Skim Rustic Hard, #7

This is the first two gallon batch I have done so far, but upon reflection on #3 which was produced out of one gallon of %1 milk, and was by far the smallest loaf produced, I thought it might be a good thing to up the quantity just in case.

Start date: 3/3/2009
Wax date: 3/5/2009
Taste date: TBD

Recipe

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

Lower fat milk is just much, much easier to work with. Everything went quite smoothing--inoculated with buttermilk and held at 88F for 90 minutes, added rennet and let it set for an hour, then cut the curds with a large whisk. I don't know if a whisk would work for whole milk or fattier.

Pressed the loaf for 14 hours at 40lbs, and when it came out it was quite attractive. The bottom of the loaf was very smooth, and the entire loaf felt more substantial and structurally solid. I wasn't afraid of it falling apart in my hands, and it even felt a little rubbery. Like #3 it formed a rind quite quickly. In fact it formed so fast that the top was a different size that the bottom for a time, which probably means I need to do initial aging in a place with higher humidity.

The loaf was brined for 30 minutes in a solution of salt and calcium chloride.

Notes and thoughts
I am a tad concerned with the texture. While I am getting closer to what I remember when I was younger as 'squeaky cheese'--that is curds that the Tillamook Cheese factory would sell without being made into cheddar--I am still a little apprehensive about how they will age. I guess only time will tell, and in a few weeks when I start cutting into these experiments I'll know more about what was done right and what was done wrong.