Goada #1 after 3 months

Once the rind has hardened I decided to start scrubbing with the brine instead of rubbing it with a cloth. Ive also started to wipe down with a thin layer of olive oil like you would with a Parmesan. I'm thinking of tasting it soon, it has a long way to go but I want to see how the taste is going to change over the next few months. Ideally Id like to leave this for 8 - 12 months.

Goada #1 after a month

I made a bit of a mistake with my Gouda. I decided to oil it as I want to develop a natural rind. Over the past month I have gave it a light salt brine wash every few days so its developed quiet well. Today I oiled the Gruyere and decided to do the same to the Gouda. I just realised that its not good to oil washed cured cheese as the PH is high due to the curds being washed. Its also higher in moister as its pressed lightly so it contains more food for yeast to thrive on. Ill leave it to dry out and see what happens.

Goada #1

Here is a quick Gouda #1 update. The rind is developing very well after being washed in a 20% brine solution which I also use for my Gruyere.

Here is the Gouda just after its pressing. I'll now brine it overnight. The cheese was only pressed at 20lb so the finished wheel wasn't as firm as the likes of a Gruyere that's pressed at 50lb. As the pressing was light it was pressed for longer, around 24 hours in total..

Curd Washing?

After curd formation, the curds are cut and after resting for a few minutes gently stirred as the cut curds are fragile.

Once a sufficient amount of whey is released, curd washing occurs by removing whey equivalent to 25-30% of the original milk volume, adding a similar volume of hot water bringing the curds up to a mild scalding 36C as above normally harms mesophilic cultures, and then stirring more vigorously for 30 minutes to wash the curds and avoid curd fusion. The hot wash water should be added carefully over the whole vat to avoid any local overheating. This washing provides two effects, the dilution of the whey reduces the lactose content of the curds and thereby controls the amount of lactic acid created and thus the final pH of the cheese. In addition the mild scalding enhances syneresis reducing the water content of the curd. During washing stirring is intensified which also aids syneresis. The overall cheese is usually sweeter.

Gouda number 1

I found this recipe in my Making Artisan Cheese book. It wasn't until after I started I read that a good Gouda takes a minimum of 8 months to mature. Oh well, might as well get it started now and my aim this year was to make a variety of cheeses. I'll get the hard cheeses out of the way over the next 2 months and venture down the washed rinds in march.

I start off by warming about 1.8 gallon of milk to 32c. Half the milk was raw unhomogenised and the other half was store bought pasteurised milk. 1/5 tsp M400 culture was added and left to ripen for 20 minutes. As half of this was pasteurised I added 1/8 tsp of calcium chloride and 1/8 lipase (sharp). Once everything was stirred into the milk I added just 3/4 tsp of liquid animal rennet and let it stand for about an hour. I made a slight mistake here, whether it will make any different I am unsure. Throughout ripening and coagulation it's meant to be maintained at 32c. I accidentally increased this to 37, I'm hoping this didn't kill my starter? After an hour the curds were cut to about 1cm and stirred to prevent matting.


I then let it rest for a minute and drained off 1/3 of the whey and then adding a few cups of warm water to bring the temperature to 33c. This technique is called washing the curds. It slows down acidification resulting in a higher PH curd which gives a slightly sweeter flavor to the cheese. I continued to stir for 10 minutes to help expel the whey and then finally let it rest for 10 minutes. By now the curds have sunk and the whey is drained out to the level of the curds. I then added 75c water to it which raised the curd temperature to around 38. I then stirred continuously for another 15 minutes before leaving it to stand for 30 minutes.




During this time I preprepared my cloth and press. The curds were then placed in the mould and pressed at around 20lb for 30 minutes, turned and pressed again over night at the same pressure. The next morning the cheese was re-wrapped and pressed fro another 12 hours at 20lb. I kept the whey for the brine and salted it 1 to 5. After 8 hours I took it out and placed in my cheese cave which is usually around 8c, a little too cool but its all I have at the moment. This may slow down the maturing process so Ill probably be seeing this cheese later on in the summer! For now ill give it a swash ever few days in brine..