Too Much Pressure/Update/Mis-shapen

[WovenMeadows]

The tendency to slump, "elephants foot", etc, isn't necessarily because of a defect, it can just be a soft pasted cheese. Gianclis Caldwell notes, for instance, in one of her cheeses made on farm, they'll intentionally take it out of the mold, let it set for a bit with a board on top, flipping if needed, to get curved/rounded edges on the wheel. But then it goes into the brine, where because it's floating in liquid retains its shape. By the time it has brined, the outer surface has hardened and dried some, so it will now maintain its shape.

[Kern]

I think it helps a little to understand rheology (the science of the flow of liquids) when looking at cheeses.  A cheese coming out of the press behaves like a liquid - just a very high viscosity liquid.  At this point you could put it in a sealed high pressure press with a small orifice and extrude it out in a stream.  This is liquid behavior - not the behavior of a solid.  We don't see the shape change when it floats in a brine because the brine largely supports it equally on all sides.  When you put on the aging shelf the weight of the cheese causes the slumping that we call elephant's foot.  While we may not like it, we should expect it as a normal thing and turn the cheese as much as required to even out this slumping.  As Al points out it is more attractive to have the slump in the middle.  You can turn the cheese as often as you like consistent with maintaining the aging cave at the correct temperature and humidity.  Theoretically, you could avoid the problem altogether by mounting the cheese on a spit and constantly rotating until it firms up.

Note that I did not mention anything about whey settling or moving because very little is left at this point.  If one sliced through a cheese with elephant foot and took samples from the "head" and the foot you'd find very little difference in moisture content.  So, the solution to your problem is to flip early and often regardless of what the recipe in the book says.  Eventually, the curd will consolidate to the point where the cheese weight is insufficient to cause further flowing and turning only becomes necessary for equal exposure to the cave air.   

[cindybman]

To EVERYONE who has replied... thank you (truly).

I'm off to flip.  We'll see as I was afraid to flip so my little elephant foot's cheese hasn't been flipped in 20 hours.

I'm not totally pissed this happened because I *am* learning something, right??   I'm more pissed at the press because it left too much to chance for a beginner.  However, I will learn from this. I will learn from this. ...grumble grumble...  But seriously, I'll now have some great information for future pressing and cheeses.  I keep detailed notes.

My only concern is the trapped whey will make the cheese dangerous to eat, if edible at all.  I don't want to send my family to the ER on my second cheese out. 

[Al Lewis]

All cheese has retained whey.  If it didn't it would all be rock hard and impossible to eat.

[Stinky]

Yep, don't worry your face off. It should be absolutely fine.

Now, if it smells like a camel's vomit, you may have a problem.

[cindybman]

Al, cool.  I guess I'm thinking if I were to cut the cheese open today, like a cup of whey would come gushing out!  I'm guessing that's not so...

Stinky, I worry. It's what I do.   Camel vomit. Trying to find something clever and quippy to write, but I got nothin'. 

[Kern]

My only concern is the trapped whey will make the cheese dangerous to eat, if edible at all.  I don't want to send my family to the ER on my second cheese out. 

Any remaining whey (1-3%) is most likely evenly dispersed throughout the cheese.  It would only be "trapped" if it occupied an interstitial space of any consequence within the wheel.  If such a space exists it might collect some of the remaining whey.  Such cheeses often weep whey upon storage but this is obvious.  The nose is a great detector of spoiled food.  Listen to it!    
I doubt that your cheese will be dangerous and will probably be quite good.  Since you don't want to send your family to the ER then you should eat a piece of your cheese about 24 hours before offering it to anyone else.        

[cindybman]

Kern, your 24-hour-in-advance suggestion was awesome and truth!  When I was young, we would visit my parents' friend who foraged for wild mushrooms.  Whenever he would cook-up his fungus find - I kid you not - everyone would make him eat first and wait 15 minutes!  Thankfully, Richard (and all his friends) is still alive!

[Stinky]

Fair enough. I got sick once by trusting my brother on wild mushrooms we'd collected.

[OzzieCheese]

Cindy,
I think the first thing is - Take a breath - its all still cheese, yours is a little 'Flowy' that's all.  I'm going to work backwards - If you cook food for your family then the 'Trip to ER' is probably not going to happen.  "Cleanliness is next to Cheesiness" - Oh I like that:)   But the trapped whey - if there is any - will ferment and the sour taste with be lactic acid and other bits.  Your nose will know whether you want to eat it or not.  The other bugs, if they exist, are odourless and tasteless anyway and if you are as fastidious as the rest of us there is more chance encountering these bugs eating out than in your Kitchen. 
Rheology is a fascinating topic - and yes of specific interest to us - movement of liquid whey through a semi- permiable membrane - the curds.  The trick here is then to be able to determine the outcome you are after for your cheese.  The other thing to keep in mind is that as you remove whey, you are also removing the Lactic acid creation potential for the cultures.  Most of the semi-hard cheeses require some cooking and stirring and it's here that the overall moisture content is determined and the pressing is final stage of whey removal.  G.C in here book uses a term called Pitching - something new for me as well - but it is essentially the gathering up the curds while still in the warm whey and increasing the process.  I used it making a St Paulin cheese which didn't have a lot of pressing - now that said I didn't like the cheese because it was too sour and the reason was that the curds were still too moist and it didn't taste nice.  Chalk that one up to experience - there actually was acouple of things wrong with the recipe provided.  But, thats another topic.
   
One thing that will help us all would be the notes on the recipe you were using and what you did - cause they may be different - and photos would be great.  There's no wrong answers nor judgements...

as far as presses go - In my humble opinion - the screw and spring presses are not very useful.  I don't mean to offend any cheese press manufacturers but they just don't provide the necessary weight for long enough to achieve a nice closed rind and internal paste - especially a nice Cheddar.  I do prefer a more agressive pressing routine than most and even my Cearphilly gets about 50Kg overnight.  But you need to keep the press weight constant and a screw and spring press doesn't achieve that with constant monitoring - and as you pointed out early in the post it is too subjective, where doe the spring start imparting the necessary force?

Whether you salted the curds or brined is important as internally salted curds need much more pressure to knit than cheeses that are going to be brined.  Temperature of the curds at pressing is also a factor to consider in that warmer curds expell whey easier than cold ones.

Sorry I'll stop now..

-- Mal
 

[Kern]

Kern, your 24-hour-in-advance suggestion was awesome and truth!  When I was young, we would visit my parents' friend who foraged for wild mushrooms.  Whenever he would cook-up his fungus find - I kid you not - everyone would make him eat first and wait 15 minutes!  Thankfully, Richard (and all his friends) is still alive!

Fair enough. I got sick once by trusting my brother on wild mushrooms we'd collected.

I have collected wild mushrooms for years.  Morels and Ceps in the spring and then Chanterelles, Ceps and Matsutaki in the fall.  I have tons of dried Ceps (boletus edulus) and their smell is out of this world good.  I plan to use some of them to make a cheese.   

[Stinky]

How about horns of plenty?

[cindybman]

Mal... please don't apologize for your long post... I loved it!  I love learning and information, so, bring it on.   I do keep a very clean area and use -- is it Star?-- some type of food-grade santizer on all equipment and surfaces; before and during all processes.  I keep a spray bottle on hand, too.  I had taken pictures and notes... perhaps I'll start a post of my cheese making for that recipe.  But talk about being bored... I would only read it if you are in need of a good nap!

Kern... here's my address. Send me mushrooms. (j/k)

Stinky... just saw your signature ("It's probably a pathogen") and thought it was awesome.

I think I'd like to sit around and have a beer with all of you!

BTW... I flipped my elephant's foot last night.  Now, it had been in one position for 20 hours.  So, needless to say, after flipping and 12 hours later I still have an inverted elephant's foot.  No cares, for realz.  I think if my cheese turns out tasty, I will start a new fad in cheeses... elephant foots.  And yes, it would be "foots" and not feet.

[Stinky]

The signature is new.

But I do have a brew-curds cheddar aging right now...

[awakephd]

Cindy, here's my advice with regard to the elephant's foot ...

... wait for it ...

... wait for it ...

... wait for it ...

... just go with the flow.