Havarti

We were asked to make a Gouda or Havarti. I choose Havarti. This cheese is a favorite with my friends & family. I never heard of it before I took a cheese workshop in town last summer. It is a really easy cheese to make. Havarti is a washed curd cheese. Washing the curd gives this cheese a more delicate taste.
I used the recipe from my class that I took this last summer, as I really liked that recipe.

One important note. This is the last of the milk from my cows for this lactation. I dried up the cows to give them time before they calve in a few months.

Here are my supplies.

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Warm milk to 86 deg. I added my culture. It was MM100, stir & let sit for 45 min.

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Here I am stirring in the rennet. I let this rest for 20 min or till a clean break.

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This is what a clean break looks like.

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I have had really good luck cutting the curd large...to get the texture of cheese we were meant to have. I live in a dry area & am told cutting the curd larger will give me a cheese that is not overly dry. I sliced the curd at 2 inches & then made two swipes one way & two swipes the other direction. Then let this sit 15 minutes.

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Reheat slowly to 98 deg. Stirring with a soft folding motion every 14 min. In this process we will start to wash the curd.  Dip out some whey & add hot water back to this every time I give it a stir.

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Here I am dipping out whey.

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I am dipping hot water. To add to the curds.

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Here I am adding the hot water to my vat.

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Doing this again. Removing whey & adding hot water. I do this every 15 min & give this cheese a stir using a folding motion. When curds clump together about an hour later, I will siphon off the extra whey & hoop the cheese.

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Here I am hooping the cheese & I set this in a covered pot to help keep in the moisture. While this is hanging I prepared the moulds & measured out my salt...I am going to salt the curds then put in the moulds.

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Here I am salting the curds!

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This is where I dumped out the cheese, working fast I took this picture. On to the next step!

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Now I put this in a cheese cloth lined tommee mould.

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Set the follower lid on & 5 pounds of weight.

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Flip in one hour & then that evening.

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This is my cheese after skinning for 24 hours.

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This is the cheese after it came out of the brine.

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Appearance:  a large cheese!
Nose (aroma): Smelled buttery
Overall  Taste: buttery to nutty
Sweet to Salty:  slightly salty
(Mild) Mellow to Robust to Pungent  (stinky):  mild
Mouth Feel: (gritty, sandy, chewy, greasy, gummy, etc.): soft & smooth