Wayne's Cheese: Cheddar040409

[wharris]

   Hello all
Well,  today I am gonna try and tackle the curd kntting issue. I would love a good solid chunk of cheese when through.


List of Ingredients:

• 6gal whole pasteurized/homogenized off the shelf milk (1.99/gall at SAMS Club)
• 3/8 tsp Choozit MA11
• 24 drops double strength Annatto (diluted in 2/3 cup distilled water)
• 3tsp CaCl2
• 1.5tsp veal rennet (diluted in 3/4 cup distilled water)
• 3.3oz of flaked salt
• 8 drops Annatto/gal

My Goals:

• To make a cheddar that knits better
• To make a cheddar whose that has a richer color
• pH Marker:  6.15 at end of cook/scald
• pH Marker:  5.4-5.7 after salting

Here is what I am gonna try.

• Still not sure on the Knitting
• 8 drops annatto/gal

Basic Process:

• Add milk to vat, start heating to 90degF
• Add Annatto
• When milk is at 90, add Culture.  Stir in for 1 min
• Wait 30 min then add CaCl2
• Wait 15 min then add Rennet Solution
• Wait 45 min or until clean break, cut curd, then let rest for 15min
• Stir curd and begin heating protocol from 90-100 degF  That is 2 deg/5min
• Let sit at 100degF for 30 min.
• Drain curd, not too long to avoid matting
• place in pan, stir curds with fingers, avoid mashing
• Add salt in two phases, allowing for slower absorption
• Stir every 5 min for 1 hour
• place in 8"mould
• Press@2PSI for 15 min
• Remove from mould/flip/redress/re-mould
• Press@4PSI for 30 min
• Remove from mould/flip/redress/re-mould
• Press@8PSI for 2hours
• Remove from mould/flip/redress/re-mould
• Press@10PSI for 24 Hours

Here is how it is playing out in real-life:

Time	Task	Water Temp	Milk Temp	pH
6:13am	Add Color	90	39	7.96
6:33am	Data point	99	55	6.92
6:54am	Data point	115	70	6.88
6:58am	Data point	119	72	6.86
7:26am	Data point	114	86	6.75
7:30am	Added Culture	114	90	6.71
8:04am	Added CaCl2	114	93*	6.61
8:19am	Added Rennet	110	92*	6.56
9:05am	Cut Curd	105	91*	6.57
9:30am	Cooking	126	91	6.51
9:35am	Cooking	130	93	6.46
9:40am	Cooking	129	95	6.43
9:45am	Cooking	125	97	6.42
9:50am	Cooking	124	98	6.40
9:55am	Cooking	124	100	6.36
10:00am	Cooking	124	100	6.33
10:10am	Cooking	124	100	6.29
10:20am	Cooking	117	99	6.23
10:30am	Cooking	117	100	6.17
10:35am	Started stir	117	100	6.15
10:55am	Started stir	117	100	5.99
11:14am	stirring	100	100	5.70
11:20am	Added 3tsp salt**	100	100	5.67
11:30am	Added 3tsp salt**	100	100	5.65
11:44am	1st press	100	100	NA

Notes:
*Damn  I let it get too hot.  Sloppy workmanship on my part
Took a long time to get to pH6.15 too long.
**Added salt a bit early (5.67 as opposed to 5.4 due to the extra time needed to acidify earlier.  I needed to move the process along due to mositure issues.  Curds seemed to be  getting dry.)
There was a bit of white foam that came out during the initial press. Not sure what that is, or if that was an indicator that too much weight was being applied.  But either way, i started off with a lot of wieght.  I plan to eliminate the lack of weight as a source of the curd knitting issue with this one.



Wrap up
I ended up putting this under much more weight than before.  I really really really wanted to ensure that weight was NOT the reason the curds did not knit in the past.  It is currently under 19PSI for 24 hours.  Yes,  19PSI.  That is about 950lbs on this 8inch wheel.

The Wheel looked very nice at the last flip.  I liked the knit. However, I don't like the mottled look of the wheel.  I think this mottling may be due to a milling error.  I may have let some of my curds get too big. The following is from one of my cheese books.

"There is a practical upper limit to the cross-section of milled curd before salting for two reasons: (a) there is inadequate whey drainage after salting with large particles; (b) the larger the curd particles, the smaller is the surface/volume ratio. With larger particles, a higher salting rate is therefore required to achieve a given final level of S/M in the cheese. This increases the chance of seaminess and gives higher salt losses in the whey. The longer time required for salt penetration allows a greater development of acid in the centre of large curd particles than in smaller particles and this may result in a ‘mottled’ appearance of the final cheese."

So, next time I will do 2 things:
-Add a bit more culture to speed up acidification.
-Mill the curds more uniformly.

[thebelgianpanda]

Maybe it is in a different thread, but do you have any pics of the knitting issue you're talking about?

[wharris]

This was last weekend's Cheese that I had an issue with.
Here are some pics

[wharris]

Pictures:
At the first Turn:

I did not take a picture of the 2nd flip.

Here is the the third flip:



I like the knit.   It is currently under 19PSI.

[DeejayDebi]

Wayne that last one looks perfect - if you whine about that one I might have to swat you!   

950 lbs! WOW! Maybe I'll have to drive over one.

[thebelgianpanda]

Yeah, I flipped the first couple of loaves I ever made, but haven't since then.  I think you've convinced me to start again though, that last one looks great.

[wharris]

thanks.

Like you,  I stopped flipping for a while and was quickly reminded as to how important that is. 
Even the pros flip their cheeses.

[wharris]

Out of heavy press:

I love the knit, however, you can see the convex top.  My mould is giving way under the pressure..

I may need to invoke the powers of Carter to solve this. 
I think i will always use this much weight on my cheddars.

[Tea]

Well I don't Wayne, if I have to use 950lb to press a cheddar, I think I am going to have to leave them alone.   

By the way, this is definately a great looking cheese.  Lets hope that this one doesn't weep any more whey.

[wharris]

Tea,
I hear what you are saying about weeping.  You bring up a good point.  There is the chance that the weight I elected to use, sealed the rind and trapped moisture inside the rind.  I don't know what to say other than to say this was a calculated risk  and that this wheel (and all others) was an experiment.  I was trying to solve the open curd/knitting issue from previous batches. 

The only thing I can say is that hopefully I cooked and salted this wheel sufficiently, so hopefully,  enough whey was escaped prior to pressing.   

We shall know soon enough I guess.