Guernsey smoked cheese #1

Its time to experiment again, this time with Guernsey milk, smoked sea salt and vegi rennet. Guernsey milk is has a golden yellow colour due to a high content of beta carotene, the substance in carrots that colours them orange! It also contains a large amount of butterfat (5%) and Protein (3.7%) so its great for cheese making.

Last week I bought some Maldon Smoked Salt and thought it could be interesting to use to flavour cheese either buy dissolving in brine or adding before pressing. For now I will use it within the brine and see how that goes.

1. Warmed up 1 gallon of store bought unhomogenised pasturised Guernsey milk to 32c
2. Added 1/8tsp Lipase mild, 1/8tsp M4002 starter and left for 1 hour. Unfortunately I heated the milk to 42c so I left it to cool back down to 32c and added 1/8 starter again. Mesophilic starter dies at high temperatures unlike thermophilic starters so replacing it would mean starting to ripen again for 1 hour.
3. I then added 1/4 tsp of calcium as the milk was pasturised, I'm starting to add Calcium to raw milk as I was told you get a better curd.
   
4. One the milk has ripens for an hour I added 1/2tsp of liquid veg rennet. This is also new so Ill be interested to see how the milk coagulates.
5. After 1 hour the milk had coagulated well and was ready for cutting int0 1/2" cubes.
6. Once they are cut I left them to heal before raising the temperature up to 38c over 30 minutes. The curds were stirred every few minutes to prevent matting.
   
7. At this point I decided to add 10 drops of annatto so see how it affects the final cheese, its usually added to the milk giving an even colour to the entire cheese. The method I'm using only coats the outside of each piece of curd producing a slight marbled look
8. The curds were then scooped into a mould and pressed at 20lb for 30 minutes, 30lb for 2 hours and then 40lb overnight. The next day I made up a brine using the same whey with added calcium and the smoked sea salt. I'm hoping a 20% smoked brine will add a light smoked flavour to the cheese.
   
9. After 10 hours of bring the cheese was left out for a few days to dry and then placed in the cheese cave. I will turn regularly for the first few weeks, then once a week for 3 months

Store bought creamy homoginsed/pasturised milk

Cutting the very firm Guernsey curds

Healing the curds for 10 minutes, this helps produce a thin layer on each curd preventing loss of butterfat and other goodies trapped in the curd

Cooking the curds from 32c to 38c over 30 minutes

10 drops of annatto added to the cooked curds

Holding the curds for 10 minutes before pressing

In the press...

..at 40lb overnight

Making a brine from the whey adding 1/2 tsp calcium and enough Smoked Maldon Sea Salt to make up a 20% brine

The final pressed cheese the next day, note the slight marbling from the annatto

Then brined in smoked brine for 10 hours