# Pepper Jack - Monterrey Jack cheese



## milbrosa (Apr 1, 2012)

My next cheese will be a Monterrey Jack, as Julie suggested in my Colby thread. It'll be a Pepper Jack. I'm planning on using habanero, jalepeno, and red pepper flakes. Yes, all three. I want it to be pretty hot, as that's how I like it. 

Once again, I'm planning on a two gallon batch. I'd really love to do a big 4 to 6 pound wheel of cheese, but as a newbie to cheesemaking, I am going to stick with two pound cheeses until I can take my training wheels off without falling over.

It'll probably be next weekend before I can make the Jack. I never seem to have much time to spare during the week.


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## Brew and Wine Supply (Apr 5, 2012)

How much pepper do you plan on adding? I like it hot but the wife does not, so to find something in the middle would be my goal.


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## Julie (Apr 5, 2012)

wow this is sounding pretty hot, I am planning on using some jalapeno and some banana peppers. I found that my wine cooler maintains 50 degrees, so I'm using the last shelf to age cheese.


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## grapeman (Apr 5, 2012)

A built in wine and cheese party!

Love the sounds of the cheese.


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## ibglowin (Apr 5, 2012)

Does sound good for sure. I wish I could find some raw milk, goats or cows. The farmers market season is coming up soon so perhaps I can talk to some of the folks there who have products made from them to find a source locally.


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## milbrosa (Apr 6, 2012)

I'm planning on two fresh habanero peppers, two pickled jalepeno peppers (from my garden that I canned), and about a teaspoon of red pepper flakes. This is for a two pound cheese.

My plan is to remove the seeds and membranes from the jalepenos and habaneros and boil them in a cup of water for 15 minutes, then strain them out and add the chopped habaneros and red pepper flakes to the water and simmer them for 15 minutes. The purpose of this is to kill any live bugs. The jalepenos, being canned, don't require further processing. I'll remove the peppers from the boiling water and add that to my milk as it's heating up. Then I'll add all the peppers to the cheese curds while draining just before I put them in the mold for pressing. 

I'm hoping that the cheese will have some serious heat. I'm a bit of a chile head. Commercial versions of pepper jack cheeses always seem disappointingly mild to me. If I'm the only one in my house who can enjoy this cheese because of the heat level, then I will have succeeded in my goal. 

I'll follow up the pepper jack with a normal jack too so there'll be a version others can eat too.


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## milbrosa (Apr 6, 2012)

ibglowin said:


> Does sound good for sure. I wish I could find some raw milk, goats or cows. The farmers market season is coming up soon so perhaps I can talk to some of the folks there who have products made from them to find a source locally.



Mike, here is one resource that lists producers of "real milk" in each state. I'm sure this is not the only list around. It does appear to be slim pickings for NM.

Where Can I Find Real Milk?

There could be some leads from the Weston A. Price Foundation too.


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## milbrosa (Apr 16, 2012)

Well, my Pepper Jack was a flop. I had lots of problems in the make, and I ended up with a cheese with lots of fissures and poorly knit curds. Four gallons of milk, I'm crying.  I'll age it anyway, but I don't expect much from it.

I'm going to try a smaller plain Jack before I attempt this again. Lesson learned. Take lots and lots of small steps before taking any big ones.


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## Julie (Apr 17, 2012)

Sorry to hear this was a flop, what were your steps and do you know where you went wrong?


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## ibglowin (Apr 17, 2012)

Total bummer!


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## milbrosa (Apr 17, 2012)

There may have been a problem with my milk pH, Julie, but there was probably also something wrong with my process. A major issue was that I didn't use enough rennet. My temperatures got a little out of control, beyond my targets. There may be other factors. 

The recipe and process are approximately as given in The Cheesemaker's Manual by Margaret Peters-Morris. 

Here is a summary of my recipe, process, and observations:

4 gallons low-temperature pasteurized non-homogenized Jersey milk 
3/4 tsp CaCL
3/4 tsp Rennet (but I know now that I measured it short, and probably used 1/2 tsp)
3/8 tsp MA 011
1/8 tsp TA 061
5 fresh habanero peppers
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1.5 tsp dried mixed jalepeno and serrano peppers
saturated brine 

I removed the seeds from the habaneros and boiled them in a cup of water for 15 minutes. Then I strained out the seeds added the habaneros (cut in halves) and the dried peppers. I added a little more water and simmered those for 15 minutes. I poured the cold milk into my vat. My first mistake was that I forgot to take a pH reading of my milk at that point. I added the water from my peppers to the milk, stirred it, started heating the milk slowly. Then remembered that I hadn't gotten a pH reading. So I took a reading, and it measured 6.54 at 74.5°F. The expected pH of fresh milk is 6.6, so it was reading low. 

All of my temperatures were taken with a Thermapen. I overshot my temperature target of 88°F degrees by .5°F, cut the fire, and added the culture, let sit 5 minutes, then stirred and took another pH reading. It had already dropped to 6.39. I also took the temperature again, and it had risen to 89.4°F. Either I hadn't stirred enough before and the milk was actually hotter than I read initially, or my vat, which has a thick aluminum cored stainless steel bottom, had continued to contribute heat to the milk after I shut off the fire. I may need to compensate for the temperature rise in the future. 

I allowed the milk to ripen for 35 minutes. The recipe says 45 minutes, but I noticed that many people only go for 30 minutes. pH measured 6.36. That was much lower than my target of 6.5, and another reason why I decided not to let it ripen any further. It would have just continued to drop as the bacteria converted more lactose into lactic acid (or whatever it is that they do).

I added the rennet, 3/4 teaspoon. I used a new measuring spoon set that has a spoon labeled 3/4 tsp, 3.75ml. But when I later compared it to some of my other spoons I found it was closer to 1/2 teaspoon than to 3/4. If I had filled it to overbrimming full, it would have been closer to 3/4 tsp. I believe I need to get a syringe so I can be more accurate with this in the future. 

Flocculation time, as measured by the spinning bowl test, was 22 minutes. That was longer than I targeted (e.g., 12 to 15 minutes). My rennet is very fresh, so that extended flocculation time is what prompted me to check my new measuring spoon capacity against my old ones. 

I used a flocculation multiplier of 3.5 to determine optimum cutting time, so my total time before curd cutting came to 77 minutes. I waited the additional 55 minutes, tested for a clean break to confirm, and then cut the curd into 1/2 inch pieces. I let it rest for 10 minutes after cutting to heal the curds. Temperature was now 88°F exactly, and pH was 6.16, much lower than my target of 6.45 at this stage. 

I raised the temperature slowly to 100°F over 42 minutes. I stirred very slowly and gently, almost continually for the first 15 minutes, and cut all the large curds I found to 1/2 inch size. I continued heating and stirring gently every three minutes until I hit the target temp. However, again, I overshot it slightly. After cutting the heat and stirring some more, I measured 101.4°F. I took a pH reading, but I forgot to write it down. 

I let the curds settle for 25 minutes, then did a texture test. The curds seemed pretty squishy, but I thought they might be ready anyway. They held together pretty good and then separated easily. But they looked a little bigger than the pictures I'd seen of a Monterey Jack squeeze test, so I let them go another 10 minutes. Then I stirred and measured pH of 5.6. I believe that is way too low at draining time. 

I drained the curds in a butter muslin-lined colander and mixed in the peppers by hand. I don't have any more pH readings from this point because my meter is the glass bulb type, not the flat electrode style, so I didn't figure I'd be able to get a good reading from the drained curds. 

I hooped in a 6 inch diameter form and pressed at 8 pounds for 15 minutes. When I went to flip and redress, the entire cheese simply fell apart. The curds had not stuck together. So I refilled the form and pressed at 25 lb for 45 minutes. Then I flipped it over, redressed, and it was pretty crumbly. A couple of chunks fell off the edges, but it didn't completely fall apart again. I pressed at 50 pound for 6 hours, then I just increased the weight to 90 pounds and pressed another six hours. 

When I removed the cheese from the form, it was clear that it had not knit well. There were small cracks everywhere, but the cheese didn't seem like it was going to fall apart again. It weighed 4 lb 2 oz, 1.86kg, so I brined it for 11 hours and 15 minutes, then turned it over and brined it another 11 hours 15 minutes. Total brining time was 22.5 hours. This was based on the guidelines in the recipe that said to brine for 12 hours per kilogram of cheese.



That's pretty much it. I'm a bit disappointed, but I'm going to try again. Next time with just two gallons of milk, and no peppers. I want to see if I can do a proper plain Jack. I'll be watching my pH more closely, and I'm going to salt the curds before hooping, like you do with a cheddar. The salt should also slow down the bacteria and the resulting pH drop. I'm going to use the right amount of rennet, and try to keep the curds warm before hooping and while pressing.


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## milbrosa (Apr 17, 2012)

This is the ugly final result. The cheese is now air drying. I'm concerned about mold with all these cracks, but I can't wax it until it is dry.

I believe the yellow color is from the peppers and the high-fat Jersey milk. Plus I was shooting under warm tungsten light. I didn't add any annatto, and it doesn't look quite that yellow in person.


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## Brew and Wine Supply (Apr 17, 2012)

I am thinking the rennet was your main problem, I did the reverse (added too much) with a latic cheese and it became very stiff, but still good.


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## milbrosa (Apr 17, 2012)

That was my thinking too, Doug. It took so long for the curds to set, giving the bacteria too much time to operate. 

I learned some valuable lessons, so it's not a total loss. I'm rethinking the idea of making bigger cheeses too, based on my experience with this one. Sticking with 2 gallon cheeses is less risky for a beginner. Less money down the drain if you screw up.


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## grapeman (Apr 17, 2012)

If you put that sucker down the drain, it ain't gonna drain no more. Send it to me instead for proper disposal!


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## milbrosa (Apr 17, 2012)

Even though I think it's a lost cause, I'm going to go ahead and age it for 3 or 4 months and see what it tastes like. Depending on the verdict at the time of tasting, I may indeed be willing to send it your way, grapeman.


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## Julie (Apr 17, 2012)

I say our rennet as well. I use tablets and double the rennet, if it calls for 1/4, I add a 1/2. 

Don't worry about mold setting in, that takes awhile before that happens you will have it in wax before that happens. I'm not seeing this as a bust, just be patient


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