Brine, For Salting Cheeses - Maintaining Whey Based & Salt Types

[yeri]

actually i can buy uniodized salt from the salt farmer near the ocean near my hometown, but it need about 2 hour or 3 hours trip. i hope i can find it without 3 hours trips......

[iratherfly]

Actually, sea salt has natural iodine in it.  I bet the government rule is only regarding table salt and not other cooking salts. Use coarse Kosher salt or Pickling salt instead. I am sure you can find them. Whatever coarse salt they use in your country to ferment or pickle food is probably it.

[yeri]

thanks for the info guys, i will try to search the salt at local market here. i hope i can find it, i can not find it at the supermarket perhaps i can find it at the local market.

[janesmilk]

Wow, I go away for a while and I have so many answers!

 Thanks for the conversation on whey brine. I did go ahead a make one, used it for my latest tomme. I didnt feel comfortable putting bleach in it though... instead I jarred up 2 pints of it, put it inthe freezer for 2 days ( to kill anything...probably doesnt work....) and have it in the back of my fridge to keep for washing my cheese.

It sure smells better than a water based brine. Im still wondering though if I saved it long term for brining other types of cheeses ( I know that I would have to correct the calcium and salt each time) if it is a problem to use it on different types of cheeses... say I made it from brine from a tomme, can I brine my swiss with it too? or would that be weird? I know it would not be a good idea to save whey for brine that was made with pen. roq. or candidum. Am I right??

Thanks so much!

[iratherfly]

The brining happens the next day after making the cheese, so I am not sure when you have time to do this process of freezing it for 2 days, defrosting it etc. (Many bacterium just "goes to sleep" when you freeze them and "wake up" as soon as they reach warmth again).  The curd and whey have the same bacterium so I am not sure what it is you are trying to kill or eliminate.  After all, this is the bacterium you put in the milk with the intention to grow it so why are you afraid of it growing? Don't worry about pathogens your 18% salt would kill them anyway. I would only use whey from a cheese to brine that very same cheese. That would be old whey! (and may not have the same bacterium in it if it's a different type of cheese)

[janesmilk]

i put the brine in the freezer after brining the cheese, just an amount enough to do subsequent cheese washes. The brine doesnt freeze, the salt content is too high, it stays liquid. I was simply trying to avoid using bleach to store it.

[linuxboy]

know that I would have to correct the calcium and salt each time)

Not the calcium, only the salt. Calcium adjustment is only for fresh brines

[cheezwhizz]

 Yeri, If you can get sea salt direct from the salt farmers in Indonesia, then get it !!!!   thats exactly what you want!!!! the amount of iodine in natural sea salt is next to nothing. and it wont affect your cheese in any way. That is the "perfect salt" for cheeses and curing.

     Hugh

[mcfly]

I was told that rock salt is good for cheese making? Its also cheaper and easy to get hold of compared to kosher salt.

[Boofer]

I guess I felt like I needed to heat it to get enough salt into solution.  But I certainly could've cooled it more quickly.  I'll try that next time.  Thanks for the tips!
Susan

Part of my cheese make includes collecting the fresh warm whey in the gallon jugs from which I poured the milk. It takes little effort to add the salt through a funnel to the whey in the jug, swirl it around to dissolve it, and place it in the fridge to cool down. When the cheese comes out of the press, the cool whey-brine is ready to go. Works for me.

-Boofer-

[iratherfly]

I don't want to kill the bacterium and enzymes in the whey so I boil only a small portion of it (maybe a 1/4 or 1/5 of the final brine I need) - just enough to get the salt dissolved. I then add the 4 or 5 portions of fresh room temp (or curd temp) whey to it so most of the whey is active and fresh.

[Spoons]

What a resourceful thread! I have 3 cheese recipe books (Morris', Debra's and Leener's) and none of them mention adding whey instead of water for a brine.

Thanks peeps, this is exactly why I read these boards every day! 

[iratherfly]

Awesome Spoons!

the big cheese - I wouldn't use rock salt; I don't think its salinity is the same and it's a bit unpredictable in my opinion. Also takes longer to break down which is important when you are trying to make brine or direct-salt cheese.

Kosher salt is VERY easy to find, most supermarkets carry it. It's a coarse salt and it has very balanced and clean "salt only" flavor.  It is used in so many recipes because it dissolves so well in liquid (even if you don't boil it) and because it's not iodized. (Iodine in salt can kill off desirable bacteria in cheese aging, meat curing or pickling).

In spite of its exotic name (it's the type of salt use for the koshering process of meats) it has nothing to do with being Kosher (and often isn't even kosher certified) and you don't need to find a kosher store for it.  Kosher pickles too are often not kosher at all but are just called this way because the brine is salted with kosher salt.  When you get Kosher salt, always try to get one that doesn't contain anti-caking agents. Just pure salt. I use the Diamond brand. If you can't find Kosher salt, just use table salt that isn't iodized and has no anti-caking additives (cellulose, silicone dioxide etc.) You can also get "cheese salt" from the same place that sells you your cheese cultures. I think it's just a finer ground version of Kosher salt (I think)