1. The first step is to heat and acidify the milk. So let’s begin by heating the milk to 72F. To do this, place the milk in a container and then place it in a large pot of very warm water. Be sure that the water has the temperature of 120F so that the milk will heat up to 72F in less than an hour.
Once you are done heating the milk, you can add the culture. The powder can become very cakey and sink in clumps so to prevent this, sprinkle the culture over the surface of the milk and then let it sit for a couple of minutes. This allows the powder to re-hydrate before you stir it in. After stirring, let the milk sit for a further hour so that the culture can get to work.
2. Now it is time to add 4 drops of the single strength liquid rennet. It is important to not have too much rennet because the cheese is lactic.
Leave the milk to sit for 2-3 hours while the culture is still at work and the rennet begins to coagulate the curd. You will see that the milk has started to thicken. Allow the milk to sit for an additional 8-9 hours, making that a total of 9-11 hours of sitting since adding in the rennet.
You can see that the curd is ready when it has shrunk away from the edges and is cracked in places with quite a bit of whey on the surface. The flavor should be quite tangy at this stage.
Make sure that you have prepared molds and your transfer area by sanitizing everything, during these long wait times.
3. You don’t have to cut anything once the curd is ready, instead, you just must remove the curd with a ladle and carefully place it into the molds to avoid breakage. Make sure you fill the molds to the top and wait for them to settle before you top them up. This process may take a few cycles.
For the filled molds, allow them to drain for 10-12 hours or overnight at a temperature of 72F. You will find that they have settled in the molds by about 25-30%.
When the whey has completely drained, you can now remove the cheese from the molds and place them onto bases for the salting and drying process.
4. Once the cheese has dried out and the whey has stopped dripping, it is time to salt the cheese.
The best way to go about this is to salt by weight. Use about 2% of the cheese’s weight for salt. Place the salt in a salt shaker and evenly distribute it over the fresh cheese and allow the salt to dissolve and be absorbed into the cheese.
5. Once the cheese has been salted, dry the cheese for 2-4 days in a cool cave which temperature is at 52-56F but a drier 65-70% moisture.
After those 2-4 days, age the cheese for about 14 days in the same cave and temperature but change the moisture to 85%. During this time, you should see a dry, white surface with possible blue spots beginning to develop.
You can move the cheese to a refrigerator after those 14 days. You can also wrap the cheese. It will mature even further in the refrigerator and should be ready to eat within 1-3 weeks.
