Cheddar - did I let it get too acidic?

[mikey687]

Just made a cheddar following Peter Dixon's Recipe.

It all went really well, but I had an issue just before salting which meant I got the salt in a bit later than planned and my final whey pH coming off the press is 4.82 to 4.85.

Looking at the graphs you can find for cheddar it feels like I may be too low on this one? Seems like 5.0 is the limit?

Does anyone know what the whey pH is like versus the cheese curd pH. Am I actually even lower?

I'm currently thinking I'm going to have to age this one for a looonngg time. Does longer ageing mellow things out with a cheddar?

I like really strong cheddars - blow your socks off type - so I'm hoping it's still viable!

[Al Lewis]

Longer aging makes things much sharper, not mellow.

[mikey687]

Oh dear, early taste testing on the cards then! 

[OzzieCheese]

A mature Cheddar has a wonderful 'crack' to it. it hits the side of your tongue and then dissolves in the mouth.  The older the cheese the sharper it gets but, don't mistake bitterness for tartness.  A cheddar at 6 months still has a bitter after taste -not from the rennet either. Its from the originated from β-casein.
J. Agric. Food Chem., 2014, 62 (32), pp 8034–8041
DOI: 10.1021/jf5020654
Publication Date (Web): July 30, 2014
Copyright © 2014 American Chemical Society.

The A1 and B (but not A2) isoforms yield the bioactive peptide, ß-casomorphin upon gastrointestinal proteolytic digestion, which can have widely varied effects on human health. There is some effort to select dairy cattle for the A2 isoform to avoid this possibility.

So following the trail ..
The A1 beta-casein type is the most common type found in cow's milk in Europe (excluding France), the USA, Australia and New Zealand. On average, more than 70 percent of Guernsey cows produce milk with predominantly A2 protein.

Therefore to drastically reduce the amount of the bitter Peptides in your cheese use Guernsey cows milk to make a long lasting wonderful Cheddar

Like this

-- Mal

[OzzieCheese]

I forgot to add that the action on these bitter peptides are further acted on by the enzymes released when the cultures die to change the 'taste' of the these over time. Basically the cheese goes from bland - sort of creamy, to mild , to bitter - the longest stage and then to awesome !! And by 'Time' I mean 12-24 months.  A two year Cheddar, even a single made cheese at home one, is a thing of beauty.  It has taken me 3 years to have a rolling stock in my cheese cave of 18 month - 2 year cheddars. Doing one a month (mostly) ... its a planning thing.

BTW a Caerphilly is an excellent cheese as it is usually consumed in the mild stage.

-- Mal 

[mikey687]

Thanks Mal,

It actually started drying out way too fast on me and I decided to cut it in half and vac bag it instead of waxing (I was really running out of time). In the process I tried a bit that fell off in the cuts and it wasn't bitter at all, basically fairly bland, so I'm hoping it's going to be all good eventually.

It's made with raw Jersey cows milk. Jersey is the island next to Guernsey so I went looking for the protein type:

https://delishably.com/dairy/Do-Guernsey-or-Jersey-Cows-Produce-the-Better-Milk

It looks like on the A2 protein it is lower than Guernsey so one day I will have to try and track some down.