Author Topic: Drain hole or not to drain holes Your Opinion Please!  (Read 2321 times)

Offline Cartierusm

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Drain hole or not to drain holes Your Opinion Please!
« on: January 08, 2009, 02:42:04 AM »
So I've made my new molds. Should I drill VERY small holes as drain holes in the sides? Whenever I've looked at professional Stainless Steel Hoops they don't have holes in the side. I'm not going to be using Cheese Cloth but I don't use it now and the cheese doesn't really come out the holes anyway.

So your vote?

Cheese Head

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Re: Drain hole or not to drain holes Your Opinion Please!
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2009, 02:58:08 AM »
I like weep holes in the sides for my Camembert hoops, allows easier whey egress as I ladle both curds and whey into the hoop. But they plug up with curds and then burst and a little rivelet of whey escapes. Also I find it makes them a little tougher to clean as get plugged with curds. If your hoop is for a large cheese, I can see not needing holes due to the math of volume vs surface area.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Drain hole or not to drain holes Your Opinion Please!
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2009, 03:19:16 AM »
Uhhh, was that a yes or no? LOL Camenbert and other soft cheeses that compress under their own weight I would definately use weep holes, So you're saying to not use holes..I hope that's what you're saying becasue drilling that many holes would suck.

Likesspace

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Re: Drain hole or not to drain holes Your Opinion Please!
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2009, 04:00:51 AM »
If this is going to be used as a hard cheese mold, I wouldn't do it.
What I would do (assuming this is a mold made from the PVC pipe you bought) is cut a few small notches in the bottom of the mold so that whey can escape.
When I made some molds out of a 4" PVC pipe I took my 4" grinder and cut some tiny notches on both the bottom and the top. It works perfectly when I flip my Stiltons and when I was using this pipe to press some of my early hard cheeses.
If you aren't going to use a cheese cloth, I would make them VERY small. As long as there is a path for the whey to escape you should be in good shape.

Dave