Emmental recipe
INGREDIENTS:
-
Fresh, high quality raw milk, at least 10, ideally 30 litres
-
1 capsule of Emmental culture / 10 litres of milk
-
2,4 ml natural rennet / 10 litres of milk
-
1 capsule lysozyme enzyme / 10 litres of milk
-
Iodine free salt (cheese salt)
10 weeks of care and patience :)
Milk:
An Emmental like cheese is only possible with the best quality raw milk!
The more milk you use, the more intense flavour, larger holes you will get.
It's worth experimenting with smaller quantities too.
1. CULTURING: Pour the milk into a big wet pot. Start heating it, while it's coming up to temperature, prepare the culture.
Dissolve the contents of the Emmental culture capsule in some lukewarm water. Put it aside.
At 30-32 °C, add your pre-dissolved culture, 1 capsule worth for every 10 litres of milk.
Pre-ageing: for 30 -35 minutes let the milk rest under a lid. This helps the mesophilic strains multiply
Stir it occasionally, always cover with a lid, so it doesn't gets cold.
2. COAGULATION: Add 2,4 ml of natural rennet for every 10 litres of milk. Stir it thoroughly for 1-2 minutes.
The coagulation will take about 30-35 minutes.
The milk will start to solidify after 15 minutes, but the complete coagulation requires 30-35 minutes.
Cover with a lid, so you won't lose as much heat.
During the coagulation, do not move, stir, or heat the milk.
3. CUTTING THE CURD: First cut the coagulated mik to 2 cm curds, then wait 4-5 minutes, so the whey can separate.
After that cut them further with a cheese harp until the curds are 3-4 mm in size.
4. POST-HEATING: After cutting the curds, you have to immediately heat them.
Heat them to 48-50 °C while constantly stirring, the curds should heat 2-3 °C every 5 minutes.
As a result of the heat, the curds will shrink, and more whey will separate out.
The constant stirring is necessary, so that the curds won't stick together, and for even heat distribution.
Stir the curds for 10-15 off the heat. They will firm up even more.
6. PRE-PRESSING: Drain 1/3 of the whey. With a perforated plate the size of the pot, press down the curds to the bottom of the pot, weigh it down for 10 minutes.
Use 1-1,5 kg of weight for every 10 litres of milk.
Place the weight in a way that doesn't touch the whey, i usually put a taller mould in the middle of the plate and put the weight on top of that.
Cut the curd block to sections, so it's easier to handle.
The cheese is very soft at this point, so it doesn't really matter how you squeeze the pieces int the mould.
What's important, is to always work in warm whey, so the curds won't get cold.
The sections will only stick together if they are all warm.
Line the cheese mould with wet cheesecloth.
When the mould is full, lift it out of the whey and put a follower on it.
7. PRESSING: The pressing time is 6-8 hours. You must make sure the cheese doesn't get cold during the whole time!
The ideal room temperature is 23-24 °C, because the bacteria break down the sugars with the right speed at this temperature.
First use a weight the same as the cheese. Flip it at: 10-20-30-60-120 minutes, then every 240 minutes.
Start with 1x weight, then after the first flip 2x, then 5x, then 10x.
Cheese above 6kg must be pressed with 10-20x force.
Because of this, the use of stronger moulds are recommended.
After that, transfer the cheese to a 14-16 °C room, to reach the final acidity.
The cheeses pH shouldn't be lower than 5,2-5,3.
If it's too acidic, gas producing bacteria will be restricted, and the desired round holes won't develop.
8. SALTING: There are two methods you can choose from: using a salt bath, dry salting.
Dry salting: The room's temperature should be 15-16 °C ideally.
Rub the top and bottom of cheese with coarse iodine free salt for 3 days. Use finer salt for the sides.
Dry the cheese with a towel before every salting, and flip it. Dry the cheeses immediate environment too.
Salting in a salt bath: Dissolve 200 g of salt in as much water, that makes the whole solution weigh 1000 g.
Soak the cheese for 10-12 hour for every kilos. The salt bath should be 15-16 °C. After 5-6 hours flip the cheese.
The salt bath, after filtering, can be kept in a fridge, and reused, but only a few times.
9. AGEING:
Stage I. cold ageing:
Cold ageing takes place in 12-14 °C, and 80-85% humidity for 2 weeks.
If you don't have the ideal ageing room, cheese wax can somewhat make up for it.
Cheese waxes protects against harmful moulds, fungi, while letting the cheese breath properly.
Stage II. warm ageing:
Ageing at 23-25 °C, 80-85 % humidity, for 40-42 days.
Warm ageing creates the iconic holes of the Emmental cheese. Gas producing bacteria are the most active at these temperatures.
If its's not warm enough, the propionibacteria won't create enough CO2 to develop big holes.
This won't ruin the cheese, it will be still edible!
Tip: Cover the cheese with a ceramic flower pot during the warm ageing.
Every day when you flip the cheese, pour warm water onto the pot, so it's always humid around the cheese.
Stage III. cold ageing:
Cold ageing at 12-14 °C, for 2 weeks. Flip the cheese daily!
If you use cheese wax, mould can still appear on the surface. This won't hurt the cheese.
Wipe down the cheese with salty water to get rid of it!
10. STORAGE: If you've already cut the cheese, store it in a fridge, covered in wax paper, then wraped in foil, or in a box.
Take it out of the fridge half an hour before consumption for the best experience.
Good luck, happy cheesemaking! :D
