Homemade Pepper Jack Cheese

[Music] hi y'all this is Larry from Deep South Texas today we're going to make a pepper jack cheese and here's the list of ingredients we have three gallons of whole milk a packet of mesophilic starter culture we'll use 3/4 of a teaspoon of calcium chloride 3/4 of a teaspoon of liquid rennet 1 teaspoon of jalapenos from the garden that have been dehydrated and crushed and 1 teaspoon of jalapenos that that were also red and they have also been dehydrated and crushed we'll use 2 tablespoons of cheese salt and of course I have a spray bottle of vinegar I'll be using throughout the day so the first thing we're going to do is start heating up our milk to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and while the milk is heating up we're going to add our jalapenos to about a cup of water and we're going to boil these for 10 minutes okay we have the milk at our target temperature of 90 degrees now we're going to put in the mesophilic culture just going to sprinkle it on the top and in five minutes we'll come back and stir that in and then we'll let it set for 45 minutes well it's been 45 minutes let's add in the calcium chloride and thoroughly mix that in and now we're going to add in the rennet and we mix mix the rennet in for not more than a minutes and now we'll let that set for 45 minutes well it's been 45 minutes it's time to check for a clean break and that looks pretty good so we're going to go ahead and cut the curd here about half inch cubes is what we're looking for I'll cut it horizontally and then vertically and then I'll cut it diagonally [Music] okay the curd has been cut and now we're going to let it rest for five minutes to heal so the curds have had time to heal and now we're going to try to increase the temperature from 90 degrees to a hundred degrees over the next 40 minutes and while we're gently stirring the curds at first if we notice any big pieces of curd meaning we didn't we didn't get them cut very well we'll cut those with the spoon and they cut real easily at this point in the game again we'll be heating this up over the next 40 minutes to a hundred degrees Fahrenheit it's been about 40 minutes we're at 100 degrees and now we're going to wash the curd so we're just going to remove some of the way and replace it with water this lowers the acid and makes for a little bit sweeter cheese so I've removed the way down to the level of the curd and now I'm going to put in some water that's also at a hundred degrees Fahrenheit and to replace the way that I removed all right and now we continue to stir this for another thirty minutes maintaining the hundred degree temperature and after that we'll drain the rest of the way and add the chilli flakes now let's drain off the way [Music] I'm going to save that way and put it in the garden I think that's enough for that pan and we'll let that drain for a little bit then I'm going to put the curds back in the original pan and salt them and put the pepper in okay now we're going to mix in two tablespoons of cheese salt and we're going to just sprinkle that over the top and then mix it in with our hands [Music] and then we're going to mix in our chili peppers that have been quietly waiting for quite a long time now so that's what they look like they're going in now and I thought about wearing gloves for this but I'm just gonna brave it hopefully I'll be okay get those all out there so red and green chili chili peppers should be should be a pretty colorful cheese when all it's done well I think that's mixed up pretty good and now it's time to put it into the mold so I have the mold lined with cheesecloth and I'm just going to scoop this into the into the mold try not to spill any all right try to tighten up the cheesecloth keep wrinkles out of the cheese cover that up and put in the follower and I think we're ready to move that to the press so I'm going to start that out with about ten pounds of pressure for about thirty minutes then we're going to take it out and flip it and increase the weight okay it's been about a half-hour I have removed the cheese from the press and I'm going to get ready to flip it and redress it in the cheesecloth and put it back into the press this time with about 25 pounds of pressure looks pretty okay it's back in the press we have about 25 pounds of pressure on it now we'll leave it like this for about an hour and then we'll flip it again and put on 50 pounds of pressure and then we'll leave that overnight well the pepper jack cheese is out of the cheese press and it's looking good looks like a pretty nice distribution of the red and the green jalapenos see some orange color from the juice from the peppers is coloring the cheese a little bit there is no one not eyeing this at all so we'll let this set on the counter for the next two or three days and let it dry out a little bit it is a little bit more moist than I was expecting but it looks good so here's the cheese after it's been drying for about three days it really looks pretty it's not quite as dry as I like but I want to get it into the cheese fridge so I'm going to put it in a ripening box all for a week or so I'll flip it everyday and then I will either wax it or vacuum bag it well this cheese should be ready to try in about two to three months so around the holidays will be will be dragging it out and giving it a taste test so please please join us for that I hope you like this video if you did please hit that thumbs up and leave a comment and of course please subscribe we'll see you again next time [Music] you

Channel: Deep South Texas

Views: 41,352

Keywords: homestead, Texas, Deep South, Deep South Texas, How to make Pepper Jack Cheese, Directions for making pepper jack cheese, Homemade cheese, Cheese, Pepper Jack Cheese, Cheese Press, Pepper Jack, Mesophilic culture, Rennet, cutting curds, stirring curds, Let's make Pepper Jack Cheese, making cheese on the homestead, recipe for pepper jack cheese, Cheese making, Jalapenos, Chilies

Id: 22LnYfWxKtY

Length: 12min 49sec (769 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 15 2018