Ive seen a couple of people on here who have made goudas Christmas next year and decided to follow suit. The rind looks as it does because I hand pressed it while pouring warm whey over it to keep it pliable. I'm thinking of washing the rind with a fermented when brine for a couple of months to get some b linens growing and the vacuum pac for long term aging. I had tried making a Gouda a while ago and foolishly only used a mesophilic clabber as my start and unsurprisingly it turned out very odd. This time I converted my meso clabber to a thermo one by feeding it multiple times and incubating at 110F. I used a 50/50 blend in the make. I saved all the whey/water blend from washing and let it ferment for 24 hours then boiled it all and strained to collect the creamy ricotta. I then pressed over 24 hours.
Beautiful cheeses! Thank you for the tip on improving thermophilic cultures in clabber. I've started using clabber culture as my mesophiloc starter but didn't know how to cultivate the thermophilic bacteria. Very helpful.
You're very welcome! Just to add a little detail here. I take a out a spoonful of the meso clabber and feed it to about half a cup of raw milk and incubate at 110F. The first feeding usually takes about 18-24 hours to set properly. The next feeding is quicker and so on. The clabber is in its best state when it sets between 6-8 hours.
What do you use to hold temp for incubation? I've got raw milk galore but a cold house
I use an insta pot that has a yogurt setting. I fill it with some water as well.
This is awesome, and i just put my first Gouda attempt into aging. Everything worked really well except when it was.time to raise the temp i fumbled and immediately went to about 111° F before diluting. I just carried on with the draining and let the added water cool a bit so it wouldn't rise above the 111° when i added it and it looked really good. I guess I'll find out in a couple of months. When it came out of pressing it had a small crack in the side and was still very wet, but as it dried for a couple of days the crack healed itself and it stopped shedding whey after the first 12 hours. Also, i got a great ricotta harvest that same day. Anyway, that's my gouda story, thank for sharing yours.
I'm sure your cheese will still turn out great! What do you do with your ricotta?
Mostly put it on a bagel and eat it, but also i fit it into recipes. This batch i added some sea salt and smoked paprika and it got ate up within hours!
Looking delicious
looks fantastic