Shortly after my first four batches of hard cheese, I had grown tired of the farmhouse cheddar and decided to move on to Monterey Jack.
Now for the sample. As smooth as this fine specimen appeared, it was rather dry but not unpleasant, and the creaminess came through in the mou
thfeel. But still it was sour. (OK then, maybe those holes were caused by a little bit of both the chilly curds and excess gas created in the fermentation process.) Though probably the least sour and most cheese-like of all hard cheeses I've made so far, it still isn't good enough to just eat a hunk of. Arrgh! What good is making cheese if you can't eat it, I ask you?! Will I ever create something worth ingesting, let alone enjoyable? Stay tuned to find out...
In other news, this poor thing died while waiting to become something new, something delicious. Its caretaker is being sought for questioning.
Jack is a washed cured cheese, meaning that hot water is added to the curds (replacing the whey) during the near-final stages of the cheesemaking process in order to wash away some of the lactic acid, therefore softening the texture and flavor. The process itself is quite involved and not for beginners, which would be why the recipe is always in the advanced part of just about any book on cheesemaking that I've seen. (Duh, I'm an expert.) Determined not to be discouraged, I plucked another cheese out of the cave this weekend.
How surprised was I to find that this one was not so bad? Allow me to elaborate. At first glance, you can see that the curds did not fully bind together at the surface of the cheese, a result of pressing tepid curds. A little disappointed, I expected to cut into a block of chee
se that had simply not come together because the temperature was not maintained carefully enough. What I found inside was a rather smooth texture, disturbed only by a few small holes. Again, I found that these holes were most likely caused by a low temperature pressing; they did not at all resemble the little bubble-like holes in my first cheeses that would later come to indicate a certain yuck factor.
se that had simply not come together because the temperature was not maintained carefully enough. What I found inside was a rather smooth texture, disturbed only by a few small holes. Again, I found that these holes were most likely caused by a low temperature pressing; they did not at all resemble the little bubble-like holes in my first cheeses that would later come to indicate a certain yuck factor.Now for the sample. As smooth as this fine specimen appeared, it was rather dry but not unpleasant, and the creaminess came through in the mou
thfeel. But still it was sour. (OK then, maybe those holes were caused by a little bit of both the chilly curds and excess gas created in the fermentation process.) Though probably the least sour and most cheese-like of all hard cheeses I've made so far, it still isn't good enough to just eat a hunk of. Arrgh! What good is making cheese if you can't eat it, I ask you?! Will I ever create something worth ingesting, let alone enjoyable? Stay tuned to find out...In other news, this poor thing died while waiting to become something new, something delicious. Its caretaker is being sought for questioning.
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