Author Topic: Failures I have known  (Read 39549 times)

Offline Boofer

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Lakewood, Washington
  • Posts: 5,015
  • Cheeses: 344
  • Contemplating cheese
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #90 on: February 06, 2014, 07:56:58 PM »
FWIW - I turned around a few days later and made another batch and did what I was told for all 10 steps and poof - it worked. Doh!

I have done that, and will probably do it again...
??? What? ???

-Boofer-
« Last Edit: October 20, 2014, 12:32:38 PM by Boofer »
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

JeffHamm

  • Guest
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #91 on: May 07, 2014, 06:37:15 AM »
I adapted a Meunster protocol to make a brie by omitting the b.linens and adding some mould from a store bought Cam.  This has worked well in the past.  However, this time some wild blue contaminated the cheese and it seems to have taken over.  In part this was because just as the mould sort of covered the cheese, but had contamination, I had to wrap it and leave it to its own devices as we were going on a holiday.  I decided to check on it, and it's, well, more of a blue brie than anything else.  The wild blue won't be tasty, so the rind is gone, but hopefully the paste will be fine.


Offline Boofer

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Lakewood, Washington
  • Posts: 5,015
  • Cheeses: 344
  • Contemplating cheese
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #92 on: May 07, 2014, 01:25:47 PM »
Oooh, sorry Jeff.  :(

It looks...lovely. ::)  That's the trouble with leaving these little buggers to their own devices. They can't handle being on their own.

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

JeffHamm

  • Guest
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #93 on: May 07, 2014, 08:40:06 PM »
The kids these days!  Just no sense of responsibility.  In my day ... hmmm ... wait ... I'm pretty sure lying is wrong so I better stop now.  :)

- Jeff

Spoons

  • Guest
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #94 on: June 29, 2014, 06:38:12 PM »
I think I made a dud cheese yesterday. The poor cheese even got the nickname "Dudley". So why is Dudley such a dud cheese?

As some of you may know, I'm trying to replicate a cheese that tastes like parm (sharp but without an asiago-esk tartness), has the body of a cheddar and has some very sweet notes. A "Sweet Italian Cheddar" if you will. I had the splendud splendid idea of making a typical parm recipe but with a few adjustments:

Use full fat milk
Use a thermo cocktail that promotes sweetness (Thermo C + Flav 54)
Salt the curds without milling (saw this on an instructional video provided by Sartori cheese when making Bellavitano)

I knew that salting curds slows down acidification, but I've made enough Jack cheese to know that a cheese can go from 6.10 to 5.40 during pressing when the curd is salted... well, that was until Dudley.

Dudley is a beautiful 1049g  cheese with a PH of 6.20 after 16 hours of pressing. Yes... you read it right... 6.20! This will probably turn out as an "Italian Haloomi".

Sigh... I think I killed this cheese. lol

Question though: Do high PH cheeses age well?
« Last Edit: June 29, 2014, 06:51:10 PM by Spoons »

jwalker

  • Guest
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #95 on: June 29, 2014, 11:27:19 PM »


Low acid cheeses (high pH) such as Swiss have a high mineral content and have protein aggregates largely composed of intact casein micelles. Electron microscopy reveals an extensive protein matrix composed of strings of protein aggregates. Such cheeses have relatively elastic properties.


Most cheese including Cheddar should reach a minimum pH of 5.0 to 5.1 during the first week after manufacture; obtaining a final pH in this range is greatly helped by increased buffer capacity of milk proteins in the pH range 5.4 - 4.8.
Factors determining the pH at one day are amount of culture, draining pH, washing, curd treatment such as cheddaring and salting.
Draining pH is most important to cheese texture and also determines residual amounts of chymosin and plasmin in the cheese.
pH increases with age due to release of alkaline protein fragments. This is especially true of mould ripened cheeses. Camembert pH increases from 4.6 to 7.0, especially on the surface.
Increasing pH during curing encourages activity of both proteases and lipases.

Spoons

  • Guest
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #96 on: October 18, 2014, 04:03:34 PM »
Here's a new one: Vat failure.

I pride myself with the vat I came up with. It's perfect! Temps controls are absolutely precise. I sometimes even make cheese without even putting a thermometer in the milk/whey (but I decided it wasn't good practice, never failed me though). Yes, it's perfect! I love it!... until today... When I saw this mess I stared at it, motionless for like 5 minutes. I'm laughing about it now though. I'll need to come up with a tweak to secure the pan to the water bath. Back to the drawing board...
 

Offline pastpawn

  • Mature Cheese
  • ****
  • Location: Clearwater, FL
  • Posts: 251
  • Cheeses: 45
  • It aint easy being cheesy
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #97 on: October 18, 2014, 11:07:17 PM »
Great thread.  I'm too newb to have anything to contribute, but my time is coming.  Anyway, I have learned a lot.  Thanks everyone for posting your "dirty laundry". 
- Andrew

Offline awakephd

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: North Carolina
  • Posts: 2,351
  • Cheeses: 240
  • compounding the benefits of a free press
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #98 on: October 19, 2014, 04:13:06 PM »
Eric, I had that experience with my first effort to move from a 1-gallon make to a 2-gallon make. When I switched to larger pots to accommodate the larger quantities, I found out the hard way that even though the handles of the inner pot rested on the rim of the outer pot, there was enough room for everything to shift over and -- disaster! Quite a sick feeling, pouring out the milk and starting over. After that I used a couple of spoons through the handles of the inner pot to keep it from being able to shift. Worked well ... but then I moved up to a 3-gallon make, and the pot for that doesn't have the same problem.
-- Andy

Penny C. Liam

  • Guest
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #99 on: June 19, 2015, 12:32:09 PM »
I have the (dubious) honor of adding to this thread.  This Farmhouse cheddar seems to have an identity crisis.  It did not mesh and remains crumbly.  The wax coating cracked and some blue mold sneaked in and found a hospitable home.  Not a bad tasting cheese, just another "cheese surprise" like Forest Gump's box of chocolate.

Redutsa

  • Guest
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #100 on: July 30, 2015, 03:39:46 PM »
I'm a newbie. With that disclaimer, I believe I've invented a new type of powdered goat cheese. Doesn't melt, doesn't taste good, but ,ought be a good packaging material.  Photos to follow...

Spoons

  • Guest
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #101 on: June 13, 2016, 12:27:28 AM »
A new addition to the failures I have known:

Goat milk Double Gloucester!

Sounds like a great idea, but the whey retention is just ridiculous! It constantly leaked for 8 months after sealing it. Every time I would unseal and dry it, it would start leaking within a week. The final result after 8 months was a bitter tasting, crumbly hard cheese.

Offline Boofer

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Lakewood, Washington
  • Posts: 5,015
  • Cheeses: 344
  • Contemplating cheese
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #102 on: June 14, 2016, 03:24:10 AM »
Thanks for the contribution. Always welcome. ;)

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

Offline Tiarella

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Chester, MA, US
  • Posts: 1,748
  • Cheeses: 81
  • Default personal text
    • Farm Blog
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #103 on: June 14, 2016, 10:46:09 AM »
Thanks for the contribution. Always welcome. ;)

-Boofer-
Boofer!  I miss you and all the others here on the forum.  I don't have any extra milk yet for cheesemaking because of having some bottle babies this year who are drinking all the extra milk.  Once weaning happens I hope to re-enter the world of cheese and finally get a chance to use as wrapping some Redbud leaves that have been soaking in brandy for 2 years.  I'm also dealing with Lyme Disease and a couple of co-infections so my energy is limited but I'm hopeful I'll be able to make cheese anyway or be better by then.   :)

Offline Boofer

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: Lakewood, Washington
  • Posts: 5,015
  • Cheeses: 344
  • Contemplating cheese
Re: Failures I have known
« Reply #104 on: June 14, 2016, 09:30:51 PM »
Oh Kathrin, I've missed you!  :(

I'm sorry for your Lyme trouble, but looking forward to more delightful postings from you.

I've laid off posting the past year and just tried to keep my hand in now and then. Still working to improve my interpretation of some favored cheese styles. Practice, practice, practice.... ;)

I'm looking forward to opening a Pont l'Eveque this Friday. Beyond that is yet another trial in the mix.

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.