Made just my 2nd Jack yesterday. And its been 6 months from the first. The first was pressed too lightly, as I now realize. When I set it out to air dry it dripped whey for 10 hours. This time I adjusted the weights for my 6” press. Instead of 3 and 10 lbs I used 7 and 25 lbs. After 12 hours it still had not knit uniformly and was still quite wet. So I upped it to 30 lbs and gave it another 7 hrs. This morning it had still not knit together, and still felt wetter than it should. I now have 50 lbs on it, and will give it about 8 hours. I should have gotten a pic of it, but neglected to do so. If its still unsatisfactory this afternoon, I’ll do so.
Rich,
I feel your pain. Yesterday my daughter and I made a Colby/Jack and have the exact same problem. The Colby curds cooked down perfectly although a Colby is always pretty moist. The Jack on the other hand was very wet and I soon realized that no amount of pressing was going to fix this problem.
After about two hours of pressing, and still with a wheel that wanted to fall apart, I broke up the curd…..put it in a cheesecloth bag and pressed it with 20 lbs. like you would a Stilton.
This did release a LOT of whey, but I’m stlll not convinced that I will save this cheese (at least for aging). It’s in the press right now with 100# of weight but no more whey came out overnight.
I’ll be giving it a flip in another 2 hours and then I’ll see what I’ve got.
I’m not sure why Jack cheese stays so moist. By the way, I used the recipe from Leeners.com and have always had this problem. I think the next time I’ll find another recipe (one that cooks to 102 degrees instead of 100 and see if this makes a difference).
I’d really like to see this one turn out since my daughter put a lot of work into it.
I guess that it can still be eaten fresh, but it won’t be nearly as good. Also, since this is a six gallon cheese, it won’t be an easy task.
I"ll snap some pics sometime this evening when it comes out of the final press.
I used Ricki Carroll’s recipe. They said that if you use whole milk you will get a “semi-soft” cheese. I take it that means wetter. If you want a harder cheese they suggest you use 2% milk, and skim is supposed to give you a grating quality cheese. Perhaps that’s the problem - whole milk.
I won’t be able to wax mine for aging if it doesn’t some together better; but I should be able to bandage it. I need to give it at least a month.
Rich, that’s good information. I just just about given up on making anymore Jack cheese becasue of the softness.
I did get a nice surprise upon taking the Colby Jack out of the press this morning, though. The cheese really came together overnight and is now feeling really solid.
It didn’t look as if it has expelled any whey when I glanced at it this morning but upon lifting it from the press I did have quite a bit in the catch pan.
Regardless, I’m still a little worried about what this cheese will turn out to be because I manipulated the heck out of the curds, while trying to save it.
Here’s a quick run down of what I did after taking it out of the mold, the first time:
Since the cheese was ,not just moist, but wet I broke the curds up and let them drain for about an hour and a half. Even after this draining period, the curds had expelled very little whey.
I then transferred the curds into one of my cooking pots and heated them up to 102 degrees F. I then stirred the curd (as you would a stirred curd cheddar) for a little over an hour, pouring off whey as it appeared.
This did get a lot of whey out of the curd but there’s no doubt it changed the type of cheese I intended to make. Who knows how it will turn out.
After this, the curd was still very soft and moist so I put it into a cheese cloth bag and pressed like you would a Stilton (between boards) for another hour. After removing from the bag, the cheese was a lot like a Stilton in that it had formed into a solid mass and had a nice crumbly, drier feeling to it.
I then broke the curd up into walnut size pieces and began to re-load the mold. I had saved some of the wet curds in a strainer and began to add these back in as I went.
At the first flipping I still wasn’t convinced that this cheese could be saved. It still felt very soft and moist but like I said, when I took it out this morning I was pleasantly surprised with the feel of the wheel.
From start to press this cheese took me (and my daughter) a little over 12 hours of nearly constant work. I don’t know if it was worth it, but I guess time will tell.
It’s now back in the press (under 100 lbs.) for another 9 hours or so. Hopefully this will finish it off nicely.
I don’t know what this cheese will be (some sort of hybrid stirred curd, Stilton style Colby/Jack) but it should be fun to taste in a few months.
The good news is that I’ve never been completely happy with any Colby/Jack I’ve made. The cheese always has a great flavor but has always been much softer than the commercial varities. Hopefully this will solve some of those problems.
Again, good luck with your Jack and thanks for the milk information. The next time I’m trying it with 2% to see if that helps.
Here’s the Jack out of the press. As you can see its really open, however the wheel is good and firm. I’m hoping the pic works out, since its my first attempt.
As I said, I’ve only made one other Jack; but should it really look like this? It appears as though the curd has not been pressed enough; but it had a total of 26 hours in the press. Dave, is this what yours looked like?
Rich,
The only other Jack that I’ve made did knit together a lot better on the sides than it looks like yours did. I however was using a much smaller mold when I made that one.
As for the Colby/Jack, I had no problem getting the curd to form and seal. It was just so soft that I knew it would never stay together.
As long as yours is good and firm, I don’t see where you would have a problem with aging it.
Other than the surface problem, the cheese looks great!
Thanks for the pic.
The only problem I see in aging is that if I wax it, I will tear up the cheese getting wax off. On the other hand if I bandage it, I’ll have air pockets inside the bandage that will likely mold. So I guess I’ll go ahead and bandage it, but only for a short time. It is a good firm wheel, and I’m anxious to get a taste of it.
Rich,
It looks as if the surface problem is only on the sides of the cheese.
Could you possibly wrap a layer of saran wrap over the sides and then wax over that? If I’m thinking correctly that will keep the wax from getting into the fissures which should allow for easy removal. Also, the cheese would still be able to breathe through the wax from the top and bottom.
Just a thought.
Very nice photo by the way. I envy your skill.
Dave
Not really such a good photo - there are fissures in the top and bottom as well, they just don’t show on the pic. I’m not set on a course of action just yet, but I’ll likely give it a good brining and then bandage it. We’ll see what develops.
I got home from work tonight to find that my Jack has dried nicely and was ready for aging. I followed Neil’s advice and gave it a good salt rub, then I bandaged it. This way, I was able to fill all the holes with vegetable shortening and keep the air away from the surface, while not having to worry about ripping up the cheese when I peel off wax. I’m going to give it the minimum aging time - just one month, and we’ll go from there on the next one.
OK, I ripped into Jack tonight. I had applied a very heavy coating of vegetable shortening to it, in order to fill the air spaces. Once I scraped that off I cut into it and was elated. There was a really nice texture, quite hard and a wee bit on the dry side. The flavor is a nice mild Jack taste. All in all, I’m quite well satisfied.
