Vacancies, Small Irregular Gaps In Pate - Pictures & Cause

[Cheese Head]

I just cut the very dry moldy rind off of a 4.4 month old dill flavoured "Havarti" today, great taste and texture but some small irregular gaps in the pate that I have also had on some other cheeses like the second picture below, coincidentally of another Havarti.

I don't see this on store bought manufactured Havarti's, is this just a visual (really non-)issue or the result of something I'm doing wrong, probably back in the making stage?

Excuse the crack in the first picture, it's fairly hard and cracked when cut with knife.

Thanks for advice.

[FRANCOIS]

What starter are you using?

[PFFParra]

Irregular small holes predicts presence of Escherichia coli (this usually starts to appear a few hours- a day after manufacturing) and is related to the quality of the milk. Lack of hygiene may also cause this problem.
(At least in semi-soft cheese -Serra da Estrela- i'm used to do...)

[PFFParra]

Make sure the press is working with enough pressure (may be mechanical holes) according to the curd firmness.
If it isn't : increase the pressure or; decrease manufacture temperature or; decrease agitation time on the vat.

[Cheese Head]

Francois, both and my other cheeses are made using Danisco's Choozit Brand MM100 DVI Mesophilic Starter Culture.

PFFParra welcome to the forum and thanks for the ideas! I looked up Serra da Estrela and it's a raw sheep's milk cheese from Portugal named after the highest mountain range in North Central Portugal. Sounds great! Your avatar - flag should have been a clue !

I'm using store bought pasteurized & homogenized whole cow's milk from here in Texas, the first picture was using Randalls/Safeway's Lucerne Brand, the second batch I don't remember the brand. I hope it's not Escherichia coli as store bought past milk, also I hope it's not poor hygiene, these are just single batch hobbyist cheeses, everything washed between each batch. I like your idea on something as simple as not enough pressure, I just checked both records and in both I just used my stepladder as a weight, about 23 lb/10.5 kg for a 6 & 4 US gallon / 23 & 15 liter batch cheeses, about 0.6-0.8 psi. Maybe that's it.

[DeejayDebi]

Knowing how good John is about santizing,  I would suggest mechanical holes. It's not always just a matter of presssure, it can also be the temperature of the curds when pressed. To hot or to cold will yield the same result.

To me it looks like the curds were very whey ladden when pressed, suggesting perhaps a bit more cooking of the curds to release more whey. As the cheese dries this will also form little irregular pockets. It also would appear that the cheese dried very quickly which is always harder in the winter but can help prevent the kind of sour flavor that can come from wet curds.

I have often gotten tiny little air holes in my store bought Havarti. Nothing major but there's always a few.

[FRANCOIS]

That openess is not from contamination.  I would think it is either mechanical or slight gas formation from a starter.  MM100 shouldn't give off much gas, so that leaves mechanical.  Havarti should be closed but we have the same issue with ours at the plant.  It is slightly open, we suspect it's mechanical.

[Alex]

I am with the majority, IMHO these should be mechanical holes caused by not enough pressure and some moisture trapped inside. On the picture below you can see one big irregular hole and the crack is due to the cutting. The cheese was aged waxed. The other Havarti with caraway, has no such type of openings at all.