Munster Cheese Making Recipe
Munster cheese has a smooth texture, orange rind, and white pate. It is a washed rind cheese that can be made from cow or goat’s milk and as it melts well, is a good cooking cheese.
Ingredients:
3.8 liters (1 gallon) whole Cow’s or Goat’s Milk.
Mesophilic Starter Culture as needed (I use buttermilk - 1 ts for 1 liter of milk))
Optional: Calcium Chloride if using store bought pasteurized milk.
Rennet, amount as per package directions or your experience.
1.25 ml/1/4 teaspoon of Brevibacterium Linens.
Salt for brine.
Optional: 2-4 drops of orange food coloring.
Optional: Sweetish white wine (I used it during the ageing process).
Directions:
1. Place milk in stockpot or double boiler on stove and gently warm to 32 C if using cow’s milk or 31 C if using goat’s milk.
2. If using store bought pasteurized homogenized milk then dissolve the calcium chloride in ~50 ml/1/4 cup water and stir in.
3. Dissolve the starter culture in ~50 ml/1/4 cup water, add to milk, stir gently, cover and set aside to ripen for 15 minutes.
4. Add coloring if desired.
5. Dissolve or dilute the rennet in ~50 ml/1/4 cup water, add to milk and stir gently but thoroughly for 1 minute, cover and set aside at same temperature for 45 minutes or until get good curd break.
6. When get clean break, cut curd as normal into 1 cm diamonds, set aside to rest for 5 minutes.
7. Gently heat the curds to 38 C for cow’s milk, 37 C for goat’s milk at a rate of ~1 C every 5 minutes. This will take ~25 minutes, stir occasionally & gently with ladle while heating to keep curds from matting.
8. Maintain at this temperature for ~30 minutes, stirring gently every few minutes.
9. Sterilize clean in boiling water, one small height camembert type cheese mold/hoop, and two mats, drain and place mold/hoop on mat. Choose mold/hoop size to match curd volume, depending on size you may need two.
10. Let curds settle for 5 minutes, drain/ladle off the whey from the curds, ladle curds into the mold/hoop, and place second mat on top of curds to make a “sandwich”.
11. Let drain for ~30 minutes, then, holding the sandwich tight, quickly flip and place back down.
12. Remove top mat, rinse and return to cheese.
13. Repeat step above five more times, every 20 minutes.
14. Let cheese rest 12 hours (overnight) at room temperature on mat.
15. Make a saturated salt brine and cool in fridge.
16. Remove cheese from hoop and float in saturated brine for 12 hours at 10-12 C, turn every ~2 hours to ensure even rind development.
17. Remove cheese, pat dry, place on clean mat.
18. Dilute B Linens in 125 ml/1/2 cup cool sterile water and place into atomizer/mister.
19. Using finest mist possible, lightly spray the surface of the cheese, flip and spray other side.
20. Cheese ripening is in two phases. Phase #1, ripen at 16 C and 90-95% humidity for 1-2 weeks. Wipe down cheese every second day with clean cloth and brine solution; this will encourage uniform distribution of the mould.
21. Phase #2 ripening either 1) seal the cheese with wax or vacuum bag and age for 45 days minimum at 10 C or b) continue aging at 10 C and 90-95% humidity and allow rind to dry and every third day wipe the cheese down with brine soaked cloth or c) same as b) but wipe down every third day with sweetish white wine.
Notes:
10 Liters milk = 1300 Grams cheese.
I added the B-linens at the beginnig with the starter culture.
For a 9-10 liters batch I recommend to float the cheese in brine, for 6 hours only, 12 hours was too salty to my taste.
