Traditional Cheddar

[Scott8767]

Hi All - new cheese maker here. I am just getting started following the recipes from Ricki Carroll's Home Cheese Making book. Made a farm house cheddar two weekends ago which went pretty well, but had some trouble getting the curd to set enough to break. Made a traditional cheddar last weekend and had the more trouble with the curd set and break but was able to get it to cut and go through the curd development process. The last step is to heat the water in the sink to 100F and keep it there and turn the curds every 10 minutes which I did. I then put it in the press 10 lbs for 15 minutes, 40 lbs for 12 hours and 50 lbs for 24 hours. The cheese ended up with separation of the curds. Seems like the curds were too dry or too cold. Any thoughts?

[tnbquilt]

Press in the pot fixes this. When you go to press the cheese, put something in the bottom of the pot to keep the mold up off of the bottom. I have a little wooden thing that my husband made for me about an inch tall. Then you pour warm water, from 110 to 120 degrees into the bottom of the pot, not any warmer than that, but do not get it high enough to get to the cheese. Put the cheese in the press and wrap the top of the pot with a towel to hold the warmth in. After your first flip, replace the warm water. After that, leave out the water.

This was not my idea, it was Sailor's, and it works great. You are keeping the curds warm enough to knit, but you don't want to keep them warm for too long because they would still be producing lactic acid. The first two presses always work out well for me.

Until I read this on this forum, I had a lot of ugly cheese. Delicious, but ugly.

[bbracken677]

The curds were too cold.  If you can do something to maintain heat around the curds during the first pressing at least and perhaps the 2nd pressing as well your curds will knit perfectly.

My method (and there are others...Boofer uses a seed warmer, or something like that, I believe) involves a cheap aluminum stock pot with a plastic container inside. I place the mold inside the plastic container (no lid, of course) for pressing and then pour warm whey or water outside the container so there is a "moat" of warm water inside the stock pot. I then cover the pot by wrapping a towel over the top of the pot and around the pressing piston. This warmth helps keep the curds warm during pressing greatly facilitating the knitting.

I believe Boofer wraps the seed warming (small electric blanket?) around the pot he is pressing in to maintain the heat while pressing. Perhaps he can describe it better...

My first cheddar looked exactly like yours...fear not, vacuum pack or place it in a container in your cave to prevent further moisture loss once the rind is dry to the touch and you will be fine. You will just have a thicker, less appealing rind but the cheese should still age as well in the center.

[Scott8767]

Thanks for the replies. I figured it was something like that. I just waxed it, so hopefully it will age OK. Might be a bear to remove the wax, but hey this is a learning process and really a lot of fun. I figure it will take many failures to get it right. I really don't understand the process yet. But hey, I might even get to eat my mistakes  .

[High Altitude]

I just made my first cheddar and feared it would have the crevices yours had as well.  After 12 hours pressing, there were some crevices, though not quite as pronounced, but I was determined to have a smooth knitted surface so put a heating pad under the stainless steel draining plate and wrapped the mold with a towel.  An hour later the bottom was knitted tight!  Yay :-).  So then I flipped and did the same for the other side...another tight knit!  The sides still had some very minor crevices, so tried out my new cream wax (awesome product!) to help inhibit any potential mold development and then hard waxed over that.  Let's wish us both good luck!!

In the future I will definitely press in a warm pot as suggested by many.  Because I use a double boiler system, I can simply do the first press or two right back in the original pot which is already over warm water.  It worked beautifully today with my first Edam (the curds were cold going into the press, so wanted to ensure good knit this time 'round).

[stratocasterdave]

Scott, we just had a Widmer cheddar that was like that. The curd pieces were slightly separate, like a puzzle when I cut through.  However, I think that was what they wanted.