Brining - Why?

[Jessica_H]

This brine thing is driving me crazy 

From what I read here I should brine in a saturated brine for about 1 hour per inch of thickness.  Is that about right?

But my new cheese making recipe book is calling for CRAZY long bringing times...12 hours for a Gouda and 24 for a Parmesan.  It's put out by the cheesemaking.com people.  But their booklet that comes with their Basic kit calls for way shorter brining times...more like the 1 hour per 1 inch rule.

But now I've made a colby which calls for no brine.

Why do you brine sometimes and not others?  Why use a saturated brine vs a certain % salt brine?  I've read a ton about HOW to brine and how to keep the brine and make the brine.  But I can't find much about WHY to brine.

Thanks for keeping me sane 

[Cheese Head]

Jessica, salt is required in cheese making, info in our Wiki: Salt's Function article.

As you can see there are 4 methods of salting cheese, for brine soaking, most members here use a rule of thumb of 1 hour per pound if no other guidance from the recipe, it's also a function of how hard the pressed cheese is, thus the higher brining times for harder Parmesan.

On brine salt % for bathing, saturated is easier to make, but has some drawbacks, see Wiki: Making Brine.

For your Colby, as no brining, presumably your recipe calls for salting the curds or direct salting the rind.

[Jessica_H]

I found this in the Wiki:

The rind’s thickness and density can be controlled by varying the salting or brining conditions and the humidity and temperature during and after dry salting or brining.

How can you make the rind LESS thick?  Do you bring the humidity and temp up or down?  Back to my Colby in the other thread, it was a salted curd.  Now I'm worrying I used to much salt.  The wiki linked also states:

Therefore the amount of salt used by one of the above methods should be accurately measured.

My Colby called for 2 tablespoons of salt.  I'm a pretty good guesser so I DIDN'T measure!  And now I'm wondering if that was a mistake...I'd say I probably over salted vs undersalted.

So if one were to perhaps have oversalted...I'm wondering if you can use temp and humidity to mitigate the damages.  I'm pretty sure I overbrined my Parmesan too.

[KosherBaker]

How can you make the rind LESS thick?  Do you bring the humidity and temp up or down?

I can't comment on the temp, but to make the rind thinner the humidity would need to be increased. However, keep in mind that during certain stages of a given cheese's development it may need a certain specific humidity level. So it is best to stick to the humidity markers defined by the recipe/formula.

Reading the archives of these forums the following methods have been suggested for a thinner rind:
1. Vacuum Sealing
2. Waxing
3. Rubbing with Oil (like Olive)
4. Rubbing with Shortening/Lard

My Colby called for 2 tablespoons of salt.  I'm a pretty good guesser so I DIDN'T measure!  And now I'm wondering if that was a mistake...I'd say I probably over salted vs undersalted.

I find that salt absolutely must be weighed to get an even remote idea of precision. Different salts having different grinds will always take up a different amount of volume in a measuring spoon.