Author Topic: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909  (Read 6584 times)

Dukester

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #15 on: April 02, 2009, 02:56:58 AM »
Wayne,  what does the cheese weigh at this point? What is the yield in lbs from 6 gal of milk?

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #16 on: April 02, 2009, 08:06:00 AM »
Wayne you're going to hate me, but I think less weight early on is better.

I've tried quite a few times harder initial pressure and it always turns out bad. When you press hard early on it really pushes the curd into the holes and thereby not allowing the whey to fully drain. I think the bad knit, sounds like a punk rock band now playing The Bad Knit, comes from something else. You've mentioned that you do keep it warm during the cheddaring phase so must be something else.

Actually the more I look at the pics the more I noticed it's wrinkled from the cloth and doesn't seem to be the knit. So you may be alright.

wharris

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #17 on: April 27, 2009, 10:44:48 AM »
Here it is aging:

wharris

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #18 on: May 12, 2009, 02:13:52 PM »
OK, will in preparing for the use of my new cave, I have decided to open all my bandaged cheese.

It really was interesting to work with something so incredibly nasty, but then to have it yield such pristine goodness inside.  this cheese, while young, was incredible. 

Mild cheddar, not sour, not bitter,  creamy.  just perfect.  Melted in your mouth.

But,  I failed to achieve a completely closed curd.


While it is more closed than usual, it is not a perfectly knitted block of cheese.  It seams that shear pressure is not the answer to a completely closed curd.

I have more research to do.  I am considering vacuum pressing, although I am at a complete and udder loss as to how to approach it.

chilipepper

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #19 on: May 12, 2009, 02:31:58 PM »
Wayne, that looks really good.  The one thing I would say is that you don't have to bang yourself up too much about the very mild openness to the curd.  I've had numerous really good cheddars that have had a structure similar to yours.  Very nice and I'm sure it is really good.  We really need to set up some sort of cheese exchange program here to allow us to taste and critique our cheeses!! ;D

Ryan

chilipepper

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #20 on: May 12, 2009, 02:32:48 PM »
Oh yeah... buy the way.. you said udder!  ::)



wharris

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #21 on: May 12, 2009, 02:36:12 PM »
I have actually thought about some kind of exchange program as well.
I would love to get some honest feedback from someone other than the the neighborhood boozers that wolf it down after closing time.

lol - "udder"  actually I've peppered previous posts with the same 'accidental' misspelling, you are the first to say something.


chilipepper

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #22 on: May 12, 2009, 02:53:04 PM »
I believe we should try and implement some sort of exchange program.  Hell they do it with foreign students all the time and they don't spoil too much during shipping! :)  No but seriously, This time of year would work well.  Other than the dead heat of summer I think it could be done with some success.  They ship brewers yeast and such all year around.  With a couple of those cold packs and some decent insulation packaged in a priority mail (usually 2 day and inexpensive) box... I would think that most hard cheeses would be fine for a couple of day trip.

May have to start another tread seeing if anyone has ordered cheese online before and how it arrives... Anyway, Wayne I'd be willing to try shipping a little of this or that back and forth to see how it would go.

Ryan

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #23 on: May 12, 2009, 04:24:26 PM »
I agree don't beat yourself up, let someone else do it. No, really that looks beautiful. And to contradict you even further I wouldn't call that an unclosed curd. I would say it's fully closed and those areas are voids from not milling the curds with a profession curd mill.

wharris

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Re: Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar032909
« Reply #24 on: May 14, 2009, 11:58:07 PM »
Vacuum Pressing:

"A study was made of the influence of several factors on the texture of young and mature vacuum-pressed rindless cheese. Pressures greater than 26 lb/in2 were required for maximum improvement in texture. A vacuum of 15 in was less effective than a vacuum of 25 in. Vacuum pressing of 'dressed' cheese for 5 min was almost as effective as vacuum pressing for 17 h; vacuum pressing after dressing was more effective than before dressing; transfer of vacuum-pressed cheese to a normal press for the completion of pressing did not affect texture. Vacuum treatment of curd before hooping and pressing in the normal way had no beneficial effect on texture; vacuum pressing improved the texture of cheese made with mixed-strain starters although this cheese was not as close as vacuum-pressed cheese made with single strain starters.

The distinct improvement in cheese texture which resulted from some combinations of vacuum pressing condition was confirmed in commercial scale trials involving 2,540 rindless cheese. This improvement was evident when cheese were graded at two weeks and when regraded at maturity."