When to salt a stirred curd cheddar?

[SANDQ]

Ive been following a Carrol recipe which tells me to salt for 3 days after pressing, Ive been informed here, this is not correct can someone correct me. I make 9 litre batches at a time   thanks

[FarmerJd]

The recipe I linked in the other post you made says to add salt before cheddaring, but I add it afterward in 2 or 3 phases. I use a milled curd recipe but it is basically the same for salting. I am not a stirred curd expert so others may chime in with better advice but I never salt until cheddaring is over. Good luck.

[MarkShelton]

This kind of confuses me...

With a traditional cheddar, I think you want to add the dry salt after you cheddar and mill the curd. During the cheddaring, the cultures are still working on acidifying, and you don't want to interrupt that with salt. Besides, with the curd still in big slabs, the salt wouldn't be thoroughly mixed in.

However, you're working with a stirred curd cheddar, which I have not done. I would assume the salting would occur at the same time (right before pressing), but in the recipe I have, it does say to add before the stirring/cheddaring. This is according to the Carroll book, which I don't fully trust though...

When you say 3 days, do you mean using brine to add salt to the cheese? Cheddars have salt added dry to the curds before pressing.

(edit) Sorry, I forgot you were using goat milk. It does say to rub with dry salt for a few days after it comes out of the press I would still add it dry right before pressing.

[Sailor Con Queso]

S&Q are using a Goat's Milk Cheddar recipe from Carroll's book that is allegedly ready to eat in just 4 weeks. Anything from raw milk aged less than 60 days is illegal in the USA and she should have pointed that out in her book. In my opinion, that recipe does not remotely resemble a Cheddar style cheese. I suggested using either a regular stirred-curd or a traditional cheddar recipe instead of the Goat's Milk Cheddar.

[MarkShelton]

You're right Sailor. After reading through the whole recipe, it doesn't seem like any kind of cheddar at all. There is no semblance of any cheddaring process. I'd skip the "goat-oriented" recipe and just substitute goat milk in a traditional cheddar or stirred-curd cheddar recipe. You'll have to adjust for the more fragile curd with goat milk, but I'd say you're getting used to it by now with all the goat cheese you're making!

[SANDQ]

Thanks for all the input guys.
Carrol does state in her book that products from raw milk should be aged for 60 days, plus I have read it here also, so none of my raw milk cheese will be touched before 60 days.
As for being ready to eat in 4 weeks; my first few batches were made from pasteurised milk which I aged for 4 weeks then opened and have sold the lot and have people queuing up for my latest batches!
Now, this could be for a variety of reasons, 1) Ive got it right first time, 2) these  people are not connoisseurs of cheese, or 3) which is what I have been told, even my first attempts are better than any Bulgarian cheese and better than the only supermarket cheddar available here.
So with hindsight I think I'm going to stick to what Ive been doing, as it sells and my main reason for making cheese is to earn money.

[Sailor Con Queso]

Sounds perfect S&Q. The whole point of cheesemaking - if it works, keep doing it.