Gorgonzola

Feb 27 2007

5L 2% milk

1L 10% milk

CaCl 1/4tsp

Rennet Bio 1/4tsp

Gorgonzola Culture

MA4002 starter in 1/2L 2% milk

Day 1

Using the 2 curd method or as I call it the "Pie" method. day one a curd is made with the culture and let hang for a day. Next day making another curd and let it drain for a bit then line a mold and place the day old curd in the center then the new curd over top.

10:55 add milk, starter and culture and bring up to the temp of 87F .

11:30 87F, added cacl. in 1/4 cup water.

11:55 88F, added rennet.

13:00 looks like its set , but pressing with finger shows its not that stiff, hopping I didn't stir too long when I added the rennet.

13:30 cut the curds, let rest and separate.

15:00 drain curds.

String em up till tomorrow to complete part 2.

Day 2

09:00 Broke up cheese to breath while I preheat the milk for the next batch.

9:45 Added all the milk, starter and CaCl, balance the temp to 87F, currently 89F .

10:50 Add rennet, temp at 85F. Taking the temp noticed the milk stiffen up real quick.

11:50 Cut the curds and let rest. 86.8F final temp.

12:45 drain and start making the pie :)

I found that just by letting the curds rest for a few minutes, their weight will expel more liquid and one can just pour it off. makes it less mushy I find.

Time to assemble. A layer of the new curds on the bottom and the edges. A bit of a balancing act, don't know how important it is for the bloomed curds to not touch the outside air.

Put the final layer on the top and then press lightly, got 10lb on it. Notice my new mold I got, lol, 9" cake tin for the cheeses. Flip every 30 min its supposed to be, this should be fun.

One thing I would do next time is make more of the second curd (50% or so) so the outer shell is thicker, I would say it averages from 1/4" to 1/2" in thickness.

14:00 First Flip.

14:40 Second flip.

15:10 Flipped.

16:10 Flipped.

17:10 Flipped.

Flipped a bunch more times, lost track of time.

March 1. took it out of the mold and into the fridge, lightly salted the surface with sea salt. To be flipped every day, and pierced in about 2 weeks. I think probably earlier since the blue will show soon. being such a thin layer on the out side, looks like the inner cheese has poke out, u can see some color differences in their showing it penetrated. Overall I think it was a great beginning for first time :)

March 12

Salted again and poked.

March 20.

March 24. The crack is gone, Im going to assume it was because I did not rotate the cheese enough (easy to forget) and the condensation is probably because the chemical process has kicked into high gear. One can see that their has been a slight leakage of liquid cheese in the 5 o'clock position. Fridge temp is 52F/5c.

March 31.

April 2. More soft cheese leaking. Wraped it up in prper cheese paper now to rest another month.

May 29

Cracked the cheese, tastes real nice and smooth.