I am making a cheese using a multiplied recipe, with 5, rather than 2 gallons of milk. In the ideal world, I'd have been able to keep the relative proportions of the finished cheese the same, but due to my selection of molds, this is not an option.
I'm curious what general best-guess suggestions would be re aging and brining.
So, the original cheese would have been a 2# or so 4.5" round cheese roughly 2.25" tall.
I expect to end up with a 5# or so 7" round cheese with roughly the same 2.25" height.
So, basically, it is the same cheese height, just a much wider disc.
Re brining, I know I need to get 2.5x the salt into the cheese, since there is 2.5x the amount of cheese.
But, the surface area to absorb the brine is also roughly 2x as large. I know I wouldn't want to increase the brine time by 2.5x.
One thought is to say that if I would normally brine for 12 hours, I'd have to do 2.5x times that to absorb the right amount of salt, but then I'd half that since the surface area is twice the original and twice the salt will be absorbed. 12 hours * 2.5 / 2 = 15 hours of brining based on the new cheese size and surface area.
But I'm inclined to assume that most of the salt in a cheese this shape comes in from the top and bottom, and the 12 hours is what a 2.25" thick cheese needs, regardless of how large (wide) it becomes. 12 hours for a 4" wide, 2.25" thick cheese. 12 hours for a 7" wide, 2.25" thick cheese. 12 hours for a 12" wide, 2.25" thick cheese. In which case brining for 15 hours (or even more for wider cheeses) could result in a cheese that was saltier than intended.
I know that nothing is exact when playing with recipes, but am I on the right track, or is there something else that I should be considering or some other way to be thinking about this brining question?
Then, when it comes to aging, I again have the same types of questions.
My assumption is that this cheese, since it is the same thickness as the original, will dry, age, produce holes, mold, rind, etc, in roughly the same time as the original, since it is a thin-ish cheese and the height has not changed at all.
For pressing, I already know to increase the pressing weight by 2.5x since I have a much larger surface to distribute the weight over.
If this turns out, I will probably take advantage of the fact that the 7" wide mold has almost exactly 2.5x the area of my 4.5" molds, and try some other of my cheeses in 5 gallon batches.
Any guidance or general hints would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance, and thanks for the great forum.