Queso Fresco with Chipotle Pepper

For my fourth attempt at cheese making I chose to make a Queso Fresco based on another recipe from cheesemaking.com.  This was another simple recipe that doesn't require aging (which I'm still not equipped to do).

Queso Fresco means "Fresh Cheese" in Spanish - it is meant to be eaten fresh.  I've seen it in the supermarket before but haven't had it.  I chose it because it will broaden my horizons somewhat by including a pressing with an increasing amount of weight along with the use of peppers.

Like last time, I'll be using raw milk from a local dairy.  For the pepper, I found some dried chipotle at a local supermarket (Wegmans).  The peppers have a really nice flavor and are very spicy.  They're really dry - I debated whether to do something to try to re-hydrate but I'm assuming the remaining whey in the cheese will do that for me.

I've been happy with the other cheeses I've attempted - I expect the same from this one.

Ingredients:

• 2 gal Raw Milk
• 1 packet of Mesophilic Culture
• 1/4 tsp of Liquid Animal Rennet
• 1 oz Kosher Salt
• 1 Finely chopped Dried Chipotle Pepper

Process/Notes:

• 9/11/16 - Cheesemaking day:
• Left the milk on the counter for a couple hrs to warm up a bit
• Heated the milk to 90 F on the stove in a 5 gal pot - overshot a bit to 92 F
• Sprinkled the culture on the surface.  Let it hydrade for a couple min before stirring in
• Let the culture work for 45 min
• Diluted the rennet in 1/4 a cup of tap water.  Added to the milk and stirred for 30s
• Let set for 40 min - temp was 90 F by the end
• Had a nice clean break by the end of that time
• Cut the curd into a half inch grid
• Set sit for 5 min to allow the whey to come up through the cut lines and separate the curd
• Put on low heat to get to 95 F for the cooking phase
• Stirred the curd every 5 min or so.  Started gently.  The curd broke into 1/4 in pieces which shrunk and got firmer through the cooking time.  This is an important step but I'm still not quite sure I'm getting things to the right level of cooking.
• Scooped the curds in the a cheesecloth lined colander
• Chopped up the chipotle pepper
• Let drain for 30 min - stirred a few times to help the whey drain out
• Stirred in the pepper

• Stirred in the salt a little bit at a time - it seems like an awful lot of salt but the recommendation is ~3% by weight which is about 1 oz assuming I got 2 lbs of cheese (which I didn't actually measure - doh).
• Bundled up the curd and pushed it into the cylindrical form.  I folded up the cheese cloth at the top and then added the follower and put a half gal of water on top to press which is about 4 lbs (this step was specified as 30 min with 3-5 lb).  Had quite a bit of whey drip out to start but it slowed quickly.

• Pressed on one side with this weight for 15 min then unwrapped, flipped the cheese, and pressed on the other side for 15 more min.  It was pretty unstable.  It fell and spilled the water once but I eventually found the equilibrium that allowed it to stay up

• The next step was to be 60 min at 8-12 lb.  I half filled two gal jugs for about 10 lbs.  I put a box on top with the water in it to press.  The cheese wasn't all that flat and it was very difficult to balance.  It fell a couple times and spilled water.  I flipped after 20 min or so and then gave it another 20 min on the other side before it tipped again.
• The next step was to have been 4-6 hrs with 25 lbs of weight.  Given my difficulty with the previous attempts to press I opted to quit here.  I put the cheese in a zip lock freezer back an put it into the fridge for the night before trying it
• 9/12/16 - Tried the cheese the next afternoon
• 10/15/16 - I had gone through about 90% of this cheese.  It started to get quite a bit more funky over the last couple weeks and wasn't as good.  Today it had started to form some mold so I decided to throw it away.

Impressions:

• The wheel of cheese is a bit lumpy and uneven - not very attractive really.
• It is a salty cheese that gets along very well with the smoky and spicy peppers.  The peppers hydrated nicely in the salty whey - you can't tell that they were dry when I mixed them in.  It is as tasty as I'd hoped it would be.
• The cheese is pretty firm and has a smooth texture.  It has some voids that probably would have been pressed out with the 25 lb weight.  Still pretty moist as well.
• When I cut it and leave pieces on the cutting board at room temperature they start to weep why after a few min.
• I've been eating the cheese for about a week now and have gone through half of it.  No real signs of it falling off so far.
• Mostly been eating it plan.  Had some on flat bread last night - graded pretty well and melted okay.  The spicy peppers added a really nice dimension.

Lessons Learned:

1. Pressing the cheese by balancing water bottles on top wasn't ideal.  Having to get 25 lbs of weight this way was just too difficult.  I plan on making more cheeses that require pressing so I think I'm going to invest in a cheese press.  It's not a real complex machine so I may just try to build my own.
2. Dried peppers seemed to do just fine without being hydrated