I have had a problem with my cheese making for quite a while now and it is really starting to annoy me, no matter which recipe I try I cannot get the PH below 6.3.
I had read somewhere that to get the cheese to melt well you need a PH of around 5.4 - 5.1.
All the cheeses that I have made do not melt at all, even my Mozzarella! both the 30 min recipe and the starter type. I have made Havarti, stirred curd cheddar, Swiss, farmhouse chive cheddar even had a go at Mobier.
Yesterday, made a Caerphilly, and followed the recipe from Tim Smiths 'Making Artisan Cheese', I started with store bought whole milk, past and homo , I used a Flora Danica starter. The PH reading of the milk was 6.8, when I reached the stage where I was to 'cheddar' the curds briefly, I had a PH of 6.6.
After the first 10 min pressing I took the whey an did a PH test with my Digital meter, the PH was 6.6, after the second flip ten minutes later the PH was still 6.6, 20 minutes later I did the final flip and was to leave the cheese overnight PH 6.5, in the morning I took some more whey and tested it, the PH was 6.7 ! . The whole process was supposed to take about 3 1/2 hrs, but waiting for the curd to increase in acidity I waited for nearly 5 1/2 hrs, and had to hoop up as my wife wanted her kitchen back so we could get diner started.
So I thought that maybe my starter had passed its use by date, so today I made another Caerphilly, same milk, same recipe but I opened a new pack of DVS starter, a meso starter, MA11, the results of this cheese were pretty much the same as yesterday, only at the final flip before leaving the cheese overnight the PH was 6.3.
I have had this problem with other cheeses as well, none of them will melt an become 'stringy' and are no good for making the good old cheese on toast
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what would likely be a solution to my predicament.