Author Topic: My first St. Paulin  (Read 1260 times)

John@PC

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My first St. Paulin
« on: November 23, 2014, 11:57:08 PM »
Having been "educated" by Anonymous's great tips on making a washed rind cheese and since I hadn't done a "same temperature brine washed" I thought I'd give this one a try.  I used Caldwell's recipe for the most part and all went pretty much according to plan with flock and pH targets until I got ready to pitch the curds.  I had an idea I wanted to try to consolidate the curds under the whey so it would "fit" into my 8" mold but the curd did not want to comply  :( so I had to scramble and put together stuff Anon's method of pressing under whey.  Bottom line was I probably took too much time getting the curds consolidated so I hope I don't end up with small holes.  The wheel looked like it knitted together well from the outside but I won't know about the inside for another 6 wks.

One "new" thing I did was to put together and use a 1/4" square curd cutter.  Considering it was a very rough prototype I was quite happy and learned some in the process.   Made the cuts in a little over a minute but because of the density of the wires the curds wanted to push away from the cutter leaving some uncut areas that I re-cut during the stirring phase. 

Spoons

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Re: My first St. Paulin
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2014, 12:25:44 AM »
Nice looking cheese, John! I haven't yet tried Caldwell's St-Paulin. Definitely on my todo list. Here's the video that I tried to emulate some washed curd-type techniques from (I just don't drain the whey on the floor like they do though. That's where I draw the line ;) )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WMJCMFN1FQ

About the 1/4'' cutter: I redesigned my curd cutter not too long ago so it would be lighter and would also do 1/4'' cuts using really thin fishing cable. I found that it was pushing the curd mass too. I was almost afraid that it forced some whey expulsion, so I stopped and switched to my 1/2'' cutter mid way through.

John, what are your thoughts on this for 1/4'' cuts: What if the cutter was thinner. Lets say 3'' wide instead of 6'' wide. Passing through 1/4'' cuts only 3'' at a time would have less impact on the whole curd mass in the vat, no? Think this would lessen the curd pushing?

John@PC

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Re: My first St. Paulin
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2014, 12:46:39 AM »
John, what are your thoughts on this for 1/4'' cuts: What if the cutter was thinner. Lets say 3'' wide instead of 6'' wide. Passing through 1/4'' cuts only 3'' at a time would have less impact on the whole curd mass in the vat, no? Think this would lessen the curd pushing?
Good question.  I don't think it's the wires so much (or fishing line if your using that) but the frame.  Our wires are .010" but the frames are .065" dia. SS.   What I'm wanting to try is a thin plastic sheet that you use kind of like you do with the under-whey pressing except it keeps the curds from pushing to the "other side".   I'll try to elaborate later.