Green Gouda a la Pesto

Milk, Water, Table salt, Basil, Spinach, Pine nut, Parsley, Coagulating enzyme, Calcium chloride, Mesophilic culture, Lactobacillus helveticus, Protective starter culture LPRA

Heat on the stove: 20 min. Cool down: 30 min. Let it stand: 40 min. Cooking: 36 min. Slice: 10 min. Mix: 15 min. Cooking: 45 min. Cooking: 10 min. Let it stand: 12 h. Let it stand: 12 h. Chill in the refrigerator: 1 day. Let it stand: 60 day.

Preparing the green milk

Use milk (8 l) with about 3.2-3.5% fat. Pour off about 10% of the milk into a separate pot, add washed basil (30 g), spinach (30 g), and parsley (20 g). Bring this milk with the herbs to a boil, blend it with an immersion blender, and bring it to a boil once more.

For an even color without herb particles, strain the green milk through a sieve or several layers of cheesecloth. If small green flecks are fine, leave it unstrained. Pour it into the main milk, stir, and cool the whole batch to 32-33 °C.

Lightly toast pine nuts (25 g) in a dry pan and let them cool.

Curd and cheese grain

Prepare water (2.6 l): about 1.6 l is used for washing the curd grain, and 1 l for the brine. If needed, add calcium chloride (0.8 g) to the milk, then sprinkle mesophilic culture (manufacturer rate), Lactobacillus helveticus (manufacturer rate), and protective starter culture LPRA (manufacturer rate) over the surface. Let the cultures hydrate, stir, and leave for 30-40 minutes.

Add rennet (6.4 ml), stir, and stop the milk movement. Aim for a flocculation point of 10-15 minutes; use a flocculation multiplier of 3. If flocculation takes 12 minutes, the total set time from adding rennet is 36 minutes.

Cut the curd into 0.7-1 cm cubes and let it firm slightly. Stir gently for 10-15 minutes without heat, cutting large pieces as needed, until the grain firms and releases enough whey.

Remove about 35% of the whey, about 2.8 l for 8 l of milk. Add boiled water at 45 °C, about 30% of the remaining volume, and start very gentle heating. Stir the grain to 38-39 °C for about 30-45 minutes. The grain is ready when it sticks together when squeezed but breaks back into separate grains with light pressure.

Do not use water hotter than 45 °C: overly hot water can scald the grain surface and make the cheese retain too much moisture.

Forming, brining, and aging

Transfer the grain into the mold with some whey to reduce mechanical openings. Sprinkle in the toasted pine nuts in small portions and keep them away from the outer rind as much as possible.

Press for 30 minutes with about 1 cheese weight. Turn and press for 60 minutes with 2 cheese weights, then for another 60 minutes with 3 cheese weights. After the next turn, press with 4 cheese weights for 60-180 minutes or until pH 5.3-5.2. Without a pH meter, use about 12 hours from adding the cultures to brining at a room temperature of about 22-23 °C.

Make a saturated brine: for water (1 l), use table salt (350 g) and calcium chloride (0.1 g). Chill the brine to 12 °C and, if using a pH meter, acidify it to pH 5.3-5.2. Brine the cheese for about 70 minutes per 100 g of cheese.

After brining, dry the cheese in the refrigerator at 80-85% humidity. When the surface is dry, coat the cheese with cheese latex, drying the sides between coats. Age at 10-12 °C for at least 60 days; after 60 days, you can apply one extra latex coat each month. At two months, the cheese should be pliable, with a closed texture or a few small mechanical openings, a clear basil aroma, and a creamy taste.