Salt and ph

[Gregore]

Any one have an idea why my cheese would continue to acidify after it was salted ?

Made the royal blue as per Stuart dunstan  ( soft blue cambazola type ) salted the cheeses at 5.19 ph  with 3% but they continued to acidify down to 4.6

I have never had this happen before , I am now going to have to refigure the timing of the affinage .

[Sailor Con Queso]

Salt retards but does not stop the bacteria. Some strains are more salt resistant than others. A combination of salting and cooling works if you really need to slow down acidification. Blues are pretty acidic. Why do you think you have a problem?

[Gregore]

Thanks sailor, the only reason I am worried is that usually my cheese stops  acidification when salting with in reason , this cheese did not . So thankfully it is a blue and can handle being so low , and not one of my tommes

The last few blues I made only dropped .3 or so after salting .

These started out with very soft curd  at salting but now they are more like hockey pucks , hopefully the blue goes to town on them and softens them up.

I used a flora Danica  which I have not used too much in the past , would this be one of  strains that are more salt resistant ?

[Sailor Con Queso]

Without details of your make or what recipe that you are using, it is impossible to analyze or make suggestions. How are you testing your pH? Flora Danica is typically a slow acidifier that comes on late in the make. That would not be my only choice of cultures.

[Gregore]

This is the make I used , I got the ph markers from some other books that I have 

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=13051.0;attach=31854

I hooped at 6.29
Salted at 5.19

And was using a Hanna HI 99161 dairy ph meter

The other times that I did this make I used ma 4001 as I did not have flora Danica

If this is one of the traits of flora Danica to be like a locomotive  near the end that need s time to stop I will slow it down earlier  by putting it in the cheese fridge .


I also added pc hp 6 from danisco

[Sailor Con Queso]

This is an incredibly generic blue recipe. Surface salting will not slow down the bacteria in the interior of the cheese. So pH measurements near the surface do not tell the whole story about what is going on. FD does come on stronger after about 5 hours. Your cheese will be fine.

[Gregore]

Yes your probably correct that my cheese will be okay. And it is already getting blue and the pc is going crazy , more so than the blue .

The Hanna meter forces me to push through the outer surface to the inside of the cheese so all my readings are now more accurate as apposed to when I was using the flat meter Extech 110 .

Thanks sailor

[John@PC]

The Hanna meter forces me to push through the outer surface to the inside of the cheese so all my readings are now more accurate as apposed to when I was using the flat meter Extech 110 .

Is there anything on the market Gregore that has a needle probe configuration like the Hanna HI 99161 meter that's a bit less expensive?  Maybe the best question is, since you have experience with several brands, what is the best meter for home / hobby cheese makers in you opinion?

[Stinky]

Pav recommends the Extech Ph100 flat-probe, fwiw. As far as affordability and how well it works.

[John@PC]

Stinky, that's the one I still like for the money.  I've still got my Oakton but it can't do pressed cheese with it.  I was thinking if you could cut a portion of the rind the diameter of the Extech's flat probe to measure a developing cheese (kind of like a large diameter trier)?  This was a question to Gregore too as he has experience with the Extech.

[Gregore]

I have to xperience with 3 types of meters,

The super cheap 50 dollar glass bulb type with the shielding around the bulb
The Extech 110 
The Hanna

I think the Extech is a good meter for the price they sell it at ,  if you get one that work consistently. I suspect they have decided it is cheaper to replace the probe head under warranty than to test them for correct function.

The first probe I had was always giving weird readings half way through the cheese  make. It would just start to wander up and down by about .8 pr so  the second probe was more random  about how often it would go wacky but would some times do the same thing.  My guess is that the quality control could be better , also the  ceramic reference electrode is not designed for milk/ so I think it tends to clog up and needs lots of cleaning or at least mine did.

The Hanna has given me zero grief since I got it and the only draw back is the hole in the cheese , on soft cheese it closes up and on a medium hard like a tomme I can smear some rind slurry into the hole and close it up .

Not even sure how it works as I can not see the reference probe on it even under a microscope.

I can not say much about Other models as when my Extech started to weird out  I knew it would be the Hanna I purchased because it was designed for milk

Remember you only have to buy a good meter once , and a better meter should hold it value better for resale .

Also it seems that there is a plethora of meters under $150 or so and not many from $150 to  $350

Hopefully some one else has more ideas for you.

[pfabsits]

The Hanna meter forces me to push through the outer surface to the inside of the cheese so all my readings are now more accurate as apposed to when I was using the flat meter Extech 110 .

Is there anything on the market Gregore that has a needle probe configuration like the Hanna HI 99161 meter that's a bit less expensive?  Maybe the best question is, since you have experience with several brands, what is the best meter for home / hobby cheese makers in you opinion?

What type of price point would be reasonable? We do have the FC2022 that is the same probe has the FC202D supplied with the HI99161 but is bluetooth enabled. This probe will work with an iPad. I would be curious if this probe in a tester style would have a market or if it is better to stick with BT enabled probe?

http://shop.hannainst.com/fc2022-halo-foodcare-ph-electrode-with-bluetooth-smart-technology.html

[Gregore]

OMG.  That probe is soooooo cool . And very well priced for the level of accuracy  I think you guys are going to corner the hobby cheese market .

I can see how the app and the data logging could be good for businesses that want to keep records for quality control.

If I had not just bought the Hanna  hI 99161 I would jump at that