First Photos & Washed Curd Cheese

[John@PC]

The goal was to keep moving the weight around keeping all four measurements the same.  I did this for about 45 minutes flipping and rotating the cheese about every ten minutes to keep the curve symmetrical.  After this I was at the goal pH and put the cheese in the brine turning it about every 15 minutes until it firmed up (about an hour).   

As I write this I'm "Kerning" a Costwold and I'm having the same problem keeping the surfaces parallel.  And believe it or not there was a loud noise in my kitchen just now and on checking it out my cans of beans sitting on the cheese keeled over and rolled off the island .  I think we need to contract Stinky or Smolt to correct the problem of the tipping bean cans .

[Stinky]

This happened in the early conceptual designs of pressing the brick mold. I'll think about it. 

And since when am I getting lumped together with smolt? It's an honor.

[Kern]

I've been thinking a bit about the "Kerning" process - a way to make it more effective.     The idea would be to put something at each corner of the cutting board sitting on the cheese in the photo above such that it would limit the amount of slump and assure that it did not cause the cheese to become lopsided.  Suppose you put four dowels (thick enough for them to stand on their own) at under each corner of the cutting board.  The length of the dowel might be a half-inch shorter than the initial gap between the counter top and bottom of the cutting board.  The weight, then, could push the cheese down only a half-inch and would do it evenly as the cutting board bottomed out on each dowel.     Of course, to preserve symmetry the cheese should be flipped several times in the process.   

I have no doubt, whatsoever, that Dr. Awake (awakephd) could come up with something elegant that would adjust for cheeses of different initial thicknesses (thicknae?).    

[Spoons]

Try it on the cheddar you are making this weekend.   

It works really well on semi-firm cheeses like washed curd cheeses, but I suspect it could be disastrous for milled cheeses. Just a guess though...

[Stinky]

You could do something sort of like my setup with two boards. They would then rest on something like a small can, and you just take small items lying around the house and stack them between the boards and the can, removing each top one once the pressure get too low? It's not ideal, though. You could rig something up with ropes, that would be complicated.

[awakephd]

Kern, I think the form you are looking for is "thicknorum" -- that would be the genitive ("of different thicnesses"). (Sorry -- my daughter has decided to take Latin, which is only offered on-line in her high school. Guess who gets to help her learn it??)

Out of curiosity, why not use the cheese press for this? Light pressure, of course.

Spoons, I had the same thought about trying this on a cheddar. I shall proceed cautiously ...

[Kern]

I was thinking more of four tiny spoked ship's steering wheels at each corner tuning a screw.     The reason I didn't use the press is because I didn't think of it!   

[awakephd]

Well, we could certainly build it to any specifications you desire. Let's see ... maybe a cogged belt that ties together all four posts so they turn synchronously, maintaining a consistent height ... definitely need to use titanium for these screws ... and we need a heavy, corrosion resistant metal for the top and bottom plates -- of course, gold! 18K should do ... yes, yes, I believe I can put that together for you for a mere $45,000. Not including tax.

[Kern]

The check is in the mail.