Emergency Help w/Farmhouse Cheddar

So...

I'm trying to make a farmhouse chedder with a 1 gallon of local milk.

I added 1/4 tsp of CaCl2 and warmed to 93 (overshot)

Then I added a cup of buttermilk that had been sitting on my very warm counter all afternoon (6 hours). It stunk like sour milk and was super thick, but not quite yogurt consistency. Also it said homogenized on the package but not pasteurized.

At 45 minutes, I don't really have much sign of curd. Am I supposed to at this point, or does it not show up until I add the rennet?

Should I tinker and add a 1/4 tsp of Citric Acid to get things moving along?

I realize my temp, age of buttermilk, and probably five other things aren't quite right.

Sheesh... As lucky as I've been with beer, I suck at cheese.

Did you use any rennet?

Whew... Yooper is here everybody! Things are going to be ok, now.

The recipe I'm using says don't add rennet until the second hour, but I was thinking curds should be here by now.

It's starting to get a little chunky. I'm going to give it 1 1/4 hours before adding the rennet instead of 45 minutes and we'll see.

So the homebrewer in me is reacting to these problems.

Problem:
Buttermilk isn't thick as yogurt, maybe not viable enough.

Homebrewer Solution:
Well if your yeast (bacteria culture) is weak viability overcompensate on the pitch rate and put triple the culture in.

Problem:
Curds aren't forming, indicating that ph may still be too high.

Homebrewer Solution:
Well if your missing your gravity (ph), then just add some DME (citric acid) to compensate.

Not sure if I should listen to the homebrewer or not.

Hahaha. No, you don't have to listen to the homebrewer!

I've never done it with buttermilk, but the idea is to add the culture so that the pH is correct (from the culture growing) so that the rennet will form curds. so don't worry- you shouldn't have curds yet, just a slightly sour (taste it if you want) milk.

I've only used powdered mesophilic and thermophillic cultures. But I know buttermilk and yogurt are often used- they just take longer! Patience, grasshopper!

Alrighty, when both Yooper and SWMBO both tell me to not mess with it, who am I a lowly mortal to disagree.

After 1 1/4 hours of cultured milk at 90 degrees, we're adding the rennet.

Rennet added. The Farmhouse Chedder Crisis of '11 will continue in an hour and change when it's time for something to happen.

More proof that you should never argue with the Yooper/SWMBO combo, our curds formed up just fine.


This is our setup.


The curds post cutting by a few minutes.

After an hour we'll strain and drain.

FYI for the future... You, in fact, don't want to see curds before you add the rennet -- it means you are too acidic. This will prevent a clean break once you add the rennet!

Looks like you did great this round. I regularly use buttermilk, especially for queso fresco-like cheeses.

Are you doing a cheddaring process, and are you going to be aging this?

I have had horrible luck with cheddars... let us know how it turns out! Looking good so far.

manoaction said:

More proof that you should never argue with the Yooper/SWMBO combo, our curds formed up just fine.


After an hour we'll strain and drain.

Click to expand...

It looks great! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

We've got some more pictures of the two rounds sitting in their homemade molds. (C-clamp and cut up tupperware).

I am hoping to age it out, but have no experience on whether or not it will work. It certainly looks like cheese right now. It has slightly sour buttermilk smell to it, but we'll see. I throw some new pictures up when I get home.

After heating the curds to a little over a 100 and holding them there for 45 mins, we strained the curds.




After 45 mins of hanging there, we unwrapped them.




Broke them up and salted them.




Then it was into the press made from cut up tupperware and a c clamp. Dan the roomie couldn't take the long hours. He's never going to make it as a Fromagist.




The next day while drying, this miserable ***** got on my counter and snaked one of the rounds. Damn her eyes...




Now I just have the one round left, and it's drying nicely. I had a tough time getting the cheese cloth off without breaking curd again. I need to not mess around and get a regular mold.