weeping cheese

[Sandy]

When I cut my cheese open the gas holes are full of moisture.  It just weeps when cut open?

[Gregore]

A few possibilities here

Too much whey left in curds when put into the mold

Possible cuases are not enough stirring
Temp to low
Not enough acid development ( at molding )
Too much heat and or heating to fast and thus case hardening the outer curd and trapping the whey inside

If curds were good at molding

then too much pressure too fast placed on curds
Not enough acid before salting

[awakephd]

Gregore,

Always something new to learn - I had not known about a connection between acid development and whey retention. Can you expound on this, or point me to more reading on it?

Thanks!

[Gregore]

I barely understand it myself and chemistry is not my strong point , maybe kern could pipe in here and give us the  whole low down .

Here are a few thinks I do know

When we mold the curds the act of putting weight is not to get rid of whey it is to knit the curds , the whey is expelled by acid changes .

low ph cheeses also " tend " to be  dryer and high ph cheese tend to be more moist ( general statement  bound to have many cheeses that are the opposite )

One exception is surface ripened cheeses which start out dryer then gain moist as they ripen by lactic acid metabolizing into CO2 and water

Cheese science is so cool ..... I wish I understood even half of it

[awakephd]

Hmm ... based on Caldwell's book, I sort of understand the process that turns a camembert soft, but I woudn't say that they start out dry, exactly. Chalky and crumbly, for sure, before transforming to gooey paste by the rising pH. But I woudn't have thought to connect this phenomenon to expelling whey as a cheese acidifies. Clearly, I will need to do more research ... preferably by making more cheese!

[Gregore]

Caldwells book  does not go into the expelling of whey vie acidification , I think Linuxboy first hinted at it here somewhere then I think I ran across the idea somewhere else also.

Chemistry is wacky and  crazy cool ( I found out recently that erasers work not by friction but by chemistry )

Clearly it is not weight that expels the whey from the 5 inch tall cam as it sits all day and whey oozes out.

Some seriously delicious chemistry is going on.

Now is the ph drop a function of the other stuff ( chemistry ) or is the other stuff a function of the ph drop or some where in the middle ?

Kern , sailorboy  where are you when we need you?