Cracking/weeping during air drying - Very new cheese maker questions

[Sarahal88]

Hi,

I am brand new to cheese making, and I am trying my first pressed cheese, a farmhouse cheddar.

While air drying, the cheese has developed a horizantal crack that is weeping whey. It has been air drying about a day and a half. From reading I understand the cracking may be because there is not enough humidity, or it could be because of poor sanitation which is also possible since this is a new process for me.

My question is, what should I do now? Can the cheese be waxed with the crack? Is it ruined? Will the crack dry out and then be waxable? I am sure this kind of question had been asked on here before but I wasn't able to get an answer about when/how to wax it with the crack.

Thank you.

[Al Lewis]

There are several possibilities.  Pressed very hard and the curds released. Late blowing.  Very dry rind.  Really hard to say.  What RH is the room where it dried?  What weight and how long did you press it?

[Sarahal88]

I pressed it at 50 pounds for ~12 hours (after doing 10lbs for 10 min, 20 lb for 10 min etc). Cracks didn't show up til after it started to dry. I have no idea what the RH in the room is - the recipe I was following just said "air dry at room temp" and I didn't think about humidity. It is cooold here so I am guesssing low humidity is defintiely at least one problem.  I read somewhere to put it in damp cheese cloth to try to restore some moisture so I am trying that.

But what can I do about waxing it?

Thanks!

[Al Lewis]

Waxing with the crack won't hurt the cheese.  If it's weeping whey you won't want to wax it yet though.  You'll get whey under the wax.

[Al Lewis]

I think it may have been too dry/warm in the room and the outside dried too quickly.  Now the trapped whey is expanding to get out.

[Sarahal88]

Thank you for the replies. Any chance if I give it a few more days it will stop the weeping and work out ok?

[Al Lewis]

You might try putting it in your cave and see if it stops after a couple of days.  Again, the crack won't hurt it but the cause of it could. Also, you might try brushing it with some white wine to try and moisten the rind a bit.

[Sarahal88]

Ok, will try.Thank you.

[OzzieCheese]

Hi Sarahal88,  First welcome to the forum there is a huge amoun tof information here and wonderful people to guide.  Your cheese ... Al was right . It's not the crack that is the issue.  It's what could be causing it.  Your pressing sounds spot on so I'd sort of suspect some sort of 'blowing' the following link describes it well.

http://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/~/media/D8C6452B9C4941718AB3A1053B22A645.pdf

It happens

--Mal

[awakephd]

I'm going to disagree with the late-blowing diagnosis -- though honestly, I've never encountered it in person, so I may be blowing hot air, as it were. But the fact that it is leaking whey makes me think you may have pressed too much too quickly, trapping whey. And the "barrel" shape of the cheese in the picture makes me think the rind has dried out quite a bit.

Again, I'm no expert, so take this with a grain of salt ...

[shaneb]

Just curious for my understanding. How could it be late blowing when the cheese is only 2 days old?

Thanks.

Shane

[Al Lewis]

I agree Andy.

[OzzieCheese]

I woul dbe guessing Coliform Early blowing. There are so many varaibles - it sort of depends. Cleanliness during make, Milk composition, cultures used, Temperature during pressing, cooked curd temperature, pH, whey expulsion during the first two presses, drying temperature.  This might be a wait and see but given the time frame of 1 1/2 days and its already cracking and weeping whey, I would think there is something other than temperature at play here. I would put it down to experience - but I wouldn't keep it.

Thats just me

-- Mal

[Danbo]

Ozzie: I agree.


Sarahal88: Don't give up! We all had our share of different problems with our cheeses. Try once more and be very careful to sanitize everything by boiling equipment, using a bleach solution or similar. If you have any questions remenber that all of us in here would love to help you. There are no stupid questions. You will make a great cheese soon! :-)

[qdog1955]

Had a similar problem once, though the cracking wasn't quite that bad-----it was from to wet of curd when I pressed it and retained to much whey, and then air drying at room temp with to low humidity---- I saved the cheese by rubbing olive oil on it every couple days, including the crack and placing in my cave ( I have low humidity) After awhile the whey stopped dripping and I vac packed it---after awhile the whey started to show in the vac bag----repacked it, and a couple months later it turned out fine. But that might be risky if it's some kind of pathogen.
Qdog