Rubbery Texture - How Reduce?

[Vaudevilleorange]

I am making a fresh cheese from raw cows milk and wondering why it keeps turning out rubbery. I heat it up to about 86 degrees, add a vegetable based rennet, then let it sit in the sun for about 4 hours until it a firm curd is formed. Then, I drain the whey and salt the curd ball and let it hang for another few hours. It slices nicely and tasted good but is also very rubbery and cooks oddly. It doesn't melt...I am wondering what factors come into play in the consistency of a fresh cheese. If I want a softer or melting cheese what should I do?
Should I use vinegar? Should I heat it up more or not let it sit as long in the sun? Am I hanging it too long after adding the salt? Just curious about the basic affects the rennet, heat, and time have on a fresh cheese! Thanks!

[linuxboy]

Hi and welcome

Acid development is what determines rubberiness or not. There are two timeframes here: one before you add rennet, heat, and cook whey, and then the acidity that build up when the cheese is in the press.

To melt, cheese must have a pH of 5.8 or lower. If you are getting a rubbery curd, it is not acidic enough. You can still fix it now by keeping the cheese in a warm place to let the bacteria acidify it, and then age it.

You can use vinegar to preacidify, but the flavor is poor IMHO. A better solution is to use a starter, like DVI, or clabber some of the milk and use the clabber as a starter, or let the milk ripen longer before you add rennet.

[Vaudevilleorange]

Thanks for the straight forward information and advice Linux~  I appreciate it!

I will try adding some buttermilk before I add the rennet as well as letting my milk sit out for a few hours before I heat it.

[MrsKK]

Rather than letting your milk sit out for a few hours, why not warm it, culture it, then let it sit for an hour or so before adding the rennet?  (Standard recipe procedure.)

I'm just wondering if you are experimenting with a different way of doing things or if there is a reason for your method.  If just experimenting, it really is best to follow directions and learn the ways of cheese before branching out.

This comes from someone who loves to experiment and rarely follows a recipe.  I'm not criticizing, just speaking from experience.

[Vaudevilleorange]

I suppose that I am experimenting in the sense that I am trying to figure out how to make cheese! I am not even aware of the standard procedures, so your information was exactly what I needed! I suppose I should get a book. Any suggestions on a good one?

KK what is a "natural" culture to use...something you don't have to order...is there such a thing?

[Minamyna]

Hello

You can use yogurt for thermophillic cultures and buttermilk for mesophillic culture. There is a whole section on how to yogurt and buttermilk as cultures here:

Mesophillic - http://www.cheeseforum.org/Recipes/Recipe_Mesophilic_Culture.htm
Thermophillic- http://www.cheeseforum.org/Recipes/Recipe_Thermophilic_Culture.htm

However, although I am new-ish at cheesemaking as well, I would highly recommend getting some cultures. For between $20 and $30 you can get cultures to make 90% of the different types of cheeses. It just takes some of the guessing work out.

Do you have raw goat or cow milk? If you are only going to get one type of culture I would recommend a meso culture and I like MM100 for chevre and I like MA4000 for everything else. I buy mine here: http://thecheesemaker.com/cultures.htm

 The cultures support between 20 and 50 doses (gallons of milk) which is a lot its like 4 half gallon of buttermilk or yogurt, and you know the cultures are active and you don't have to worry about the cultures going bad as quickly (they last like a year and a half). I don't even use yogurt to culture my yogurt any more, it's just nice to know you can count on the DVI cultures working.

As far as recipes, there are a ton on this site here:http://www.cheeseforum.org/Recipes/Recipes.htm and if you want to make a certain type of cheese I would just go to the board of the cheese you want to make, everyone posts their own recipes and tweeks.

[MrsKK]

I also have used yogurt as a thermophilic culture and make clabber from my raw milk to use as a mesophilic culture.  Here's a thread where I describe how to make clabber (see Reply #3):  http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1613.msg12286.html#msg12286

I started out using purchased cultures, but really like using what can be made at home or purchased locally.  Cheesemaking supplies are definitely not available around here, though I live in the Dairy State!

[DeejayDebi]

Karen I get most of my cultures from Wisconsin at Dairy Connections. Great people!

[MrsKK]

Yeah, but they aren't within a short drive for me, as they are clear across the state.  I have ordered from them online, though.

[DeejayDebi]

Understood. I only drove there once myself (last October) but it was a 1062 mile trip for me.