Make a mistake oops

[Kudos1uk]

So I was make another Parmasan on Friday and did it all wrong ooops.

So I got it up to 33 and added my calcium & lipase but instead of adding the culture I accidentally picked up the rennet and started happily adding it.

When I realised my mistake I immediately added the culture and carried on with the recipe to see whet happened.

So the curds were not so firm and ended up much smaller than normal, it took forever to get it through the cheesecloth, it was also difficult to press and the first couple of pressing just fell apart as they were so wet.

No after extra pressing at 25kg it looks like it's supposed to but is not as firm as normal.

It's now in brine for it's 24hours

I'm not sure if I should persevere or just bin it?

What does anyone think, what will this monstrosity end up as, is it likely to just go mouldy if I try to age it due to the water content, is there any way to further dry it? I have had it pressed at 25kg for 3 days and no more liquid will come out.

 

[bernardsmith]

Your experience with what looks like a problem cheese raises for me an interesting question:
Was the problem caused by the rennet being introduced before the milk had sufficient time to sufficiently acidify or was the problem caused by too much agitation (to stir in the culture) after you had introduced the rennet. Does rennet NEED acidification to coagulate properly. You suggest the curds were not as firm as they might be, but you don't say anything about how clean the break was.

My guess is that any mold that might grow will not spoil the cheese but if you are concerned I would use the cheese as if it was meant not to be aged. I say this because I often make a hard cheese from kefir I make and that cheese is too acidic to allow the rennet to make a clean break so I don't add rennet but press the cheese under about 25 kg or more for about three days. The cheese is firm but crumbly and can last for months without spoilage. My guess is that your cheese probably has about the same moisture content as my kefir.

 

[Kudos1uk]

Your experience with what looks like a problem cheese raises for me an interesting question:
Was the problem caused by the rennet being introduced before the milk had sufficient time to sufficiently acidify or was the problem caused by too much agitation (to stir in the culture) after you had introduced the rennet. Does rennet NEED acidification to coagulate properly. You suggest the curds were not as firm as they might be, but you don't say anything about how clean the break was.

My guess is that any mold that might grow will not spoil the cheese but if you are concerned I would use the cheese as if it was meant not to be aged. I say this because I often make a hard cheese from kefir I make and that cheese is too acidic to allow the rennet to make a clean break so I don't add rennet but press the cheese under about 25 kg or more for about three days. The cheese is firm but crumbly and can last for months without spoilage. My guess is that your cheese probably has about the same moisture content as my kefir.

There was a clean break, it was just the curds were not as firm as usual.
After the longer than normal pressing, I sat it in brine for 24 hours and and now on my daily turning in the kitchen.
At the moment I am treating it as if nothing went wrong and I think I will monitor it carefully and see how long I dare age it.
The brine has given it the start of a rind but you can feel the wheel has more give than I normally expect.

Time will tell what I have here I guess

 

[bernardsmith]

Not a very experienced cheese maker but here's my thought. If there was a clean break and the curds are not as firm as they are typically then I would think that you failed to stir them enough for long enough OR you failed to raise the temperature high enough to "cook" them before draining. Larger curds contain more whey and smaller curds tend to be more firm. No?