Holding onto Optimism- Dry Cheese?

[Melle12]

Hello again,
I have only been making cheese since August, but I have been relatively consistent making 1-2 a weekend most weekends so they are stacking up (yay).  I have pretty much stuck to monterey and cheddar with an attempt at camembert as a gift and 2 recent goudas.  In any case, there hasn't been much tasting yet since my cheeses are still so young, but all of them are either quartered or halved to aid my lack of patience.  I tried a quarter of my first fh cheddar after 1 month and it tasted off, so I vowed to give them all at least 3 months.  Tonight, I tried a quarter each of a 3 month old fh cheddar and monterey jack...the good news is that the taste improved though it still wasn't what I was hoping for, and the further bad news is that they each tasted a little dry which leads me to my question :-).

Will these cheeses improve with age or is dryness a problem that occurred when I first made them and it won't get better or it will in fact get worse? 

I am just wondering if holding onto hope for my early cheeses will lead to disappointment at 6 months and beyond. Should I just hope that I have already corrected my technique (?) for all the other resting wheels?

Thanks as always!

[flip.tiffy]

I'm really hoping someone can help answer your question. I too just recently opened up my first stirred-curd cheddar (aged exactly three months) and while the taste was amazing, the cheese was exceptionally dry. I'm really interested in what I did wrong.

[Sailor Con Queso]

Your dryness is probably the result of too much acidity.

[iratherfly]

Yep. dry, chalky or not melty = too much acidity. Did you put too much starter bacteria or waited too long from starter bacteria to rennet? Did you wait too long after rennet?  Chances are that your cheese was doomed already in the vat.  If it's just dry and not chalky, and is capable of melting, then maybe you over-pressed it or cut the curd too small?  If not, than I would look into the aging: Was it waxed? Vacuumed? Cloth-bound? Rubbed with oil? Naturally-rinded? What temp and humidity was it at? Did you turn it on occasion?

Do not despair. First cheese is often not a success.  I still remember how my first cheddar blew up due to gas contamination. The second came out like a sour chalk at 4 months.  It takes a few batches to get the feeling for curd, process speed, cutting and pressing techniques, aging them etc. Many people choose to start with cheddar but it's not an easy cheese (cheddaring process, careful acidification).  Moreover, it takes way too long to find out you were wrong. By the time you find out what was wrong with the first one you have several more awaiting maturation with the same error.

I would start with fresh cheese first - just to get the feeling for curd and acidity and to get encouraging immediate results that you can eat and give you confidence about the future. In this list are Chevre, feta, Haloumi, Queso blanco/Queso fresco, and Mozzarella. Heck, you can do 3 of them in a week, taste them, perfect them and move on.  Then, do the easy/fast-to-age cheese: Crottin (14 day), Chaource (14-21 day) and Camembert/Brie (21 days).  Now that you have a fromagerie at home and you have blown yourself and all of your friends away you feel good about it and can move up to the harder, longer aging cheeses; the basic Tomme, Havarti, Colby and Jack (4-6 weeks, Colby and Jack are like lazy man's cheddars).  Now you will be confident about making cheddar. Farmhouse Cheddar is easier and ages faster. move on to classic cheddar, clothbound cheddar etc.  At this point you can pretty much do anything; tellagio, Muenster, Romano, Parmesan, Cantal, Comte/Gruyere, Baby Swiss, Gouda etc. Take your time and just imagine how many cheese varieties you can learn at merely just the time you are waiting for your first Cheddar to age!

[Melle12]

Thank you Sailor and Iratherfly- neither cheese was "chalky", but they were a bit too crumbly.  All of my cheeses are waxed, so I'll continue to hope that the dryness doesn't get significantly worse.  Your advice is very helpful.

[iratherfly]

Anytime Melle12!
Did you try melting a piece? Failure to melt in a hot pan would give you a good indication that your acidity is wrong. If it melts than it must be one of the other things we mentions like overpressing or cutting the curd too small. Probably not drying in aging because it is waxed.

[Melle12]

Iratherfly,

I haven't tried melting a piece- I am considering re-waxing but I will give that a shot first.  I have been following Ricki's book and referencing this site to determine the time for the starter to set, and while I use the same as a guide for rennet, I try to check frequently while in the process.  After a few days of drying, I wax and everything goes into my cheese fridge which is about 50 degrees and 85% humidity (I have to wipe the whole thing out weekly).  Thanks for your expertise...I wouldn't know where to begin without the help of you experts and these boards.

[Sailor Con Queso]

A few days may not be enough for drying, especially if you have 85% RH. While the surface may feel dry, the cheese is still expelling a lot of excess moisture. If you wax or vac bag too soon, you trap that in.

[Melle12]

Sailor,

Sorry for the lack of clarity- after pressing, I air dry the cheese in the open before waxing and placing in my fridge (50 degrees/85% humidity).  I usually wait until the cheese has a mild rind and has stopped leaving dampness on the cutting board.  Thanks for helping me work through this.

[iratherfly]

So if you have done all that and the cheese is dry and can melt but not sour or chalky or overly crumbly, it is possible that you cut the curd too small and/or overpressed.

Sailor, what do you think?

Also, how did you salt it? Did you brine it or salted the curd. I find that salting the curd tends to dry out the cheese and also isn't effective in creating a nice hard, dry rind.  Brining gives you better control of flavor, moisture and salinity levels.

One more thing I just thought of; what kind of milk did you use? Low quality milk (overly pasteurized and homogenized, low grade feed) can give you a rather dead milk. Deprived of some essential enzymes and bacterial activity that's needed to develop texture, aroma and flavor profiles that you are rightfully expecting to find in your cheese.

[Sailor Con Queso]

When you are drying a cheese it is really important to have good air circulation, otherwise moisture will be trapped underneath. When you flip, the moisture just gets trapped again on the other side, so the problem perpetuates itself. If you are drying on a solid, flat, counter top, the cheese needs to be elevated. "Drying" on something like a sushi mat does not work well because it is too close to the counter top.

Watch the color on the newly forming rind. As the cheese dries, the rind will darken up, especially if you use Anatto for coloring. If the rind looks marbled, it is still too moist to wax or vac bag.

[Sailor Con Queso]

Some cheeses need to be direct salted and not brined, so I would follow the recipe. True, brining is very efficient and creates a better rind, but direct salting does a couple of really important things.

First - direct salting dramatically slows down acid production at just the right time. So, when you are making a cheddar, for example, you salt when the pH reaches your desired preference to establish the long term acidity and texture of the finished cheese, which is still months down the road. Salt early and you have a creamier cheese with less acidity. Salt too late and the cheese will be too acidic and crumbly. Cheeses that are brined are "designed" to go through a different kind of pH curve. A Gouda for example will continue to produce acid (in smaller and smaller amounts) for several days. The entire procedure of the make compensates for that.

Second - direct salting also helps produce a different (more complex ?) texture. Again, cheddar is milled to 1/2" or so cubes and salted. Those cubes immediately start forming their own little rind and the cubes resist melding together, so we have to press harder and force them into compliance. So what you end up with is a cheese texture that is variable and not as homogeneous on the tongue.

[Melle12]

Wow- this is wonderful help!
It melted so I re-waxed the quarters while I was waxing a dried pepper monterey from Saturday.  I have directly salted the curds on all of my cheeses except for the goudas (and I only salted the outside of the camembert).  I use fresh raw milk, and I usually dry on a bamboo cutting board (turning once or twice daily and wiping it down when I turn it).
I will have to read these posts a few times to get them to completely sink in...

[Melle12]

I have gotten so much help on these boards, and I wanted to provide some updates on my recent hard cheeses.  I started making cheese weekly in August, and for Thanksgiving we were able to try 4 hard cheeses made that month (along with my second attempt at camembert)- each cheese had been quartered before waxing, so they can be tried again later.
My first cheese was a farmhouse cheddar: this cheese turned out dry and had a terrible flavor (strong and unpleasant).  I think the remainder of this wheel will probably go into the trash.
Next I made a monterey and a another farmhouse cheddar: both of these had better flavor, but were again dry
The fourth is a fresh pepper cheddar:  this cheese had great texture (no more dryness) and a very mild flavor (but I'm thinking this will improve with more aging time).  Yay for this cheese because now I am not totally miserable about the other cheeses to come- I must have improved my technique from batches 1, 2, & 3.
Again, Thanks for all the answers and info.  :-)

[MrsKK]

Don't give up on that farmhouse cheddar, as aging may improve the flavor.  I'd give it another 2-4 months before trying it again.

I noticed that you said you're drying your cheese on a bamboo cutting board.  That's a flat surface, right?  As Sailor said, cheese needs air circulation around it to dry properly, which is the purpose behind a cheese mat.  I use woven bamboo paper plate holders to dry my cheese on, switching out the plate holder when I flip the cheese.  I wash the plate holder with a bit of bleach in the water and scrub it really good with a brush to prevent any mold from developing.

Keep really good notes when you are making cheese and sometimes you'll be able to figure out what the difference is.  It can be tough to remember the details months later when you are able to taste the cheese.