Aged waxed Cheese, crumbly texture, water

[Mersunwea]

Hi,
I am totally disoriented by this one. I made a Pyrenees with peppercorns (Tim Smith recipe). After 4 months aging (waxed cheese), I opened it yesterday and water came out of inside the cheese, the texture is very crumbly and the flavor is bitter.
I made it with 2 G whole milk (store bought) heated at 90F, added 1/4 teasp. meso, 1/4 teasp. CaCi, 1/4 teasp. rennet. Cooked curds at 100F.
No idea what happened there.  Anyone can suggest what went wrong there?
Thanks!

[linuxboy]

Yes, you did not drain enough whey out before waxing. Cheese wasn't stable before it was sealed.

[Mersunwea]

Probably a silly question at this point but, how you define a ´stable cheese´?
Maybe is the mold I am using (tall cilynder 4.5 x 5.3 inch) as the draining surface is not very big? Maybe should I air dry cheeses longer before waxing?
Thanks..

[linuxboy]

Depends on your make. Many makes at home mismatch the rennet/floc schedule with the curd size. You can't have 2x floc, for example, and 1" curds. They will not have the structure necessary to retain water after the curds fuse, and will not let go of the right amount of water during the make before fuse. There's also a common problem of uneven curd size.

So what you wind up with is a cheese that continues to drain well into the second week, and never forms a stable enough curd where the moisture gradients equalize. That's what I mean by stable. Sometimes you can never achieve real stability because the make was so bad, or at least it takes many weeks.

The make, press, and dry schedules all contribute. I don't know which you should do differently.

[Mersunwea]

Thanks. Ummm...I have to review...
I heard first about flocculation multiplier here in the forum. I took a basics of Artisan cheese in Vermont (never mentioned that) and in the several books I have touched they didn´t mention the multiplier. I have been reading bits and pieces about it in the forum, but no definition.... so I am not sure I got it right: you take the time from addition of rennet to the time when the milk starts gelidifying... and then you multiply this time by a multiplier (2, 3, 3.5...) and you add this time to the gelidifying time? That is for a gelidifying time of 15 min and a multiplier of 2, you would have 45 min?
Also, how do you know the multiplier for each type of cheese?

I am sure that I also do something wrong about the curd size... I will review...
Thanks for your help.
Mercedes

[JeffHamm]

Hi Mercedes,

For the floc method, you need a small bowl.  I use a small snap lid plastic container about the size of my fist.  Anyway, sterilise it, and when you add your rennet, float the bowl on top of the milk.  If you tap it lightly, it will float around on the surface.  The floc point is when the bowl won't move when you tap it.  As you're getting close, the bowl will skid a short distance, but at floc it sticks there. 

Now, let's say that is 15 minutes (as per your example).  If you are using a 2x multiplier, then that would equal 30 minutes.  You've already waited 15, so you just wait 15 more minutes.  The time you wait is the time since you added the rennet, not additional time since floc.

You then cut at that point in time, and don't worry whether or not you have a clean break.

Using this method, you want to adjust the amount of rennet you use to target a floc time in the 10-15 minute range.  So if you are reacing floc at 5 minutes, cut your rennet in half, etc.

- Jeff

[Mersunwea]

Thanks Jeff!
Got it now. I will try the bowl trick.
Now I have to double check my curd size, as well...