First tastings

[Zinger]

Okay I couldn't wait any longer, I broke into my first two cheeses for a taste test. They are both two months old, give or take a couple of days. The first was a Farmhouse Cheddar and the second was a traditional Cheddar. I thought that the Farmhouse had a bitter taste, but the traditional Cheddar had real smooth flavor which I think well develop very nicely. I am wondering if the bitter taste in the Farmhouse will mellow out in time. What are others experiences with bitter and what can be the cause?

[linuxboy]

Please see http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/66/4/727.pdf

To sum it up, it may be:

• Too much rennet
• Too much CaCl2
• Too little salt, causing excessive small peptide production during proteolysis
• Infection (not as likely as the others)
• Excessive wait time between flocculation and cutting resulting in excess retained rennet. See 1.

My bet is the salt/rennet issue. Without enough salt, rennet is too active, leading to an accelerated proteolysis. Also, without enough salt, rennet is more partial to beta-casein molecules as opposed to alpha-casein, which leads to small peptide formation, which are bitter. Low salt also means your bacteria die off slower and their cell walls ruptur slower, which retards proteolysis of the small peptides because there is not enough peptidase present.

Do you have any notes for anything you did differently? I've never been able to get farmhouse style cheddars to work for me consistently without extreme measurements and quality control. Of course, at that point, the farmhouse cheddar approach turns into a traditional cheddar one

[homeacremom]

Is Farmhouse the same as a Stirred Curd Cheddar?
If so, it may be the difference in type. I describe the taste of a stirred curd as a peppery, almost bitter edge. Not my favorite!

[zenith1]

I agree with linuxboy. I would bet it was an issue with the rennet especially if it was a vegtable rennet.

[Rich]

I've had the same issue with bitterness and I use animal rennet.  I'm thinking the salt thing may be the answer.  I've had so many disappointments with Farmhouse cheddar, that I'm almost reluctant to try it again.  And no, its not the same as a stirred curd cheddar.

[linuxboy]

To follow up, too much salt also causes problems, but less severe ones... or rather ones that time can fix. Too much salt kills off the bacteria very rapidly, and decelerates the rate of proteolysis through rennet. So you have a lot of peptidase quickly, and not enough of the right kind of proteins to break down. End result is poor or very very slow flavor development. Also, depending on your salt schedule and ageing process, you may get other faults, like crumbly texture or low moisture.

I think the sweet spot for cheddars is about 1.5-2% salt, IIRC.

It's amazing how every little detail in cheesemaking is important.