Hello from Minnesota

[msandlie]

Hello, I'm pretty new with making cheese.  Right now i'm using the pamphlet from the leeners.com deluxe cheese making kit to make farmers cheddar.  I also have a book with around 74 recipes and I see a farmers cheddar recipe in there but it only calls for 2 gallons of milk instead of the 3 that are required on the pamphlet.

So I guess my question i have is..  If i wanted to double the milk used to make a 4 pound wheel instead of a 2 pound, is it safe to simple double all ingredients including starters, and so on?  Would this change cook times, press times or anything of the sort? or is it easier than I'm thinking?  My logic tells me i could double everything without having to change temp, press time or anything but please let me know either way.   

Another question I have is, is it easy to make your own cheese wax? maybe a mixture that works well to avoid cracking?  I buy it from Leeners.com but wanted to know if this was something easy to do.

I couldn't find where else i could ask some basic questions.  All the topics in the forum seem pretty specific.

Thank You

[Cheese Head]

Welcome msandlie!

Recipes are scalable, my thoughts as follows:

• Ingredients double
• Times to warm your milk will vary depending on your heating method.
• For pressed cheese pressures or weights it gets murkier, most recipes do not have exact numbers and there are several threads discussing this topic, in general if you double your amount, then yes you should scale up the weight, I'd day by ~50%, but if you just make a taller cheese then use the same weight. That said pressing weight comes from experience more than a recipe. In fact you will rapidly find that recipes are just the starting guideline.
• Pressed time should IMHO not change.

On making your own wax, I don't know, most people here seal their pressed cheeses with oil or vaccuum bag.

Yep tonnes of info here, Search tool can be used globally or just in Boards, specific words are better, see the How To use in the FAQ Board.

Have fun and post your methods and results!

[susanky]

Welcome msandlie!  I'll bet you can find most answers here.  Lots in the archives.  And everyone is very generous sharing their experience and knowledge.

John, when doubling a recipe do you need to double everything?  Specifically the culture?  Won't it grow in such a way that you need to maybe add a percentage more but maybe not double? 
Susan

[zenith1]

Just like in magic,and cheese making is in some regards like magic, things are not always as they appear. I know that some members would disagree and say it is based solely on scientific principals,but it is still magic. You can certainly scale any recipe to fit your requirements. You will find out through experience that if you double the make size everything else will change but on a non-linear scale. The length of time to heat the milk or cook will increase but it will not necessarily double the time if you have double the quantity of milk and as John has posted will vary depending on your heating method. The amount of additives(cultures,rennet,salt etc) will all increase but will most likely not double. Especially when talking about starter cultures and rennet they will not double. When it comes to pressing the wheel it really becomes voodoo magic. I think that you always want to work with PSI in mind and not look at as using x amount of weight. The diameter of your cheese hoop and the depth of the curd in it will have to be your guide there with what PSI and pressing time to use. You personal experience here will be you guide based on the notes that you taken and what the cheese looked and tasted like on prior makes. Like I said at the start of my post it is a little like voodoo magic(and as closely guarded)except here on the forum!

[KosherBaker]

Welcome to the forum msandlie.

This is an amazing place as I'm sure you'll quickly see. I don't really have any answers to your questions but just wanted to point out a couple of things.
1. As you read through the archives of the forums here, as I'm doing right now and highly recommend, you'll see that most people here reuse their wax.
2. There is a forum called Problems - Questions for things that don't fit into any other category, should you have a need for it in the future.

Enjoy the forum.

[Cheese Head]

Team

This is a good set of topics and looks like I have been scaling my recipes incorrectly and good point on re-using wax.

As some of our gurus do not read this Intro Board and as this subject will get buried here I've just kicked off three new specific Threads on scaling rennet coagulated cheese making recipes and amount of rennet, starter culture, and salt. I've not started new Threads on i) heating times as well answered here and ii) pressing weights/pressures as there are already several.

PS: The Problems - Questions Board was really set up as a temporary Board for people to quickly ask for help if they can't find it (Search Tool doesn't always work) in an existing Thread. Once a Thread in the P-Q Board goes quiet I rename it's Subject (so easier for others to identify the content) and move it to the appropriate Board, (when I get around to it ). For stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere there is a Discussion Board and a Lounge Board.

[MrsKK]

Thanks, John, for all of your effort that you put into making this forum so user-friendly!

[susanky]

I second that!!  This forum has been an invaluable resource for a newbie like me.  I'd be lost without it and all of the kind, friendly and knowledgable folks that make it work.
Susan

[msandlie]

thanks a ton for all the replies.  I have so many questions as a Cheese Noob..   someone also mentioned vacuum bags too.  I will be re-using cheese wax, i'm going to set up 2 pots.. one for old stuff to be filtered into into the good cheese pot...  anyways.. lemee go find the other string and start asking my questions.  Thanks for the awsome welcome!.. BTW, i bought 2 wax seals to mark my cheese with.. one with a dog paw, and one with a Christmas tree lol