I went to the farmers market today and bought 4 Gallon of raw milk. On the walk back I decided to make 2 gallon into a Tomme style cheese. Tommes are usually low in fat as they are produced from the skimmed milk left over after the cream has been removed to produce butter.
To start I heated the milk to 32c and added 1/8 tsp Lipase milk and 1/8 tsp of Calcium Chloride and let it stand for 15 minutes. I then added 1/4 tsp M400 starter and let it ripen for 30 minutes. Once ripened the PH would have dropped a little, I then added 1/4 tsp animal rennet diluted in water and gave it a genital stir for a minute and left it to coagulate. Ive yet to try the flocculation technique but I need to feel more confident in doing so. Maybe Ill do it on tomorrows batch? Once I got a good cut, I think it took around 40 minutes I then cut the curds into 1/4" cubes. The coagulation time for Tommes should be around 30 minutes so the acidity may me a little too high? Maybe next time Ill use a little more rennet. once the curds were cut I then continued to stir to prevent matting, the idea is to now raise the temperature to 38c over 30 minutes to expel more whey from the curds. I have decided to wash the curds as I read that reducing the acid in the whey gives a more nutty and slightly plastic feel to the cheese. I replaced 1/3 of the whey with warmer water over 20 minutes to raise the temperature to 38c. This was meant to take 30 minutes so I just stirred for 10 minutes to make up the time. After leaving the curds to settle I spooned them into my press. Tommes are usually left to press under their own weight but I miss read the recipe. I only pressed it very lightly so I just left it, after 3o minutes I undressed it from the cloth and repressed again at a very light weight. The remaining curds were left to press under its own weight naturally.
Curds ready to cut
Curds straight after cut
Curds after 30 minutes of heating to 38c
Curds in press
Left over curds left to press naturally