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Last night I made a very interesting cheese. I attempted to make an eggnog havarti. I say attempted because I am not sure what to call it at this point.

I have been thinking about this for quite some time and after the havarti experiment decided this was going to be the one. I was initially going to add an amount just to flavor the cheese but decided what the hay ... let's push the envelope. I added 1.5 gallons of eggnog to 3 gallons of cheap store bought milk. I didn't want to go for broke with raw milk.

I heated the curds as normal to 86°F and added calcium chloride, MM100 and MD89 cultures. Stirred carefully for about 2 minutes and let it ripen for 40 minutes.

After the ripening period I added the rennet, stirred for about 1 minute and didn't see the normal thickening. I placed my little ice cream cup on the milk and started to spin. Surprisingly the flocculation point hit at 2.5 minutes. I had initially decided to use 3.5 as my flocculation multiplier but at 10 minutes I still wasn't getting a clean break – out with the multiplier.

At about 45 minutes I did get a clean break so I cut the curds. Almost immediately after cutting the curds they began to shatter into something reminiscent of ricotta ... what whoa... okay change tactics.

Determined to make something of this I was tempted to switch to ricotta – eggnog flavored cannoli sounded interesting but I wanted to make a wheel of cheese. Maybe I will try the ricotta next.

I decided to cook the curds anyway but gently. I raised the temperature slowly to 98°F for about 20 minutes. The tiny curds were feeling and tasting the right texture so I drained them through a hankerchief. I had to continuously stir and scrap the cloth to drain but the smell that the curds were giving off was fantastic. Good thing I had eaten dinner earlier. I did steal a few spoonfuls for tasting amazing flavor! Did need a bit of salt which surprised me, I don't know why but I didn't think it would need anything it smelled so good. Sniff ...Hmm cheese cake? Hmmm ...  NO! a wheel of cheese!

It took at least an hour to drain these tiny curds but finally it was done. I used a colander and once drained dumped them into the gouda styled kadova mold. This turned out NOT to be a great idea. I added a tomato can about 6 pounds right off.  After about 15 minutes I went to flip the cheese and it stuck like crazy! What whoa ... okay I peeled the curds off and scraped more and crumbled the curds again and transferred this to the tomme mold with nothing but a circle cut out for the bottom from the plastic cheese cloth stuff. This seemed to work better.
I would have reheated the whey and tried to repress but by this point I had already cleaned up and packed everything away again. The whey smelled very sweet so I dumped it down the drain. DUH!

Well I did manage to get it to press in the tomme mold and it is in brining now. We shall see. I was going to add red pepper flakes and grated pepperoni to this but decided against it. I know it probably sounds weird but I often make omelets with eggnog in the mix and grated pepperoni and red peppers as part of the stuffing and it's very good. I decided against it in case after all this the curds decided not to meld.

In any event it smells absolutely amazing!  I may end up with an eggnog grating cheese with all the fines or small curds but that could be interesting too. We shall see ... This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the challenge of what to do next. Sometimes it's just fun to play. Here is the cheese after I got home from work today.

I can't wait to hear what happens when an experienced cheese maker decides to experiment and come up with something new and delicious.

If it comes out as well as Sailors gouda I will be happy. I just pulled it from the brine and right now it tastes salty - but that is normal. Still very delicate at this point.

I just dried it and have it sitting under the dome. I have very dry heat this would be as dry as jerky by morning if I didn't slow it down some with the dome.

Now that is a unique cheese!

Store bought eggnog is undoubtedly untrapasteurized to give it longer shelf life. I added extra CaCl when I made my eggnog Gouda and had a great curd set. However, even though everyone loved it, the eggnog flavor was not strong enough for me. Mine was 3-1/2 gallons of whole milk to 3/4 gallon eggnog. Next time I will double the eggnog proportion and also add 1 quart of cream to help the curd structure. I would love to be able to hit 50/50 but I'm not sure that's possible. The best solution is probably to make the eggnog from scratch to avoid the ultrapasteurization altogether.

Hmmm... you've got me thinking eggnog yogurt or an eggnog cream cheese before the nogs are gone for the season. Or Eggnog Creme Fraiche ?

Keep us updated Debi, this looks interesting.

Quote from: Sailor Con Queso on January 05, 2010, 04:47:36 AM
Hmmm... you've got me thinking eggnog yogurt or an eggnog cream cheese before the nogs are gone for the season. Or Eggnog Creme Fraiche ?

Eggnog yogurt was my first thought but I got carried away. I can't find any cream that's not UHT here unless I steal it from my raw milk. I did take another chance on the WalMart milk for this one. The egg nog was on sale there and I didn't see the ESL on the label this time. I suspect it may still be ESL though.

I'll keep you posted but I gotta tell ya my whole house smells good enough to eat right now. Smells more like Christmas than it did at Christmad time. The smell of the eggnog is everywhere. Everytime I peek at the cheese a hack off a little edge somewhere. You could eat it with a spoon. I hope the eggs don't go bad while it dries. I really makes me hungry just smelling it.

The visiting nurse was here today to check on my roommy and wanted to buy it or anything else I had available. She left her phone number for me.

I'm attempting my first havarti tomorrow and have been scouring the forum for all mentions of havarti when I found this very interesting thread. So, Debi, how did this cheese turn out?
Christine

I will have to try it again soon. I tried it at 60 days and was less than impressed. Almost no eggnog taste to it and very blah flavor with a hint of an almost a sour after taste. Thought I'd rebag it and try it as an older aged cheese.

Sure wish it kept the eggnog flavor but it really didn't - I was very disappointed. We'll see what happens at an older opening.