put the milk in my pot in the morning, add CaCl2 and then heat and make my cheese later that day.

So I did, but when I added the Rennet, the Milk didn't coagulate at all after 30 minutes. I've added half the Rennet again and it did Coagulate.
I went on with the recipe as normal, but the curds already gave me a strange impression when in my mold. They felt like they retained waaay too much whey.
Hoping the whey would be pressed out, I started pressing ... to no avail.

I brined the cheese on Sunday and put it out to try on Monday morning.

A day and a half later, the cheese is dry on top but heavily leaking on the bottom and seems to have a swelling on top. See images attached.
There are also some smaller mold spots - wonder what those are and how to get rid of those?!

At this point it seems clear, something when wrong (but what?!) and I wonder if there's a way to save or salvage the cheese now?

Thanks!

Can you clarify what you mean by getting the milk ready in the morning and then making cheese later in the day? The milk should go as quickly as possible from fridge temp to culturing temp, with cultures added along the way. (10-20 minutes or so)
Are you using raw or pasteurized milk?
Does your cheese look like a sponge inside?

Quote from: Bantams on October 08, 2020, 03:48:09 AM
Can you clarify what you mean by getting the milk ready in the morning and then making cheese later in the day? The milk should go as quickly as possible from fridge temp to culturing temp, with cultures added along the way. (10-20 minutes or so)
Are you using raw or pasteurized milk?
Does your cheese look like a sponge inside?

I thought I've read somewhere that it's benefitial to take Milk from the fridge a couple of hours before using it and putting it in my pot, adding CaCl2 and then letting it sit. Which I've done here with this one. Is that wrong?
I'm using pateurized mill
How do I best check if it's spongy inside? Cut out a wedge?

You definitely don't want to leave milk sitting around as it will encourage the wrong bacterial growth.
As I said, go straight from fridge to stove, adding culture around 70 degrees in your way up to 90 or whatever.
What temp was your milk? Did you measure the rennet carefully? (I use a syringe) I would use 0.75 ml/gallon for that style of cheese. Dilute the rennet in cool non-chlorinated water.

I was wondering if the whole cheese was swelling possibly indicating coliform bacteria contamination. I'm not sure why just part of it would swell.
I'd age just to see what happens but anytime the rennet is off like that it likely had affected the cheese quite a bit.

Alright, no more letting the milk sit (let's hope my - so far perfect - Raclette is not affected).

I went straight with the temps in the recipe - 98F to add culture and keep the temp for the Rennet. I usually either use my 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 tablespoons to measure the Rennet or use the jewelers scale and I dillute my Rennett in a Deer Park water ... so no tap or fridge water that could have something.

The whole cheese is swelling. The top is elevated, not just a little bit of it.

Since I try to vacuum pack all of my cheeses for aging, should I leave it out a little longer until it's "drier" or should I vacuum seal it now and leave the whey that will be pulled out in the bag?
Also, anything I should do for the black spots?

How long do you brine?
I'd air dry another day and then vac seal (ignore mold spots).
I think your milk was likely the issue (too old?) because you've been making other cheeses successfully without any issues with coagulation.
Not sure if the swelling is PS or coliform. Sudden swelling in the press or next day usually indicates coliform. The cheese will smell funny though. Usually results in whey retention, soggy, spongy cheese with a slight funky/fishy smell. If none of this is true, age as usual.  If coliform, toss.

I think I brined this one about 9hrs.

Unfortunately I don't have a good raw milk source yet and so I'm always dependent on the Milk I get from the store ... Luckily "at least" I'm getting Mayfield milk according to the milk code that's pasteurized at the lower temp.
I'll make a new Jarlsberg tomorrow and will just vac seal this one and look at it again in a few months or if the bag starts to blow up ...

Thanks a lot for your help with this!

How's it going with this one?

Quote from: pastpawn on October 21, 2020, 12:08:46 AM
How's it going with this one?

It's hard to tell how the cheese is doing, surprisingly though, there doesn't seem to be too much whey leaking into the bag.
I've attached two pictures and for what it's worth, the cheese looks exactly the same as the day that I put it into the vacuum bag - like the 15 other cheeses I made so far. Now either I'm doing something wrong and all my cheeses are affected, or maybe not... Time will tell.

The Jarlsberg was stored at 52F so far and has been in the fridge like that for about 13 days now. Maybe a little too long according to the recipe, but the recipe now calls to move the Jarlsberg to room temperature for a couple more weeks. I'll oblige and will be moving the cheese to a warmer spot now.