Author Topic: Crumbly Farmhouse Cheddar  (Read 1279 times)

heidiwolk

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Crumbly Farmhouse Cheddar
« on: April 19, 2015, 12:42:00 AM »
Hello,
I finally got to open my first cheese I ever made today which was made about 6 weeks ago.  It is a farmhouse cheddar which I have never had before.  I noticed right away when I was slicing it, the cheese was somewhat crumbly.  I'm not sure if this is normal for a farmhouse cheddar or not.  When I was making the cheese, I did bring the temp up too rapidly at one point.  Would this cause the cheese to crumble?  The overall flavor is pretty good.  I'm just looking for someone who has had more experience with this to shed some light on the matter and point me in the right direction.

Thanks

Offline OzzieCheese

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Re: Crumbly Farmhouse Cheddar
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2015, 06:45:16 AM »
Hi Heidi -
There are lots of reasons this might be so...  Do you have any notes you can share ?  Crumbly is sometimes caused by some of the following.
1. Heating the curd to the cooking temperature too quickly and has trapped more whey inside the curd giving more lactose for the bugs to go to work on causing the creation of more lactic acid.  Does the cheese have a slightly vinegar taste. What happens is that the surface of the curds hardens too much and it affect the permeability of the curd wall.  The syneretic pressure caused by the stirring and the physical shrinking action was not sufficient to expel enough weigh.   With that you have retained too much calcium an this keeps the curd structure firmer than usual. 
Some cheese actually are made to allow for the - Lancashire for example.

Hope that helps..

-- Mal 
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heidiwolk

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Re: Crumbly Farmhouse Cheddar
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2015, 01:01:28 PM »
Thanks Ozziecheese!

That's exactly what I did, I heated the temp of the curds to fast.  Way too fast.  However, I have not noticed a vinegar taste.  I appreciate your help given this is the first cheese I have made and eaten. 
Thanks so much for the reply. 

Offline OzzieCheese

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Re: Crumbly Farmhouse Cheddar
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2015, 01:15:03 AM »
With the details in your post I suspected it might be the case.  There are however a couple of others. 

Cutting the curds too early or too late. Cutting too early and the fat hasn't had time to be surrounded by the casein network and lost to the whey or the longer the curds coagulate the larger the pores become and harder the network becomes allowing more whey and fat to escape.

Also, not allowing the curds to "Heal" after cutting can cause the curds to shatter and loose fat and  whey too fast as the skin forms more slowly on shattered curds.

Too vigarous stirring can as well.


 
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