This is probably the most popular cheese that any home cheese maker has tried to do at home. This is the same Dutch cheese we all know so well, but those which we can buy in a hypermarket will not even be close to what you can cook in terms of taste themselves.
In the production process, mesophilic bacteria are used and the cheese ripening period is usually 2 months, but we have also tasted it faster after one month and even after 5 days. The taste varies greatly depending on the ripening period. If you don't have the patience to wait that long and you follow all hygiene requirements from milk collection to cheese ripening and your milk is bacteriologically clean, you can also eat cheese earlier.
If you can keep the cheese for at least 3 months, then it will become a real delicacy. It's hard to believe that taste can be changed so drastically in 1-2 months until you try it.
Before starting, we should disinfect all surfaces and dishes that may come into contact with milk.
Determine whether milk is suitable for making cheese. It has to go through the bactericidal phase (cold milk from the previous day usually works). If you have a PH meter, the PH level of milk should not be outside the PH 6.55–6.75 range (which is very rare).
Pasteurize milk: heat it to 65 °C and keep it at this temperature for 30 minutes. Can heat up to 70 °C and hold for 15 minutes.
Quickly cool the milk, for example, in a cold bath to 34 °C (it could take 15 minutes), or heat the already pasteurized milk.
Processing (4h)
Add cheese culture Micromilk ME (1.2gr.)
Wait 5 minutes and stir the cheese culture into the milk.
Leave it for 1 hour.
Add calcium chloride (2.5ml), annato (8 drops) and rennet (1-1.5ml) and stir all these ingredients into the milk within 30 seconds. Calcium chloride and rennet, before adding to milk, must be diluted with 50ml of clean water first.** Calcium chloride and renin must be added separately (see video).
The rennet should be added in the range of the milk PH 6.45-6.6. In our case, it was PH 6.39.
After adding a rennet, start the timer to determine the flocculation point. Generally, the flocculation point for most of the cheeses is 3. That means that if the milk has thickened (forms a curd) within 12 minutes, you can move on to the next stage only after 36 minutes (12x3 = 36 minutes).
While the curd is forming, prepare 3 liters of clean drinking water around 40C.
Cut the curd into 1.5cm cubes, approximately.
Wait for 5 minutes and stir carefully for 15-25 minutes, that's how much time is needed, so that the PH level of the cheese is within 6.4-6.5.
If the PH is 6.4-6.5, leave for 5 minutes so that the cheese grains settle at the bottom and drain 20-30% of the whey (~4 liters). Usually to the level of a grain of cheese.
Add the previously prepared 3l water at 40C in two times, to avoid overheating the cheese mass. You need to get to 38C in 30 minutes. Adding a water will not allow the grain of cheese to increase the acidity so rapidly and allow it to release from an unnecessary amount of liquid. Remember to stir the cheese grains often throughout the preparation process.
Pressing and salting (14h + 12h)
If the PH is 6.4-6.45, drain the whey and place the cheese mass in a mold for 15 min without press.
Put the cheese in a cheese cloth and put it under a small press (1-2kg), after 1 hour turn it around and put it on for the 2 hours with a heavier weight. The third and fifth time, do the same, increasing the pressing time and weight to 10-15 kg. Common pressing time is 7-8 hours. This time is necessary for the cheese to increase the acidity level to PH 5.4.
The salting time is 8 hours per 1kg of cheese in 18% salt solution at 8-12C, in which added a little calcium chloride ****
After salting, the cheese should be dried with paper towels and put to dry at room temperature for 2-3 days on a mat.
Move the cheese to dry in the refrigerator for up to 1 week 12C at humidity 85-90%. If you use a household refrigerator, where the temperature is 6-8C, then you have to watch carefully so that the cheese does not crack due to the dry air. In this case, you should adjust the time how long you keep the cheese without processing/vacuum eating or more humidity should be provided. It could be a plastic container with the lid open.
After 1-2 weeks, when the cheese has already dried properly, it can be covered with protective cover, wax, vacuum, or wash more often and coat with oil (as you like).
We look forward to your feedback!
*Freshly milked milk has bactericidal properties for a few hours, during the so-called bactericidal phase, when bacteria suppress reproduction. Cooling the milk prolongs the bactericidal phase. If the milk is obtained in strict compliance with sanitary regulations and rapidly cooled to +40 °C, the duration of the bactericidal phase is 24 hours and more. At the same temperature bactericidal phase period, impure milk has at least two to three times shorter temperature. The duration of the unrefrigerated milk phase is, on average, 2 hours. (Source: http://www.ezerzeme.lv/lv/zinas/noderigi/5222/par-piena-kvalitati)
** The time of milk coagulation (thickening) depends on the quantity of calcium chloride and rennet. It can be adjusted for best coagulation time, which should ideally be 12 minutes. For instance, if the first time your milk has thickened after 20 minutes, then increase the next dose of enzyme.
**** The salt solution can be prepared as follows: 1 liter of whey, 180 grams of salt (do not use iodized salt), 5–10 drops of calcium chloride, and 1 teaspoon vinegar It is recommended to purchase a hydrometer to determine the salt concentration in the solution, because after each salting, it returns the salt to the cheese.
