Brine, Bathing - Ingredients To Avoid Making Cheese Slimy

[zameluzza]

Hi there, I'm loosing it!! I have been making cheese for a wile now, and have made so many brine, but the last one just does not work...
I have made a saturadted?? the one where I boil the water with the salt.. anyways the cheese is getting all soft and almost slimy, there is a layer of this all around the cheese..
what went wrong with the brine??

[DeejayDebi]

Sounds like it was working well but for to long but I have know real idea of what you did. Take the cheese out and dry it with papper towels and let it air dry for a few days.  We definanately need to know more about the brine and cheese before we can give a good answer.

how much water and how much salt? What kind of cheese was this?

[zameluzza]

Hi again, I used 3 kg salt for 15 liters of water, the salt was not the kosher one, but corse non iodized salt, the cheese are babyswiss each bucket  hold one big cheese or 3 small once.
the brine is new and the cheese are the first once in the new brine.

[DeejayDebi]

How big was the cheese and  long did you brine for?

[linuxboy]

You need to add vinegar to lower the pH, but more importantly CaCl2. Calcium is leaching out of your cheese, making the outer layer slimy.

[zameluzza]

th linuxboy, I got winegar but no idea about  CaCl2
 where can I get some? and how much vinegar do I put in?

what is wrong with it? what happend to the brine? I never had that happend before

[DeejayDebi]

Might not be the brine but the cheese that needs to match the brine or brine that needs to match the cheese. Could be a change in your water too. Have you ever tried using the whey instead of water to make your brine? It will match better and I have had less problems thay way.

[zameluzza]

Might not be the brine but the cheese that needs to match the brine or brine that needs to match the cheese. Could be a change in your water too. Have you ever tried using the whey instead of water to make your brine? It will match better and I have had less problems thay way.

what?? OMG tell me more about it, how do I do that? how much salt for the whey? this sounds intersting.
do I have to boil the whey when adding the salt?


but I need to safe this cheese first *LOL* the water is well water, I have used clorinated water before but usualy just well water,

[BigCheese]

This brings up a question I have been meaning to ask. At one of the Beverage People classes, they said to have the brine PH match the cheese PH at the time of brining. But on their brining sheet (available on their site) they say the PH of the brine should be below 5, preferably 4.7. I have had mine around 4.8 and it seems to be working nicely, but the cheeses have been between 5.1 and 5.4 when they go in. Any ideas?

[linuxboy]

It's more a Calcium issue than a pH issue. Like you know how mozzarella gets stretchy? And when it gets reeeeally stretchy it's soft? It's the same principle that's happening to the outer rind of your cheese right now. In mozz it's the breakdown of calcium. Here, it's the leaching of calcium into the water. You correct it by getting the calcium back into balance, which is 1 tablespoon 33% solution per gallon of water. To correct the pH, add a teaspoon of vinegar. Might need more vinegar, depends on your water.

You can also use whey instead of water to make up your brine. As a quickfix if you have no CaCl2, take some whey and add it to the brine. Boil if you think it's contaminated (usually not necessary for fresh brine)

[DeejayDebi]

Hard for me to say. But as for the whey brine you will have to put your whey in a cool place until after the pressing then just add your salt and mix it like normal. You don't have to boil the whey. If you use the whey that came from the cheese it is matched to the cheese pH is the same so no worries about that. Only down side is now you can't use the brine for other things except maybe making pickles or saukraut because it is to salty.

[linuxboy]

This brings up a question I have been meaning to ask. At one of the Beverage People classes, they said to have the brine PH match the cheese PH at the time of brining. But on their brining sheet (available on their site) they say the PH of the brine should be below 5, preferably 4.7. I have had mine around 4.8 and it seems to be working nicely, but the cheeses have been between 5.1 and 5.4 when they go in. Any ideas?

Doesn't matter too much if it's roughly the same. I mean, strictly speaking it should be identical to the cheese pH. But practically, if you're in the 4.8-5.2 ballpark, it turns out okay. at least, that's been my experience. Calcium imbalance has been a larger issue for me in terms of cheese slimyness.

[zameluzza]

thank you I will try to make cheese tomorrow morning to fix this problem, what do I do with the baby swiss, it's out of the brine right now, but does it not get to salty when I put it back in to the new brine? or did it loose so much calcium and no salt got in to it?

[DeejayDebi]

I'd let it dry off some and add the vinegar and calcium cloride and finish the brine but watch it.

[linuxboy]

No, the salt doesn't change. I mean, keep it in the brine for a total time you usually do. Should be 3-4 hrs per lb. The slimyness will work itself out once the cheese sits for several days in the air. Your cheese paste might be just a touch softer than usual once it ages, like a havarti, and it won't keep as long.

So if you haven't brined for the full time, try to fix the brine with vinegar and whey and then put it back in.