Joanna….
Would you care to post the Gouda recipe you use? This is a cheese that has always turned out perfectly when I’ve made it so I am curious to see the process according to your own recipe.
Maybe we can get a solution to this problem narrowed down.
Dave
I agree, Gouda is one of the simplest receipts, and your case is very strange !!
<<Would you care to post the Gouda recipe you use? This is a cheese that has always turned out perfectly when I’ve made it so I am curious to see the process according to your own recipe.
Maybe we can get a solution to this problem narrowed down.
Dave>>
Dave, here’s my recipe. I should note that I was able to make quite good Gouda with it for 3 years…but now something isn’t working:
2.5 gal raw goat milk
1/4 t freeze-dried mesphyllic DVI culture
1/2 t liquid vegetable rennet
Warm milk to 85 F
Add starter culture, mix thoroughly
Dissolve rennet in 1/4 cup cold water, add to milk and stir for 5 minutes
—This is where it fails. At this point the milk becomes grainy-looking; over the next hour curd begins to form but sinks and disintegrates before a clean break is achieved.
After the first 2 failed Goudas I tried putting in 1/8 t culture instead of 1/4, as this is the proportion I still use successfully for Colby and cheddar. It worked once, failed the next time.
When the recipe works it continues as follows:
Let milk set for 1-2 hours, until a clean break is obtained
Cut curd into 1/2 in cubes
Let curds sit 10 minutes to firm up
Raise temperature to 100 F over ~30 minutes, stirring every few minutes
Allow curds to settle, then remove 6 c whey and replace with 6 c 100-degree water
Repeat this twice (for a total of 3 times) at 15-minute intervals
Pour through cheesecloth-lined colander
Place in mold
Press at 20 lbs pressure for 45 minutes
Flip, redress, press at 40 lbs for 3 hours
Float in cold brine solution for 3 hours
It’s delicious when it works.
Joanna, I don’t claim to have an answer for you but I thought I would throw a couple more things in the mix to consider. If its not the milk, and its not the culture, and its not the rennet - what’s left? For starters, what kind of utensils are you using? What material is the pot made of? And how is it sanitized? Have you changed anything in any of these categories? Can you think of absolutely anything that you have changed since your successful batches?
Okay…
I admit that I am at a loss on this one. Although your recipe is a little different than the one I use, it is also quite similar.
The only time I’ve had a problem like what you describe, is when I had a bad bottle of rennet. Although I had just gotten it I could not get a good curd set and they always looked grainy and sank.
I did try this same rennet a couple of weeks ago to see if anything had changed and I got the same result as before. These failures occured on both Mozzerella and Camembert so I ended up pitching the bottle.
If you have another bottle of rennet it might be worth giving it a try. I’m really doing nothing more than grasping at straws with this approach but it did take care of the problem I was having.
If you only have the one bottle of rennet you could always buy some junket tablets at your local grocery store and give them a try. They are an inferior form of rennet but it will work.
Maybe try this with a one gallon batch just in case it doesn’t work. I’m still at a loss as to why you are only having a problem with this one cheese type.
Please report back what you find and I hope this helps you out, even though it is a long shot.
Dave
<<Would you care to post the Gouda recipe you use? This is a cheese that has always turned out perfectly when I’ve made it so I am curious to see the process according to your own recipe.
Maybe we can get a solution to this problem narrowed down.
Dave>>
Dave, here’s my recipe. I should note that I was able to make quite good Gouda with it for 3 years…but now something isn’t working:
2.5 gal raw goat milk
1/4 t freeze-dried mesphyllic DVI culture
1/2 t liquid vegetable rennet
Warm milk to 85 F
Add starter culture, mix thoroughly
Dissolve rennet in 1/4 cup cold water, add to milk and stir for 5 minutes
—This is where it fails. At this point the milk becomes grainy-looking; over the next hour curd begins to form but sinks and disintegrates before a clean break is achieved.
After the first 2 failed Goudas I tried putting in 1/8 t culture instead of 1/4, as this is the proportion I still use successfully for Colby and cheddar. It worked once, failed the next time.
When the recipe works it continues as follows:
Let milk set for 1-2 hours, until a clean break is obtained
Cut curd into 1/2 in cubes
Let curds sit 10 minutes to firm up
Raise temperature to 100 F over ~30 minutes, stirring every few minutes
Allow curds to settle, then remove 6 c whey and replace with 6 c 100-degree water
Repeat this twice (for a total of 3 times) at 15-minute intervals
Pour through cheesecloth-lined colander
Place in mold
Press at 20 lbs pressure for 45 minutes
Flip, redress, press at 40 lbs for 3 hours
Float in cold brine solution for 3 hours
It’s delicious when it works.
Try always to (goat milk):
1- raise the temp before adding rennet to 90
2- add rennet to milk and stir for only 1 minute (goat milk doesn’t need 5 mins) this could be help u more.
3- i found that 2 hour is too long to get clean break (due to low temp, and bad rennet (maybe)
4- always use 1/8 culture , and add rennet after only 5 mins
5- change the current bottle of your rennet, if all above failed
When I first read the recipe, I missed that you were stirring the rennet for 5 minutes. This is probably too long! Try stirring with a top-to-bottom motion for 20 strokes—about 1 minute. If you have cream on the milk (raw milk), you might need to top stir for a few seconds, but I would not stir for more than 2 minutes MAX.
Thank you all! I hadn’t thought of excessive stirring as a possible problem, but I do stir gouda a lot longer than the cheeses that I’m still making successfully. I should retry with a shorter stir time. And 85 F is 3 degrees cooler than where I add culture to colby or cheddar. Thanks for the tip about initial temperature, Nabil. I don’t think I have bad rennet or improper/poorly sanitized pot or utensils because I use the same rennet, culture, pots and utensils for the cheeses I still am able to make well.
Good catch on the excessive stirring time, Rick. I guess time will tell if this is the problem but it’s something I totally missed when reading the recipe.
Joanna…..good luck. I really hope this helps your problem. Gouda is such a fun cheese to make and it never fails to get rave reviews from those you share it with.
Dave
Speaking of rave reviews on Gouda: I had a mishap in my cheese fridge - way excessive moisture. Some of my waxed cheeses cracked open, and a Gouda was among them. I cleaned it up as best I could and rewaxed it. Well, Sunday I opened it, fearfully. It was flakier than my other Goudas, and it was incredibly sharp. So much so that my wife and son didn’t care for it. Well I took some to work today, and was told it was the best cheese I had made to date. I think its really good myself; but its not very Gouda-like. Just goes to show you that its true - you can usually eat your mistakes.
When I first read the recipe, I missed that you were stirring the rennet for 5 minutes. This is probably too long! Try stirring with a top-to-bottom motion for 20 strokes—about 1 minute. If you have cream on the milk (raw milk), you might need to top stir for a few seconds, but I would not stir for more than 2 minutes MAX.
5 mins maximum time stirring is fine when you use non homogenized milk (ewe or cow)
but for goat milk 1 to 2 minute is more than enough (goat milk is naturally homogenized)
Again , the problem is caused by bad coagulating (something wrong with rennet or/and temp or/and milk) for grainy issue
curd sinking (curd separation) is due to long time to achieve clean break (again wrong temp, over acidity)
Thank you again! This time we heated the milk to 88 F before adding rennet and stirred for 1 minute; the curd set beautifully. It will be lovely to have Gouda again.
So.. using your excellent suggestions I made several good-looking Goudas. But they’re developing cracks while aging. I understand they shouldn’t be waxed for 21 days. One was too shattered to wax at all by this stage, and another had a couple of deep fissures. I’m keeping them in the pantry, which is somewhat dry but less dry than the fridge, and typically 40-45 degrees. The worst case of cracking occurred after someone shut the pantry door on a cold night and the temp dropped below 40. But some deep cracks are developing even at a more consistent temperature. Can I wax early? or do anything else to prevent cracking? This hasn’t happened to me in the 3 years of Gouda making before..
