Author Topic: Rind formation question, no salt bath  (Read 3311 times)

Knoal

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Rind formation question, no salt bath
« on: March 11, 2010, 07:47:54 PM »
I making my first cheeses and did a 'hard style'  I used thermophilic starter and cooked the curds for 45min at about 115 degees until the curds were fairly squeeky.

 I used a gallon of raw milk and a gallon of organic milk.

I pressed the curds whle warm and they formed a rather nice wheel.

As I'm a beginner, making the cheese was enough for me.  I didn't brine the wheel (and we were out of salt...)

I keep reading about rind formation.  Is something supposed to grow?  The salt helps the flavor and inhibits the bacteria.  Right?

The rind is plenty dry and, in my opinion, seems wonderful.  :D

The cheese is about a month old.

Any dangers to be wary of?

Alex

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Re: Rind formation question, no salt bath
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2010, 09:14:55 PM »
The salt helps the flavor and lowers acidity. Salt also helps to inhibit bad mold.

MarkShelton

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Re: Rind formation question, no salt bath
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2010, 10:00:53 PM »
nice cheese! and the shape has some character to it. what kind of mold did you use?

Cheese Head

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Re: Rind formation question, no salt bath
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2010, 11:04:39 PM »
Knoal, salt has several functions. I don't know what type of cheese you are making but all cheeses need salt. If you didn't brine it did you dry salt the curds or rind or does your cheese have none?

On rinds, there are many types, none if vacuum bag, dry layer of rind if you air dry your cheese, mold if you intentionally add a surface mold, wash your rind or if your humidity is too high and you get an unwanted airborne mold. Keeping the humidity correct for long aging times is difficult, too high and get surface mold, too low and get drying of cheese and sometimes stress cracks on surface. Thus most people either intentionally add a surface mold (to be dominant) or vacuum bag/wax or oil the rind to reduce moisture loss and inhibit surface molds.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Rind formation question, no salt bath
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2010, 12:39:49 AM »
The salt also adds flavor and without it the cheee may be rather bitter do to over acid production. I have experimented with "low salt cheees" for year due to family members with blood pressure problems etc. and they just don't taste right.

That being said it's a very nice looking cheese.

Knoal

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Re: Rind formation question, no salt bath
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2010, 02:00:06 AM »
@Mark,

Get this, my GF found 4" round cake pans (4 of 'em) for $2 each.  ;D

They are the style of cake pan that has the 'latch' to release the cake when it cools.

What I did is put the curds in the mold and press and when the whey slows down, I crank down the latch and it further compress the cheese.  The rings happened to line up perfectly on this one.  8)

Knoal

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Re: Rind formation question, no salt bath
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2010, 02:09:12 AM »
@John,

 I salted but not sure how much it was at least 2tsp. This was my third or fourth cheese attempt, so I wasn't taking explicit notes, just trying to get thru the process.

I showed friend cheese making and his cheese (also in my garage) is getting the dehydration 'stress cracks'.

Now I know.

OK, I'm thinking the rind is alright and just a little low on salt, early maturing?  I'm sure we'll eat it before too long anyway  >:D

Thanks.

Knoal

Knoal

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Re: Rind formation question, no salt bath
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2010, 02:12:35 AM »
@Debi,

Thanks!   ;D

I'm finding merit in not having lopsided cheese.

The next project may be a cheese press, balancing bricks is tough!

MarkShelton

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Re: Rind formation question, no salt bath
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2010, 02:46:47 AM »
Nice! What a girl!
And using a spring form pan to cinch a cheese to press it is pretty innovative for a beginner, as the bulk of commercial, hobby cheese presses compress with downward pressure, i.e. brick stacking ;)
Actually, I think commercial parmesan cheeses are pressed in the same manner (from the sides) though the cheese also presses itself under its own weight--80 lbs or more.
There are a few threads on the subject

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Rind formation question, no salt bath
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2010, 03:08:47 AM »
Yes balaning things can be a PITA when it crashes in the middle of the night. WHen posible I try to tie things down so they can't crash.