I don't want to do this if it causes the harmful things to increase. I trust the farmer where I buy my milk, but I don't want to cause a problem for no apparent reason.
I have been making cheddar this week and I have been trying to check my ph levels and record them. Just from comparison to what people post on this site, my ph levels are all high. For example most things say to drain the cheddar at 6.02 or 6.03, but (going from memory because my notes are at home,) mine is in 6.57 range when I get through cooking it. I am no where close.
So all during the process my ph seems to be high, but after it is pressed I can check the ph of the whey in the bottom of the pan and it is low at that point. Down in the lower 5 numbers.
I was reading around and trying to see if I could find a reason for this.
I have had a variety of problems with my cheese lately, bitter flavor, dry cheese with a tangy flavor, and I am trying to get a way to control what I'm coming out with better. I know that the dry tangy cheese was from trying to cook the cheddar to reach specific ph levels when my ph meter was not calibrated. I haven't figured out the bitter part yet.
I'm being very careful and recording step by step and keeping a good log, but I can't relate any of the ph levels that I am seeing back to what people on this forum are seeing. I've cleaned my meter, and I calibrate it before I start making cheese each time.
I may need a new better quality ph meter.
Is it possible that the milk starts out with a high ph? I don't know what the ph of milk is supposed to be.
At this point I am recording my ph levels but I am using the time as given in the recipe.