Ingredients

8 Litres Full cream milk

¼ tsp Mesophillic culture
 1/4tsp Calcium Chloride
 1/2tsp Single Strength Liquid Rennet
 1/4tsp Annatto Cheese Colouring
 900 gms Cheese Salt (for Brine)

Acidify & Heat Milk

Begin by heating the milk to (30°C). You do this by placing the milk in a pot or
sink of very warm water. If you do this in a pot on the stove make sure you
heat the milk slowly and stir it well as it heats.

Next the Calcium Chloride and Annatto can be added before adding the culture.

Make sure you rinse the spoon well after adding the Calcium Chloride since
any residuals of this will cause the Annatto to precipitate into dark spots that
will show up in the finished cheese. Better yet add the Annatto first and stir it
in well before adding the Calcium Chloride

The Annatto is only needed to offset the snow white colour of winter or
pasteurized milk. The Colby was traditionally an orange cheese but I like just a
medium warm colour for mine here, which the 1/4 tsp will give.

I add no Annatto to my fresh raw milk in the summer because it naturally has
that nice warm glow from what the cows eat.

Once the milk is at your start temperature the culture can be added. To
prevent the powder from caking and sinking in clumps sprinkle the powder
over the surface of the milk and then allow about 2 minutes for the powder to
re-hydrate before stirring it in. Then allow the milk to rest for 1 hour while the
culture wakes up and begins doing its work.


Coagulate with Rennet

Add 1/2 tsp (2.5ml) of single strength liquid rennet.

The milk now needs to sit quiet for 45 minutes while the culture works and the
rennet coagulates the curd. The thermal mass of this milk should keep it warm
during this period. It is OK if the temp drops a few degrees during this time.

At about 15 minutes you should notice the milk beginning to firm up. Allow it to
remain quiet for another half hour for a curd ready to cut. This will be a total of
 45 minutes from rennet addition to cut. If your curd does not seem firm enough
then allow it to rest another 10 minutes before cutting.

Cut Curds & Release Whey

The curd is ready to cut when it shows a nice clean even break when lifting with
the flat of the cutting knife and then a clean whey in the opening that is neither
to milky (cut too soon) or too clear (cut too late).The curd can be cut to 1/2"
cubes by first cutting the 1/2" vertical cuts as shown below and then using the
ladle or spoon to break these into 1/2" pieces as uniformly as possible.

I have found when using the higher temperature pasteurized milk like I am
using here that the curds do tend to shatter into smaller pieces much more
easily. The key is to go slow and gentle in the cutting and stirring at first. If
using a fresher milk or one pasteurized at lower temperature, You will find it
less of a problem.


Cook the Curds

Now it is time to begin drying out the curds. This will be done by increasing the
heat slowly to 38c. The heat needs to be increased slowly. The total cooking
time will be 30 minutes. The curds can then be gently stirred while holding at
the final temperature for another 15-30 minutes if the curds are still soft.

The final curds should be cooked well through and should be examined to
make sure that enough moisture has been removed. A broken curd should be
firm throughout and the curds should have a moderate resistance when
pressed between the fingers. This is a fairly subjective test (depending on how
firm/soft you want the final cheese.)

When this point is reached the curds can be allowed to settle under the whey.

The time spent so far is about 2.5-3 hrs.

Remove Whey & Wash Curds

This is one of the key parts in making this cheese a real Colby cheese.

The curds are now resting on the bottom of the pot at 38c with only a
moderate amount of lactose converted to lactic acid. In other words a very
sweet cheese curd.
 If left in this condition, the lactose (milk sugar) will act as a food source for the
bacteria and the result will be a higher acid curd which dries the curd out as
the acid develops. The bacteria will also be very happy working at this
temperature as well.

We plan to alter this situation by:

1. removing whey (lactose) - this will deprive the bacteria of much of its food
source and slow things down

2. adding cold water and cooling the curds to 21-27c - this will place the
bacteria in an environment that it is not happy with and will work much more
slowly. The lower the temperature the more affect this has.

In Addition the cold water will begin to increase the moisture of the curd. If the
water temperature is lower that the curd temperature the curd moisture
increases. If it is higher than the curd temperature it will decrease the
moisture (this is how Gouda is made).

Begin by removing the whey down to the level of the curds.

Then add water first at 24c as the curd cools to 27-30 with stirring. Then allow
the curds to settle again and remove the whey/water down to the curd level
again.

Next add very cold water (16c or less) until the curds are at 24c.The curd can
now be stirred in its cooler state for another 15-30 minutes as the curds begin
to firm up. This will cause the curds to form a skin that will keep them from
consolidating fully in the press, leaving some small openings in the final
cheese.

At this point the process has taken about 3.5-4 hrs and we are ready for the
final stage of molding and pressing.

Drain & Mold Curd

The dry curds can now be transferred to a colander lined with butter muslin. A
gentle stirring will make sure that the whey drains off well. The curds are now
ready to be transferred to a sanitized muslin lined mold. The curds should be
packed into the mold using a moderate hand pressure. The amount of curd
formed here may likely be heaped over the top. Finally pull the cloth up evenly all
around the form to eliminate the wrinkles, fold the top cloth over and place the
follower on top. You are now ready to press

Pressing
 The curds in the form are now still quite wet and heavy pressure early on may
lock this moisture in the final cheese. Even though we have slowed down the
conversion of lactose to lactic acid, we are still producing acid and will continue
this during the final pressing. This means that the cheese will continue to
release moisture through the pressing as a bit more acid is present.

For pressing we should begin very light and slowly increase the press weight to a moderate level:

o 15 minutes at 4kg.

o 30 minutes at 9kg

o 90 minutes at 18kg

o Overnight at 23kg.

Notice in the photo above the rate of whey running off is simply a matter of
drops and not a stream of whey being released. This is a good rate of whey
removal during pressing which will slow even more as the residual free
moisture is released. The form should show tears of whey weeping from the
form very slowly. When this stops you can increase the weight slightly. The
cheese should be removed from the press, unwrapped, turned, rewrapped and
put back to the press at each of the above intervals. To assure an even
consolidation. At each turn you will notice the cheese has formed a smoother
surface and rests lower in the mold.

The next morning the cheese can be removed from the mold and cloth. Finally
the pressing is finished and you should have a nicely consolidated wheel of
cheese with no surface openings. This should still feel quite springy and
elastic with mild hand pressure still. The surface should not feel at all sticky at
this point


Salting

You should have a saturated brine prepared for salting this cheese. You will
find all of the details you need on brining here.A simple brine formula is: 1 Gallon of
water to which is added 2 Lbs of Salt, 1tbs. Calcium Chloride (30% solution),
and 1 tsp. white vinegar.The cheese now needs to be set in the brine for about
8 hours.The cheese will float above the brine surface so sprinkle another
teaspoon or 2 of salt on the top surface of the cheese.Flip the cheese and re-
salt the surface about half way through the brine period.

At the end of the brine bath, wipe the surface and allow the cheese to surface
dry for a day or two before waxing. The surface will darken somewhat during
this time.
Aging
The cheese can now be waxed for aging.

The cheese can then be placed into your aging space at 13c and 80-85%
moisture.

The cheese can now be aged for 4-6 weeks and it will ready for your table.