Cheese A Day: 2% Rustic Medium, #6

Cheese Makers Forum FAQ Equipment part 1 Equipment part 2 History

Thursday, March 5, 2009

2% Rustic Medium, #6

After seeing some of the extremes you get in curd size and consistency, for #6 I decided to go with a simple 2% base. I was curious how the most common variety of milk would respond, especially since 2% is what most people have the easiest access to.

Start date: 3/2/2009
Wax date: 3/4/2009
Taste date: TBD

Recipe

1 gallon 2%, pastuerized and homogenized
2 cup cultured buttermilk
1 tablet of rennet
4 drops calcium chloride
Mortons kosher salt

Held the make at 88F for 90 minutes and coagulated the curd for an hour. The curd looked and felt almost like fluffy scrambled eggs. It definitely had a little bit of delicacy on the edges of the curd, but the protein was still quite resilient feeling.

The curd was easily milled by hand, and after working with it for a few minutes it got a nice elastic feel. Started the press at 6lbs for four hours, then upped it to 40lbs for 14 hours. Though this recipe is quite simple, it looks like it is going to be a solid recipe.

Notes and Thoughts
The loaf compressed well and wasn't all that 'needy'--in that I did not have to futz around with the weight to get it to press fairly evenly. I really need to invest some time into making the top/bottom/sides more uniform in texture. I'm not going for perfection when it comes to symmetry and finish, but I feel like I should up my game.

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Creative Commons License

Cheese A Day by Jeremy Pickett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at cheeseaday.blogspot.com.

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