Cheese Curds - Take II

I've had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at making Mozzarella in the last few months that have significantly reduced my confidence in my ability to make cheese.  In a couple cases I was barely able to even get curds to form.  Based on these failures I've decided to take a step back and get another success under my belt with a simpler recipe - Cheese Curds.

I made Cheese Curds once before (over a year ago now which is hard to believe) and found it to be a pretty simple process.  I used store bought pasteurized and homogenized milk which I managed to make work - that's what I'm trying again.  I'm using cheap Lucerne Milk for this.  If it works I think I might stick with this one going forward (I suspect that some amount of my previous failures were due to the treatment of the milk in processing).

Anyway, I'll largely be following the process for Cheese Curds posted on cheesemaking.com.  The one major difference is that I'll be using their Mesophilic Culture rather than the Thermophilic Culture they recommend.  I'll be acidifying the milk in the high 80s/low 90s (rather than mid-high 90s) for this culture.

Hopefully this will go smoothly and turn out to be a good sanity check.  If so, I'll look to try something new next.

Ingredients:

• 2 gal of Lucerne Whole Milk (Pasteurized and Homogenized)
• 1/4 tsp CaCl
• 1 Pack of Mesophilic Culture
• 1 tsp Rennet
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt

Process/Notes:

• Heated 2 gal of milk on low until it got to 90 F - this took quite a while on low but I didn't overshoot which was a victory
• Removed from the heat
• Dissolved CaCl in a small amount of water and then stirred into the milk
• Added the culture.  Let it sit on the surface for a couple min before stirring it in
• Let acidify for 40 min
• Mixed rennet in 1/4 cup cold water
• Added rennet to milk and stirred for 30 s - milk was still about 90 F
• Let it sit for 30.  By the end of this time it had good separation
• Cut a 3/4 inch grid into the curd.  Let this settle for 5 min

• Stirred the curd to break it up - it sunk to the bottom

• Heated the curd up to 116 F over 45 min (had the stove at low to medium low during this period).  Stirred every 5 min or so during this process.
• Cooked the curd for an additional 45 min to dry it out.  Ended up heating it to 125 F.  The curds got firmer and smaller throughout this process.

• At the end of cooking I ladled out the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander

• Tied up the cheesecloth and let drain hanging on the kitchen faucet for 20 min or so when it had pretty much stopped dripping
• Moved the curd back to the colander and applied the weight of a gal jug filled with water to press the cheese
• Pressed for 3 hrs
• At the end of the pressing the curds had consolidated into a good mass
• Broke up the mass into smaller pieces and salted them

Impressions:

• They have a nice flavor reminiscent of the milk used.  The milk tastes very nice to me so I like the cheese.
• I think it could stand to have a bit more salt
• After aging for an additional couple weeks in the fridge the culture has started to have a bit more impact on the flavor
• The curds look a bit more lumpy that what I see on the internet.  I wonder if I dried them out a bit more than is typically done

Lessons Learned:

1. Managing temperatures of the milk is a major pain.  I think using a water bath with a temperature controller like I have with the RIMS might be a much more pleasant and controlled way of doing things.  I think I'll give that a try next time
2. Lucerne Milk works for cheesemaking!!!  I had tried more fancy brands previously.  I will make sure to repeat my prep of the milk with CaCl next time as well.