Author Topic: Brine, For Salting Cheeses - Maintaining Whey Based & Salt Types  (Read 8233 times)

janesmilk

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Brine, For Salting Cheeses - Maintaining Whey Based & Salt Types
« on: November 17, 2010, 11:18:11 PM »
Hello,
Can you keep and maintain a brine made with whey as you can a brine made with water? Or is it something that you only use one time?

I typically use a water based brine, but decided to try using my whey from my last tomme batch to brine it, seems to be working well but I dont know if I can keep it at 55 degrees for later use or if I need to toss it....

Thanks!

Sailor Con Queso

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Re: whey brine?
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2010, 01:27:59 AM »
You can definitely reuse whey brine, but storing at 55F without treatment is risky. I would put it in milk jugs, add a few drops of bleach, and stick it in your frig. When you reuse, you with have to replenish the salt and calcium.

iratherfly

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2010, 09:14:16 AM »
Actually, Sailor has suggested I switch to brine a while back and it's MUCH better. The rind grows so much nicer. I also use it to wash cheese now. Fantastic. I really like that before using whey I had to measure the pH of the brine and add a bit of vinegar to it until it is matching the cheese (around 5.5pH).  With the whey, the pH follows the pH of the curd that came out of it a few hours ago -very closely so no more worries or extra work with vinegar.  THANKS SAILOR!!!

Sailor Con Queso

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2010, 04:37:27 PM »
Actually, I usually add a LITTLE vinegar to balance out the acidity. I measure the pH of the whey and the pressed cheese and adjust accordingly.

susanky

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2010, 07:29:18 PM »
Does it matter if I heat up the whey and take off the resulting ricotta before using the whey for brine? 
Susan

Sailor Con Queso

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2010, 04:56:51 AM »
Nope. Still better than water based brine. But you still need to add in some CaCl2

iratherfly

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #6 on: November 21, 2010, 06:20:26 AM »
I never had to add vinegar since I began using whey for brine. the pH is always a good match and the cheese matures beautifully.

As for heating the whey, I heat 2 cups of whey quite high so that the kosher salt would dissolve in it. I then cool this down to room temp (very rapidly to prevent bacteria buildup) and add the rest of the whey that was never heated. This assures that the salt is dissolved and that most of the whey is alive and active.

Sailor Con Queso

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #7 on: November 21, 2010, 06:26:35 AM »
If you reuse whey brine, the pH and calcium levels will change. Francois says that they have been using the same batch of whey brine for a long time (since he got there?). They manage potential contamination with chlorine dosing.

iratherfly

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #8 on: November 21, 2010, 08:13:59 AM »
Yes, I read that post. I think this was for some kind of feta. A mother culture brine... I bet you can use it as a starter for some other cheese too if it didn't have chlorine in it.  I am just a bit weary of chlorine in my cheese.

As for the pH levels, I don't reuse it, I only use the whey from a specific cheese to treat that very same batch. The pH usually follows within the .2+/- range I also find it more effective because whatever bacterium I have inoculated into the milk is also present in the whey on some level.

susanky

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #9 on: November 21, 2010, 02:11:16 PM »
I tried the whey brine once.  I heated the whey after making a gouda and added the salt.  After that the brine had a kind of funky, strong smell. The rest of the brine that I hadn't heated smelled fine.. almost sweet.  After a few hours I couldn't take it and dumped the whey brine and make a water brine.  Does it always change the smell?  Or maybe I needed to cool it faster?
Susan

yeri

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Re: whey brine?
« Reply #10 on: November 21, 2010, 02:25:51 PM »
Can i use iodized salt, it's a little hard to find un iodized salt here. Is there alternative?

Sailor Con Queso

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #11 on: November 21, 2010, 06:57:35 PM »
You need to use uniodized salt. Pickling salt or Kosher salt is readily available.

Susan - then don't heat it. ;)

iratherfly

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #12 on: November 21, 2010, 11:47:15 PM »
Susan, you can heat it to pasteurization point and cool it down very rapidly. Below that, or with long cooling you will get bacteria to make changes and acidify the whey.

Yeri, I use Kosher Salt too. I love the Diamond brand because it contains purely salt and no anti caking agents or iodine added. Does all salt where you live have iodine added to it?

susanky

  • Guest
Re: whey brine?
« Reply #13 on: November 22, 2010, 01:15:42 AM »
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

yeri

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Re: whey brine?
« Reply #14 on: November 22, 2010, 07:52:03 AM »
Iratherfly : yes almost all salt at my country is iodized, there is a recommendation from the goverment of indonesia to seel iodized salt due to health concern, since then it was hard to find un-iodized one. i think i'm in trouble here if can not find the un-iodized salt. can someone have solution?