Author Topic: Over cooked cheddar? Any fun ideas for the 'cheese'  (Read 833 times)

Dorchestercheese

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Over cooked cheddar? Any fun ideas for the 'cheese'
« on: April 02, 2017, 02:09:15 PM »
Hi-
The symptoms is my curd was very grainy at the end of the cooking process. 
Two possible errors-
Too much C101 Meso though it seems unlikely -recipe says 3/4 packet I accidentally dropped it all in.

Next a friend shows up at front door as I was warming the curd to 102F it went to 112F as my friend talked on.. Frustrating since it was sitting at 98 for 6 minutes or more..
So I went through the process and cheddared a crumbly mass and it did come together.
At the end I broke it into chunks but it felt like crumbly Parm.
Salted and 'pressing' it.. It's still just a block of crushed 'Parm' chunks..
Can I use it? Age it? It taste a little Parm like..
It will be crumbled I'm sure.. 

Offline awakephd

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Re: Over cooked cheddar? Any fun ideas for the 'cheese'
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2017, 06:36:41 PM »
112° very likely killed off all of your mesophilic bacteria, leaving you with nothing to bring the pH down. (Did you check the pH as you were cheddaring it?)

Unfortunately, I have no idea what the possible outcome of trying to age this might be. Dead bacteria do leave enzymes behind that continue to develop flavor, but enough heat can destroy enzymes; I don't know what that heat point might be for mesophilic bacterial enzymes. More concerning is that part of what keeps cheese preserved is the lowered pH. This also contributes to taste, but it is part of what makes cheese safe to eat 2 or 3 or 10 or 36 months later.

Others with more experience may have more and better information to offer, but in the meantime, one option is to go ahead and use up the cheese immediately. I read a post recently that talked about making a lot of lasagna in the first months of learning how to make cheese - meaning that the lasagna was a way to use up the failures. :)
-- Andy

Offline Gregore

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Re: Over cooked cheddar? Any fun ideas for the 'cheese'
« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2017, 03:04:27 AM »
If it melts when heated it got acid enough ,
 
I would continue to age it and taste it every so often,  as you will be able to judge  by flavor when it has reached its peak.

Dorchestercheese

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Re: Over cooked cheddar? Any fun ideas for the 'cheese'
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2017, 08:58:08 PM »
Thanks. A day later I pressed some more and it started loosing whey became a block

cbenner33

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Re: Over cooked cheddar? Any fun ideas for the 'cheese'
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2017, 03:02:33 PM »
Thanks. A day later I pressed some more and it started loosing whey became a block

Do you have any pics? I'd like to see what it looks like.