Author Topic: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?  (Read 5234 times)

Captain Caprine

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Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« on: January 05, 2009, 02:28:04 PM »
Hi Guys,
I'm working on a Caprino Romano that will be done pressing when I get home from work today.  This cheese is made from 2.5 gallons of  goat milk and is currently in a 6" press.   The final cheese should be ~3"thick by 6" in dia.  Any suggestions on how long I should brine for?
Thanks
CC

Cheese Head

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Re: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2009, 06:01:38 PM »
Captain

The Parmesan Recipe here says 30 hours with saturated brine for a 1 US gallon cheese.

The Romano Recipe here says 12 hours with saturated brine for a 1 US gallon cheese.

Seems a bit odd that that different.

Brining is to develop a rind and to put a certain salt % into the cheese. For your 2.5 gallon, you would have to go longer to get the right salt %. How much sorry I don't know. I'd say 12 hours min and 30 max, assuming saturated brine. Sorry this isn't much help :-\.

Captain Caprine

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Re: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2009, 06:58:08 PM »
I had noticed the same difference which didn't make sense to me.  I guess that I'll shoot for the middle ground somewhere and see how it worked in a couple of months  :)
Thanks
CC

Cheese Head

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Re: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2009, 07:13:06 PM »
Should be some more responses/advice in a few hours when more people online in North America and Australia/NZ.

On thinking on it some more, maybe the upper end as you have larger than 1 US gallon.

FYI, as I save and reuse my brine, I like using a saturated brine (when salt precipitates out) for brining as then I have a standard with only one variable for corrections on future batches being time.

But, don't use a saturated brine for brine preserved cheeses like Feta, I did that mistake on my first batch of Feta, then tasted after 5 days, yuck :P, extremely salty.

PS: Pictures of your new cheese are always nice, next phase for you is aging, the most troublesome.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2009, 07:55:48 PM »
Response Coming CH, I'm amazed CH didn't remember that he posted a sticky to Beverage People's website with a very informative page on brining. I have been buying products from Bev People for almost 20 years and always trust they judgement.

http://www.thebeveragepeople.com/cheese.htm

Tea

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Re: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2009, 08:08:38 PM »
My book states for a 10lt batch, which is approx 2.5 gallon, to brine in a saturated solution for 8 hours.

It's times like this where you need to have two on the go and do one for the shorter time and one for the longer time, mature and see what the final difference is.

Let us know what you finally decide on.

Captain Caprine

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Re: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2009, 09:29:54 PM »
Thanks for the info and link.  In the end I will end up doing as Tea suggested as I will make 3 or 4 more wheels this week and brine for 10h, 14h, 18h and so on then age all together.  Should make for a nice little tasting experiment down the road.  I'll post some pic's later tonight.  CH, I made the same mistake with my first feta a couple of years ago and ended up with hideously salty stuff :-*
CC

Cheese Head

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Re: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2009, 10:50:02 PM »
Cartier, you are right and I forgot, a bit worrying that I forgot, at least when I'm reminded and remember that I've forgotten ;D.

Seriously though, in addition to time, is not the brine salt concentration also a variable?

Captain, love your approach with making several and brining different times, as I think all this cheese making is more of an art than a science and nothing replaces experience.

Captain Caprine

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Re: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2009, 03:16:09 AM »
Brine concentration should be a factor as should be volume of brine relative to cheese.  I plan to do a few smaller cheeses as well when I get the time down as my guess is that I will be able to derive some general guidelines looking at a relationship of cheese density, brine concentration, brine volume and surface area of the cheese.  A couple of cheeses with similar density and and brine contact time that have different surface area should be informative.  Then again CH is right there is an art to this, but my process development background tends to get the better of me from time to time. :)
CC

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Brining - Time For Caprino Romano?
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2009, 09:39:59 AM »
I was just thinking about having different concentrations of brines and just realized. I take the full power brine I have now and just add some of that to water in a separate bowl until I get the right concentration..duhh. Then return all the brine to the 5 gallon bucket I have of it and add salt until it's a full concentrate again.