Author Topic: Cheese Cloth - Is It Necessary In Hoops  (Read 2439 times)

Offline Cartierusm

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Cheese Cloth - Is It Necessary In Hoops
« on: January 11, 2009, 09:24:31 AM »
Is cheese cloth necessary when pressing cheese, maybe Quinlan can help. I know cheese cloth is necessary when you don't want curds squeezing through the holes, but does the cheese cloth allow more moisture to be drained through wicking? My logic is if the curds do plug the holes can whey still weep by? Even if they didn't plug the holes, whey still has to migrate through the rest of the curds to drain so it will still have to do the same through the curd filled drain holes?

I just hate using cheese cloth as it always makes the wheel have wrinkles.

I wonder if I will be able to tell if enough whey has escaped before I cut open a wheel. Most my wheels seem as though they have been drained enough and I don't have any leaking whey during aging.

Anyway, any help is appreciated.

Tea

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Re: Cheese Cloth - Is It Necessary In Hoops
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2009, 08:59:17 PM »
I did a test with a couple of my monterey jack.  Cheesecloth lined some and not others.  To me I couldn't tell the difference in the end.  But to be honest they were only lightly pressed, and a soft cheese anyway.

However where I do think that cheesecloth is needed is to contain the cheese curd in the mould while pressing.  I didn't line my alpine, because during the initial press the cloth stuck to the cheese, and I had to strape off the cheese from the cloth.  But what I did have problem with then was cheese very thinly oozing from beneath the mould and from around the follower.  When the cheese is cloth lined, it doesn't do this.  I also have found that this problem is accenuated with the higher the pressure, (of course).

I know "they" say to keep tightening and straightening the cloth around the cheese during pressing, and Reg gave instruction a couple of times, as he got beautiful smooth pressing, but sadly I have never been able to replicate what he did.  I still seem to get cloth marks.  I really think that this is one area that requires practice to get it right.


Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Cheese Cloth - Is It Necessary In Hoops
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2009, 10:44:23 PM »
The curds of my large parmesan I just made were very firm and this time I only pressed to 20 lbs as opposed to cheddar at 50 pounds and it pushed quite a bit of curd thorugh the holes in the follower and bottom. So I think the cheese cloth might be necessary. I'll try it next time and see if any more whey gets expelled.