Peppers - How Add To Pressed Cheeses

[judyp]

I want to make some hot pepper cheese.  Can I add some dehydrated peppers to my curd before I pack it in the mold.  Will a dry ingredient like this make the cheese dryer?  Will I need to adjust the weight/time pressing?
Thanks,
Judy

[CdnMorganGal]

I boiled some hot pepper seeds/flakes (the type you buy in the grocery store) in a bit of water for 10min - to make sure they were sterile, then added the cooled liquid to the milk, and added the drained seeds to the curds at the mixing/adding salt stage.  I then pressed and aged as normal.  Next time I might try adding the boiled water and seeds to the milk - since my draining bag would catch the seeds anyways.  Dont have any experience with actual dehydrated peppers.

[Tomer1]

"Will a dry ingredient like this make the cheese dryer?"
It depends on the cheese, most semi hard cheeses expell whey anyhow so its not a big of a deal.
It is a bit of a deal if whey gets trapped inside so chop it up good to prevent any cavities if your pressing lightly.

[judyp]

The cheese is farmhouse cheddar and will press at 50 lbs. 

Am I understanding correctly that I can chop my dehydrated peppers into very small pieces, mix with curd when I add salt and then just press as I normally would?  Any idea how much pepper to add to 4 gallons?

[Tomer1]

Are these hot or sweet?

50lbs sounds too light for a chedder. what size mould are you using?

[judyp]

the mold is 2 pounds.  It's about 5" diameter. 
The recipe is Farmhouse cheddar in Ricki Carol's book.  The peppers are jalepenos and they were spicy---HOT!  They made me sneeze chopping them!  I decided to cook them and mix them with the curd when I mixed the salt.  It's very pretty. 

[susanky]

Cooking them was probably a good move.  Besides the moisture issue, you have to worry about introducing contminants.  By cooking them you can effectively 'sterilize' them. 
Susan