Two gallon hybrid cheese

For this loaf I used skim milk and 2%, and also aggressively washed the curd (which I will explain a bit below). I tasted a couple of the earlier loaves a couple days ago, and what I got out of it was pretty simple--higher fat cheese tastes better faster than lower fat cheese. Now I still don't know yet how well they will age comparatively, but it seems to be true so far. Thus the combination of skim and 2%.


Start date: 3/4/2009
Wax date: 3/6/2009
Taste date: TBD

Recipe

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

Starting with this loaf I have been cutting the curd with a whisk, which goes faster, creates a relatively even sized curd. Basically, you take a large whisk, press it down to the bottom of the pot, and give it a gentle quarter turn. Repeat this until all the curds are cut.

After removing half of the whey, the same volume of 110F water was added. This was stirred then allowed to sit for 5-8 minutes and drained. This process was done a total of 3 times. Afterwards the resulting curd was almost tasteless, and no sweetness or 'milkiness' remained in the curd.

Notes and thoughts
Washing the curd three times is likely overkill. I suspect this loaf will likely be bland, but I think one or two washings will help reduce the sharpness that has been building quite quickly in previous loaves.