First wheel of Pub Cheddar Curds shrinking apart help!

[artguy]

so I made my first wheel of pub cheddar yesterday and when I pulled it out of the mold this morning it was beautiful  The recipe said to let air dry until it is dry to the touch.  As the wheel dried the curds started shrinking and pulling away from each other.  Any insights?


Thanks

[jwalker]

Too much salt ?
Too cold when Pressed ?
Stirred curds too vigorously ?
Pressed too light ?

Could be one of the above.

Pics and make details would help.

Of all the cheeses I've done over the past year , I've found Cheddar the hardest to get right.

[artguy]

Here is an image 

[Matthewcraig]

To me it looks like the curd was not cut small enough and to much salt was used she the moisture has been sucked in from the inside rather than the outside if you wrap in it a cheese wrap or wax it that may save it.

[JeffHamm]

Yes, that looks like the knit wasn't as solid as it could be to begin with.  Cheddar types can be tricky to get to knit properly if the curds get cold, especially early on.  I recommend Sailor's method of "pressing in the pot" for cheddar.  Basically, put your put in a sink of warm water, put your mould in the pot, and press while the curds are in the pot.  The general idea is that the water keeps the pot warm, which in turn keeps the air in the pot warm, and that, finally, keeps the curds warm.  Being warm helps them to knit better.  I make a fair number of cheddar types, and I just press by stacking weights on top of the follower.  I'm generally pressing for 10 - 30 minutes, take the cheese out, remove the cloth, flip it, redress, and back in the mould and increase the weight for another 10-30 minutes, and repeat.  A number of redress and flips early on also seems to help (as the curds also have retained heat from during the make - remember, the cheddaring process should be done keeping the curds at temperature!  Also, the curds look like they could have been milled a bit smaller, say break each of those chunks in half or thirds next time.  I usually press around 1 PSI and eventually work up to about 2.5 PSI and I usually get really good knits (because I just stack weights I can usually cover the pot with a towel as well, which helps keep heat in.  If you have a press that gives you more pressure, you should have no problem.   

- Jeff

[artguy]

Thanks Jeff.  Makes sense.  I got the recipe from the Artisian Cheese at home book.  It said to soak the curds in room temp beer.  Then press at 8.5 lbs for 1 hr, flip and do 12.5 lbs for 12 hours.  I will try this recipe without the beer soak so the curds stay warm, cut the curds smaller and do more flips and redresses at the beginning.  Seems logical.  Thanks for the help.  Going to vacuum seal this one and let it age...

[JeffHamm]

A lot of books give weights, unfortunately, if they haven't told you the size of their mould, then you're out of luck if you don't happen to have the same diameter mould.  PSI is the important measurement, so if you're mould is a larger diameter than the one the book is working with, you under pressed!  And 12.5 lbs on my 6.25" tomme mould would only be around 0.56 PSI, which is far too light to get a good knit on a cheddar type.  I end up putting around 35 kg (so around 77 lbs) on mine to get around 2.5 PSI.  I bet if you did the same thing but increased your weight you would have had a much better knit (though I would recommend the flips and build up of weight while pressing in the pot for the first few hours).

- Jeff

[UrbanMonique]

Hey Jeff, stupid practical newby question - if one converts to PSI, best reasonable cost measuring device?

[Al Lewis]

I just press the hell out of mine! LOL

[Spoons]

Hey Jeff, stupid practical newby question - if one converts to PSI, best reasonable cost measuring device?

A dutch style press is your best option. If you have the tools, they're easy and inexpensive to build. I bought mine from a poster here and the press has a x8 advantage. Meaning the press can give out 5.21 PSI on a 6.25" mould with only a little more than 2 gallons of water (or about 20 lbs) hanging from the lever. Using gallons of water as weights is cheaper and safer than real solid material weights.

If you're going to do cheddar types on a regular basis, then I highly recommend a dutch style press, but it's not absolutely necessary.

[UrbanMonique]

Cool, thanks. I built a direct pressure 6" press and I've got 50# of weights! but this makes a lot of sense to me. Might have to reconfigure to a Dutch setup.
Was actually thinking about direct pressure with a bottle jack too...
I'm whacky that way.

So, are y'all using some thing to physically measure pressure, or just calculating it?

Urb

[Spoons]

We simply calculate it. Here's the formula:

1. Identify the AREA of your mould: A=Radius2 x pi
Example for a 6.25" diameter mould: A = (3.125 x 3.125) x 3.14159 = 30.70 square inches

2.divide total weight on cheese by area
Same example with the 6.25" mould, and lets say you have 75 lbs of weight on it: 75/30.70= 2.44 PSI (in LBS)

[JeffHamm]

Yah, it's just the weight in pounds divided by the area in square inches.  I've got an excel work book in the library board here (under software I think) that has a lot of cheese related calculation tools.  Calculating PSI is one of them.  If you use a press, you need to work out the amount of force that is delivered at the business end, not the amount of weight added to the lever arm.  And factor in any pullies, etc.  I've not got any of that, but the other stuff can be useful.

- Jeff

[UrbanMonique]

Beautiful, that's what I figured. Thanks, fellas!

Urb