Emmenthal getting cracks instead of holes

[steffb503]

Is there something I am doing wrong when turning? I get lots of small holes and one large crack through the middle.
Taste, texture are all good.

[Kern]

A small Emmenthal cheese may not be able to "support" large holes because it has insufficient mass to resist cracking rather than support large hole formation.   In other words, the pressure of the gas forming the hole does not have enough "pushback" to keep from splitting the cheese.  The result is that you get small holes and several large cracks.  Al Lewis has a thread on a seven pound Emmenthal he made by combining two batches into a single cheese to avoid this problem.  Regardless, the taste of the cheese should be more or less the same even if the holes aren't. 

[steffb503]

Thanks
Guess my next batch will be a double!

[Al Lewis]

I sincerely believe that size is the answer.  The bigger the better and the key is to place it in a 85 degree room for 24 hours after pressing is done.  I did this and got the best Emmentaler I've ever made with this 7 pound Emmentaler.   http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,14102.0.html

[steffb503]

Are you saying 85 before drying the rind? Did it sweat fat?

[Al Lewis]

No, it didn't but it did smell incredible.   If you click on the link it has the complete affinage.