Thanks for everyone's thoughts and comments. Like I said, I've got another cheese made from this milk that should be ready in about 6 weeks. We'll see how that turns out. To answer questions and comments:
Salt content in both seems good (based on taste). The cheddar should be right on since I salted prior to pressing and didn't have much whey run off while salting. The parm salt uptake is a little harder to judge, though it was brined in-line with previous cheeses I've made of the same size. For example, I've been eating a Gouda style cheese I made 2 1/2 years ago (with milk from Sam's club!) that has none of this flavor/mouth feel.
Both were made in the winter (February for the cheddar, March for the parm), so the milk probably had higher fat content than it does now. Like I said, in the other post, the parm definitely had too much fat. I haven't had a chance to ask the farmer about silage, but I'll do that next time I talk with him.
Acidifying: I was getting good acidification in the vat--dropped to 6.3 (target was 6.4
) before pressing the parm, and down to 5.35 before I salted the cheddar.
I might have to try lysozyme, it seems like a pretty good option (assuming these bacteria are the problem...), or I'll cry in my milk like Fritz recommends.
Or, I could just go back to milk from grocery stores...it's a lot more frustrating during the make, but none of my cheeses made from P/H milk ever made my mouth numb.