Author Topic: Time of heating milk  (Read 1896 times)

Offline Tomek

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Time of heating milk
« on: September 02, 2016, 06:40:23 AM »
Hi,

Recently I had a problem with getting a good curd.  I was making "Koryciński" cheese (Polish cheese). This cheese requires heating to 38 C deg.
In my case it took 1 hour 15 min.(bath in the sink, not on the stove) - in Recipe was 30 min. After this time i addad rennet (certainly a good amount of it)
Is it possible that time of heating milk (too long) was the factor that the curd was good after such a long time?
I also have a second suspect - I didn't add any type of culture (they should be in milk - unpasteurized milk).

So, what was the reason that the curd was not good in the required time? (the cheese was very bitter but it has many holes).

Offline Fritz

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Re: Time of heating milk
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2016, 09:33:43 AM »
Hi Tomek, I find one needs to give lots of heat when warming milk, especially when using a bath method. Keep in mind the bath water will cool a lot when overcoming the cold milk. The milk warming will stall unless more heat is given to get past that plateau.

Most cheeses need to be cultured for flavour and acidity. The milk needs to be acidic for the rennet to work. Some cheeses use citric acid instead of a culture to get to the right acidity for the rennet. Once the milk is the right temperature and proper pH, the RIGHT amount of rennet ...not more...should be added. Too much rennet will make your cheese bitter.

Your milk type and quality will also affect good curd formation. I had to find a new source for good milk a few times before I was making consistently good curds.

Lastly, I hope you are following a good recipe to make your cool cheese... Not all recipes are written well and will misguide you from making good cheese. For cheesemaking, it's the little things that make a big difference, following proper basic cheesemaking guidelines and recipes accurately will bring success. If you want, post your step-by-step recipe here so others can help here with good input.

I hope that helps... Have no fear, we will get you on the path to good curds :)

F

Offline Danbo

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Re: Time of heating milk
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2016, 07:03:46 PM »
I dont' have any experience using raw milk but...

If I add culture to pasteurized milk and let the milk preripen for a longer time then I get a stronger curd. I think that it is because the milk PH drops a bit before the rennet is added. The rennet works best when the PH is a bit lower than the milk usually is when fresh.

A PH drop of 0.1-0.2 should be optimal...

Maybe that is also the case for you?

Be sure not to use too much rennet as Fritz points out...

MrsKK

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Re: Time of heating milk
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2016, 10:14:14 PM »
When I was doing my research (trial and error - ALL fails!) for teaching home cheesemaking through the local community ed program, I finally called someone with the Wisconsin milk consortium.  It turns out that virtually all the p/h milk sold here is processed through one of three plants.  They all pasturize and homogenize in one step, virtually destroying the milk for cheesemaking purposes.

I ended up buying gently pasturized (140*F for 30 minutes) and that worked just fine, but was very expensive.  I'm so very glad to have milk available on the hoof here at home.

As for why they add vitamins to milk in the US it is because the p/h process destroys the vitamins that were there prior to messing it up.  Blech.

Offline Danbo

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Re: Time of heating milk
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2016, 04:52:55 AM »
I wish that rhe things that we put into our mouths was handled a bit more gentle...

Offline Gregore

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Re: Time of heating milk
« Reply #5 on: December 17, 2016, 05:05:58 AM »
Tomek
i would suggest that if you are going to use natural cultures found in the milk  that you culture for longer than you did , I could not tell you exactly how long as I have not tried that way. 

 But you could try taking some milk and letting it sit on the counter covered in a jar until it separates  and taste quite tangy , this could then be added to your milk ( at culturing temp) at 1% of the starter to the milk by volume    (1ml per litter )

Then wait about 30 minutes before adding rennet , then do your make as normal , this will get you in the ball park  to most recipes that use dried cultures .

Or you can use kefir in the same manner