Recently we were tasting some wine and had a cheese plate, it was Havarti and it was wonderful.  So I decided to try to make some Havarti. I found a recipe on-line  and printed it out.

In hindsight, now looking at my notes, I’m not sure I can recreate this cheese or even give a good account of making it because my notes are somewhat sketchy, however I did take some PH readings and there were some PH markers in the recipe.  So, I’m going to hit the points of this recipe that stand out and just plan to remake the recipe soon.

Basics of Ingredients:

• culture I used C101
• 2 gallons of milk
• 1/2 tsp rennet
• Heat to 86°

Milk PH after heat was 6.1. The curd quickly broke down to very fine rice even though I didn’t cut it that way.  After you have stirred curd for 15 minutes remove 1/3 of the whey and add 130° water to bring the milk up to 100° over 10 minutes. Now add 1/2 oz of salt and stir for 15-30 minutes.

Drain whey and place in mold with 8 pounds of weight. I flipped at 15 min intervals 3 times. Then flipped at 60 min intervals 3 times. Then it get submerged in cold water over night. You are shooting for a PH of 5.2, I was at 5.37 and I figured that was good enough.

Brine for 5-6 hours. Dry and frig.

I put this into an aging box in my frig and turned and wiped it with brine every day for the first couple days.  Then I left it a few days at a time before wiping with brine.  Then time got away from me and it sat for a week and half.  I came back to mold on the outside.  I wiped with brine but the outside of the cheese was very soft and the mold only partially came off.  I decided the only course of action was wax.

The recipe says 10-14 weeks till mature and as I write this it has been 6, so look for more notes in a month on how it came out.