Here are a few more pictures
I hit all my target temps and drained the whey as fast as I could, then got it in warm whey and in the press.
I knew it was going to be fine right after I took it out of the draining cloth after spinning the cloth tight to get more whey out of the cheese
the curd was already beggin to get in the mold.
It was a little hard to get out of the mold after the overnight press, the knit, I think, could not have gotten much better.
I couldn't find a skimmer like yours Boofer so sort of did what Alpkäserei suggested, improvised with a tea saucer (just one) could not get any pictures of this process as both hand's were busy, it worked just fine, Thank you Alpkäserei
It is now in the brine, if memory serves, I have read to brine for 4 to 6 hours a pound of cheese,flipping half way through, the cheese weighs 4# 91/8 oz.
This is twice the weight of my first attempt
, anyway so figure 41/2# would be an 18 hour brine at 4 hours per pound
I am thinking maybe 9 or 10 hours, suggestions anyone?
distilled or spring water would be recommended. The chemicals in city water can be harmful to bacteria (since that's their whole point anyway). I'm fortunate enough to not have to live in a city, and we have good well water. So I use our hard water for all cheesemaking applications.
I often make my brines fully saturated, but this is also for a big cheese.
I just saw this post
I made a fully saturated brine that is why I am thinking a shorter brine period?
Thanks everyone for all of this great information, this has went so much better than
last time