Pressing - Weight Or Pressure?

[pamlar]

Hello to everyone;
I am a new cheese maker with a dutch cheese press.  I have several Highly Recommended cheese books that have only MORE thoroughly confused me on this particular issue.  When pressing cheese is it more
realistic (due to many different sizes of cheese moulds) to figure pressing in psi rather than pounds?  Are there websites or somewhere on the forum that would give information on proper poundage or psi requirements for the different types and sizez of cheese?
Thanks for all input.
pamlar

[Tomer1]

Pressure is size dependent (force*area) ,so the pressure is dependent on the diameter of mould your using.
Applying 50 pounds on a 4 inch and and an 6 inch mould will produce very different results.

Its a good idea to contact the book author and ask what size mould he used for his recipes and adjust (multiply or devide) to your size.

With chedder for example you really want to load everything you've got without cracking the press for the final pressing, and even then you wont reach the "required" pressure with a 3-4X force multiplier dutch press, for that amount of pressure you'l need a pnuematic press or a dutch press with a pully system which can give much higher X factor.
Yours will still turn out great,just slightly moister and you will need to dry it in the cave for 3-4 weeks before you wax.

[Cheese Head]

Hi pamlar, welcome.

You need to press in pounds but as Tomer1 says it all dpends on your batch size are surface area you are pressing. Also as Tomer1 says, many books neglect to tell you what size cheese they are pressing.

There are several long threads in the STANDARD METHODS - Forming Cheese board on weight vs pressure including I think a couple of spreadsheets.

There is no proper number for each type of cheese, it is all about how you make the cheese and what type of knit you are trying to achieve. Pressing also adjust moisture content but so does your curd making and air drying/aging of cheeses.