Happy 4th of July

Most of you probably spent the day doing something other than making cheese, but that is the way I started mine.  I have 10 gallons of fresh raw cow’s milk so we need to make cheese.

Today, I am going to make a quick batch of Swiss. We will use the same recipe as before.

Ingredients:
2.5 gallons whole milk
1/8 tsp MA4002 mesophilic culture
1/8 tsp propionic shimano
1 tsp Rennet

Process:
-Heat to 84
-Add Culture, rehydrate for 5 mins, mix for 1minute.
-Set for 45 mins at 84 – ph 6.07
-Add Rennet – mix for 2 mins – ph 6.13
-Set for 45 mins at 84
-Wait for clean break
-Cut 3/8 in cuts
-Rest for 5 mins
-Stir for 5 mins
-Rest for 5 more mins
-Remove 1/3 of the whey
-Replace with 130 water over 5 mins to bring the whey up to 95 while stirring
-Then just stir for 5 mins
-Add more hot water to bring up to 102 over 5-10 mins.
-Cook at 102 for 30-40 mins(I did 35 mins) – ph 6.28
-Drain whey down to 1 inch above curd
-I add a dinner plate on top of curd
-Add a 1/3, water filled, milk jug to weigh it down and begin press. for 15 mins
-Then press curds into a mold – iI used their own weight for 15 mins
-Flip curd use 10 lbs for 30 mins, Flip curd again use 10 lbs for 30 mins
-Flip curd use 20 lbs for total time of 5 hours
-Then rest the curd in the mold with no weight.

Aging:
The best part of Swiss is the aging process. 2 weeks cold age in the cheese cave. 3 weeks  warm age at room temp. anywhere from 68-80, at this point I wax it for 9 days to get the best bulge and eye development. Un-wax, wash well with brine and eat! Or seal-a-meal it and age as desired.  The period of warm aging is the most time consuming.  It will require that you wash with brine every day, you can skip a day but it get messy.

• cold age july 5-18
• warm age july 18-