Wiki: Making Brine

Cold household fridge stored saturated water based brine and water based brine ripening feta in plastic containers.

This wiki article discusses making brine which is used in cheese making both temporarily bathing formed pressed cheeses for salting (examples are washed curd cheeses such as Gouda) or permanently brining formed unpressed cheeses during ripening (examples are Feta). Other Wiki articles on brine are Wiki: Brine Bathing CheesesWiki: Maintaining Brine, and Wiki: Brine For Ripening Cheese. Wiki articles on salt are: Wiki: Salt Types, and Wiki: Salt’s Function.

Brine is a combination of water and common NaCl salt, in making cheese other parameters are acidity and calcium levels of brine.

Salt Amount

Cold household fridge stored saturated water based brine and water based brine ripening feta in plastic containers.
Cold household fridge stored saturated water based brine and water based brine ripening feta in plastic containers.

Many cheese making procedures, when using brine for salting cheese, call for brine between 18 & 23% salt. This is because:

  1. The range of brine resistant spoilage and pathogen type microorganisms that can survive in brine increases significantly at less than 16% salt and 18% provides a safety margin. Weak brines are notorious sources of contamination and thus if used, should be disposed of after using and not re-used. Weak brines also result in less moisture loss from the cheese surface, resulting in several possible defects:
    • As less salt, the body of the cheese will be higher water content and thus weaker and softer than desired.
    • Initially soft/swollen cheese from less brine inhibition and a slimy, greasy, or “melting” surface of the newly formed cheese.
    • As less salt in the cheese, the acidity development will be less retarded, resulting in higher acidity (lower pH) will favour the growth of spoilage organisms. For aged type cheeses you can get sticky and discoloured rind patches, varying from straw to bright orange, red or brown. Also, the surface will be prone to show growths of the black or grey mucor molds (poille de chat).
  2. Brines above 23% salt increases the risk that moisture will be lost too rapidly from the surface of the cheese. This can result in a very dehydrated surface layer which may hinder or reduce the further uptake of salt into the body of the cheese to reach the correct % salt in cheese, depending on cheese type.

However, some home type cheese making recipes call for brining with saturated (typically 26% salt at 60°F/15°C) brines. This is because saturated brines:

  1. Are easier to make accurately and maintain than lower % salt brines.
  2. As easier to make accurately they provide an easy standard against which future cheese making batches can be measured.

Brine Additives

Four pound Gouda brining in saturated water based brine in stainless steel stockpot.
Four pound Gouda brining in saturated water based brine in stainless steel stockpot.

Freshly made brines, will when first used for brining a cheese, exhibit cat ion exchange whereby the calcium and hydrogen ions in the cheese surface will transfer to the brine until the brine and cheese reaches equilibrium. This transfer will cause the casein in the cheese surface to absorb water and swell resulting in a soft slimy surface layer that in aged cheeses leads to rind rot during aging. To mitigate this transfer:

  1. Acidify the new brine to a pH of ~5.0, or roughly the same pH as the cheese. This can be done by several methods listed from optimal to least preferable:
    1. Using drained whey instead of water for base of brine.
    2. Adding Citric Acid to water.
    3. Adding Acetic Acid (vinegar) to water.
  2. Add food grade CaCl2 to the brine until reach 0.1%.

Brine Tank

Brine tanks should have the following properties:

  1. Sturdy to avoid failure from the weight and pressure (if large tank) of dense brine fluid.
  2. Be large enough for the brine plus the cheese(s) plus the cheese insertion or removal device (i.e. hand and arm or metal device) plus a free area for mini-waves when placing and removing cheese.
  3. Made of a salt corrosive resistant material, such as plastic or high quality stainless steel. Note, most stainless steel stockpots are not of high enough quality steel to avoid corrosion and also often have easily corrodible aluminum rivets attaching handles.

Making Saturated Brine

Stockpot after used as saturated brine bath tank, handle rivets erroding.
Stockpot after used as saturated brine bath tank, handle rivets erroding.

To make a saturated salt solution:

  1. Boil amount of water you want to make into brine and pour into brine tank.
  2. Add roughly 1 part additive free (non-iodized, no dessicant) NaCl salt for 4 parts boiled water.
  3. Stir until salt is fully dissolved.
  4. Allow brine to cool to ~60°F/15.6°C application temperature or lower if storing. This will result in some salt precipitated back out of solution, demonstrating that brine is saturated.
  5. Add enough vinegar to reach a pH of 5 or to roughly equalize pH with that of cheese, typically 1 teaspoon per US gallon / 1.33 ml per liter water of standard 5% white (clear) vinegar.
  6. Add CaCl2 to reach 0.1% to reduce cat ion exchange, typically 1 tablespoon/US gallon / 4 ml/liter water of 30% CaCl2 solution.

Making Non-Saturated Brine

To make non-saturated Sodium Chloride brine:

  1. Pour amount of cool ~60°F/15.6°C water into brine tank that you want to make into brine.
  2. Choose your desired % Brine from column #1 of the table below.
  3. Determine the corresponding weight of non-iodized NaCl salt you need per unit of water from column #2 or #3.
  4. Scale up the weight of table salt to your volume.
  5. Weigh that amount of salt, pour into water, and stir until dissolved.
  6. Add enough vinegar to reach a pH of 5 or to roughly equalize pH with that of cheese, typically 1 teaspoon per US gallon / 1.33 ml per liter water of standard 5% white (clear) vinegar.
  7. Add 0.1% CaCl2 to reduce cat ion exchange, typically 1 tablespoon/US gallon / 4 ml/liter water of 30% CaCl2 solution.

Notes:

  • In brines, % salt is a measure of the weight of salt divided by the weight of brine, i.e. if you dissolve 1 kg of salt in 5 liters of water, the brine will weigh 6 kg and you will have 1/6 = 16.7% salt brine.
    • Example Metric Calculation: Say you want to make 5 liters of 16% brine. Table below says 0.1905 kg salt/liter water for ~16% brine. Thus combine 5 liters water and 5 x 0.1905 = 0.9525 kg salt and stir until dissolved.
    • Example American Units Calculation: Say you want to make 2 US gallons of 10% brine. Table below says 0.1111 pounds salt/US gallon of water for ~10% brine. Thus combine 2 US gallons water and 2 x 0.1111 = 0.2222 pounds salt and stir until dissolved.
  • When salt is dissolved in water, it makes the resulting volume of brine slightly bigger depending on the amount of salt. For example the above 16% brine examples will be about 5% larger volume that the original amount of water used.
  • A very fresh egg will float in a 20% salt solution and often used as very reliable method in home brine making.

Brine Making Table

The table below is at standard conditions of 60°F/15.6°C and only goes up to 26% as at 26.395% brine is fully saturated (at 60°F) and any additional salt will not dissolve.

% NaCl Salt kg NaCl Salt / liter Water pound NaCl Salt / US gallon Water
0 0 0
2 0.0204 0.17
4 0.0417 0.347
6 0.0638 0.532
8 0.0870 0.724
10 0.1111 0.925
12 0.1364 1.136
14 0.1628 1.356
16 0.1905 1.586
18 0.2195 1.828
20 0.2500 2.082
22 0.2820 2.349
24 0.3158 2.630
26 0.3513 2.926

Wiki: Salt Types

US 1 Pound Rock Salt

Chemically there are many types of salts, the ones used in cheese making are common household eating salt, a mineral composed primarily of Sodium Chloride (chemical abbreviation is NaCl) and is essential for human and animal life. Salt is usually produced from evaporating sea water or by mining ancient seabed rock deposits. It is manufactured into different forms:  

  • Raw sea salt which is bitter due to magnesium and calcium compounds and thus is rarely eaten. These are common in bathing additives and cosmetic products.
  • Refined salt which is ~99% Sodium Chloride.
  • Refined flourinated and/or iodized and/or anticaking salt.

Flourinated Salt

US Made Morton Brand Iodized Salt - CheeseForum.org
US Made Morton Brand Iodized Salt

Flourinated salt is manufactured in some countries to promote dental health. The effect of this type of salt used in making cheese is unknown.  

Iodized Salt

Iodized or iodised salt is regular crystalline NaCl salt mixed with a minute amount of various iodine-containing salts such as potassium iodide, sodium iodide, or sodium iodate. Many commercially manufactured table type salts are iodized to help prevent iodine deficient diseases in humans such as mental retardation and thyroid gland problems such as goiter.  

However, iodine also will retard or kill the growth of the cultures in cheese and thus should not be used in making cheese.  

This can be an issue in some countries where all manufactured table salt is iodized by law. However often in those countries special non-iodized “canning and pickling” salt is often manufactured for making brine used in pickling vegetables as iodine can be oxidized by the foods and darken them.  

Anticaking Salt

US Made Kroger Brand Non-Iodized Free Flowing Kitchen Salt - CheeseForum.org
US Made Kroger Brand Non-Iodized Free Flowing Kitchen Salt

Many manufactured salts are anticaking and are often labeled as “Free Flowing” or “Table Salt” as they are made with NaCl salt and anticaking ingredients such as sodium aluminosilicate, sodium ferrocyanide, potassium ferrocyanide, calcium carbonate, or magnesium carbonate. These additives prevent the formation of lumps caused by moisture “melting” salt crystals together and thus provide easier packaging, transportation, and consumption.  

Some anticaking agents are soluble in water; others are soluble in alcohols or other organic solvents. They function either by absorbing excess moisture, or by coating particles and making them water-repellent, calcium silicate, adsorbs both water and oil. Anticaking agents are also commonly used in manufactured cake mixes, powdered sugar, non-dairy creamers, dry cheese products, and many other dry mixes.  

Because of the properties listed above, anticaking salts should not be used in direct salting cheese as they can affect the moisture content of cheeses and/or the dissolution of salt in the cheese. However they can be used in brines where the intent is to imbibe salt into the cheese and to dehydrate the surface to build a cheese rind.

Recommended Salts

US Made Morton Brand Non-Iodized Canning & Pickling Salt - CheeseForum.org
US Made Morton Brand Non-Iodized Canning & Pickling Salt

Common retail grocery store food grade dry salts that can be used in making cheese are: 

  • Regular salt, if non-iodized and no anticaking additives.
  • Canning or Pickling Salt which normally is non-iodized and no anticaking additives and is manufactured fine-grained to accelerate its dissolution when making brine.
  • Rock or Kosher Salt, which is large crystal normally non-iodized and no anticaking additive.
  • Food grade swimming pool or water softener salt for brines as as large size pellets.
  • Flaked flat crystal salt normally non-iodized and no anticaking additive which packs lighter than common sand crystal type salt, melts easily, and does not easily bind together. Sometimes called “cheese salt” and is often not readily available in grocery stores. Note, there is no advantage to this salt when used to make brine.

US Made Kroger Brand Non-Iodized Free Flowing Kitchen Salt With Sodium Silicoaluminate
US Made Kroger Brand Non-Iodized Free Flowing Kitchen Salt With Sodium Silicoaluminate

US made Morton brand 25 pound bag of non-iodized Table Salt with anticaking sodium silicoaluminate
US made Morton brand 25 pound bag of non-iodized Table Salt with anticaking sodium silicoaluminate

US 1 Pound Rock Salt - CheeseForum.org
US 1 Pound Rock Salt

Wiki: Salt’s Function

US Made Morton Brand 25 Pound Non-Iodized Salt - CheeseForum.org

Salt is an essential ingredient in cheese making. This article is about salt’s function in cheese making, primarily: Moisture control, rind formation, control of production of lactic acid, texture improver, microbiological control, and flavour enhancer. Information on different salt types, and methods of applying salt is contained in other articles.

US Made Morton Brand 25 Pound Non-Iodized Salt - CheeseForum.org
US Made Morton Brand 25 Pound Non-Iodized Salt - CheeseForum.org

Salt is almost always applied to the cheese towards the end of the cheese making process. The earliest being after whey is drained from the curds as salting prior to this point will pre-maturely inhibit the growth of the starter culture.

Salt is commonly added as an ingredient in cheese making in four ways:

  1. Dry salt mixed directly into curds (Cheddar, Blue).
  2. Applied to, or rubbing rind with dry salt (Camembert, Brie).
  3. Brine soaking (Gouda, Edam, Havarti).
  4. Brine preserved (Feta, Halloumi).

Salt has many effects on the cheese, some immediate when applied, and some long term during aging. The amount of salt used and it’s different effects have significant influence on the cheese produced. Therefore the amount of salt used by one of the above methods should be accurately measured.

Moisture Control

When salt is applied directly to the cut curds or to the fresh rind, it starts to dissolve into the water phase of the curd. This draws water in the form of whey to the surface of the curd. Depending on the method, this surface water (whey) is then either drained away if added to cut curds, or evaporated if applied to rind, or into the brine if brined.

Thus salt aids in dehydrating cheese to that cheese types required moisture content for proper development, thus in turn, each cheese type has a narrow required % salt content.

Rind Formation

Two 2 kg Gouda's in whey based 18 percent brine bath - CheeseForum.org
Two 2 kg Gouda's in whey based 18 percent brine bath - CheeseForum.org

As moisture is diffused out of the curd’s surface from dry salting the curds or brining or evaporated off of the curd’s surface by dry salting a formed cheese, the surface of the cheese becomes dehydrated and the rind is formed.

The rind’s thickness and density can be controlled by varying the salting or brining conditions and the humidity and temperature during and after dry salting or brining.

In addition to a rind that is dehydrated, dry salting or brining of cheese results in a rind that is also of high salt content. This acts as a selective environment that strongly controls the microbiological activity on the rind. This is especially important for surface ripened cheeses such as Camembert and Brie.

Lactic Acid Production Control

For some cheeses, the addition of salt temporarily disrupts the starter culture’s fermentation into lactic acid. This can control the pH from becoming too low during pressing (if pressed) and the early stages of ripening.

As whey is lost due to salting, the whey carries out lactose, which if left can result in excessive lactic acid resulting in unwanted very low pH and unwanted fermentations during aging.

Texture Improvement

During early aging, loosely held water in the casein matrix becomes absorbed by the casein (the largest protein group in milk) resulting in a change from a moist curd to a drier softer more mellow cheese.

Microbiological Control

In general, the lower the salt content, the higher the number of microorganisms that can survive inside the cheese and conversely, the higher the salt content, the lower the number that can survive. Thus salting to the correct target % for the type of cheese is key to developing the cheese.

In addition, for some cheeses, salt also inhibits food poisoning microorganisms and thus is important for food safety.

Flavour Enhancement

Salt, first as normal has a savory, seasoning affect enhancing cheese’s flavour. Second via the Microbiological Control mechanism detailed above, changes a cheese’s flavour. If the salt content is not correct for the cheese type, these flavor compounds may not be produced in the right amount or ratio resulting in abnormal flavour for that cheese type.

In some highly salted cheeses such as Feta or Blue, the salt increases the action of lipase enzymes resulting in piquant flavour and aroma.