Calcium Chloride - How Necessary For Store Bought Pasteurized & Homogenized Milk

[korsul]

Hi. Simple question. I am using store bought milk to make my cheese at the moment and I'm wondering just how necessary it is to use Calcium Chloride. It is my understanding that the Calcium Chloride is meant to, in some sense, unhomogenize homogenized milk. I've read that you can still get results from homogenized milk if you use more rennet, but I thought it better to get some input from the community. I am mainly asking because I am finding it difficult to procure the Calcium Chloride.

[iratherfly]

Calcium is a major component that keeps milk together. Much of it is lost during pasteurization and more gets lost or broken down during homogenization. (which is why store-bought milk always says "Calcium Added" - not because they worry about your calcium intake but because the milk would separate without adding it back in).
During coagulation the milk separates into a water phase (whey) and solid phase (curd). If it lacks calcium, curd would be weak and break down, separating from the solid phase into the water phase, giving you milky looking whey and low yield of overly-soft curd.  There just isn't enough calcium to keep the milk solids together (think of calcium like a milk solids magnet). The "calcium added" in the milk isn't enough.

You can make some great cheese from pasteurized milk but I would refrain entirely from making any cheese with homogenized milk. The fat goes through a very violent mechanical breakdown process instead of the biological process that gives cheese its sharpness and texture.

You did not specify what type of cheese you are making but anything that requires aging would amplify milk qualities and defects. These are not issues when you use milk together with cookies, in your breakfast cereals or in your coffee and you can't even detect these issues, but in cheese you will feel everything.

This is why (unlike other experimental cooking and first-time recipes) with cheese you can't start with mediocre milk and upgrade once you feel confident about your recipe. You always have to use the best possible milk and reduce the variables for errors.  Yes, it costs more and you will throw away some good expensive milk in the beginning but it's better than aging and caring for cheese for weeks or even months and then just bite it in disapointment that could have been prevented.

Also remember that much of the supermarket milk is made with cows that are on corn or silage diet and do not graze - which leads to serious cheese defects such as gas formation and funky flavors. Antibiotics that these industrial cows get can kill or weaken your ripening bacteria and rennet. Lastly - watch for ultra-pasteurized milk. This milk has often been heated in a manner that kills all the good bacteria and enzymes in it and modifies the proteins so it would fail to coagulate and age poorly.

Where do you live? Do you have access to better milk? What kind of cheese are you making?

[korsul]

At the moment I'm in Northern New Jersey. I actually just found out that there is a wholefoods not too far away that carries unhomogenized milk from grass fed cows. Is that what I'm looking for to avoid using Calcium Chloride? As for which cheeses, I'm trying for cheeses that don't require long term aging for the moment. I'd like to make Feta and Mozzarella for starters.

[iratherfly]

Yes. Mozzarella won't work well with supermarket milk so go for it with Whole Foods. I think that in northern Jersey they may carry Evans or Sky Top, both of which are really great for cheesemaking.

[korsul]

Thank you so much for the help. I'm really glad that the people here are so supportive. Other, non cheese related, forums haven't been nearly as positive experiences for me. Again, thank you

Oh and I also just want to add that I really appreciated the detail of your reply. It helped clear up a lot of misconceptions I had about the chemistry of cheese making.

[dthelmers]

Korsul,
What Iratherfly says about milk is quite true; however, if forced to us cheap P/H milk, there are some things you can do. I'm in a finacial situation where I need to use cheap milk, or not make cheese at all, and making an edible cheese at a cost of about $2 a pound helps the food budget. Here's what I've found. Adding calcium chloride in about the same amount as your rennet will give you a stronger curd. Heating the milk just a couple of degrees hotter initially when you add the rennet will help. Some brands of milk are handled more gently than others, and give a better curd, so try all your local brands. When you cut the curd, do the cross cuts first and let it rest a couple of minutes until whey starts coming out, then do your horizontal cuts. Work very gently. When first stirring, use the narrow handle of your ladle, and just gently nudge the curd until it starts to firm up. As the curd starts to shrink, it will firm up, and you can start using your ladle to lift the curd from the bottom to the top; as it firms and shrinks more, you can actually stir it back and forth. The biggest problem that I've found with cheap milk is that hte fat has been damaged enough that it easily forms short chain fatty acids (think Parmesan) that give the cheese a lot of sharpness. I go for cheeses that have a long pre-ripening time, where the extra time ripening with mesophilic  bacterias help to give the milk some of the character that it was lacking.
Dave in CT

[korsul]

Dave,
Thanks for the info! I will definitely give that a try. I'm especially interested in experimenting with different methods so I can figure out where the lines are between success and failure. As every attempt I've made so far has failed I'm eager to figure out everything I can do to make this work. Thank you =]

[dthelmers]

I almost forgot: I get me calcium chloride in the canning section of my local hardware store. Often sold as Pickle Crisp.
Dave in CT

[Boofer]

Can't find Calcium Chloride (CACL2)?

CACL2 from DairyConnection
CACL2 from Leener's
CACL2 from New England Cheesemaking Supply Company

-Boofer-

[mtncheesemaker]

Also your local brew/wine supply shop, if you have one.

[iratherfly]

I almost forgot: I get me calcium chloride in the canning section of my local hardware store. Often sold as Pickle Crisp.
Dave in CT

That's funny, I never actually heard of that but I have been using it in pickles for years. Same principle as cheese, it equalizes the brine's calcium contents with the fruit/veggie calcium so no calcium runs out of the fruit/veggie and it can stay crisp for years in the can. I use about 1/4 tsp for every gallon of brine, I use the one I got at the Dairy Connection

The comments/technique you shared are interesting and may work for long-ripening / short-aging cheese like Camembert, however it won't be able to produce desirable texture in an aged cheese like Tomme, Cheddar, Colby, Gouda Etc. (and this milk won't make a good candidate for long term aging for a myriad of reasons).  The cutting of the long chain fatty acids to short chain is what gives the cheese its sharpness and that should happen biologically (Lipase) rather than mechanically.  I also find that the better milk may be more expensive but it produces more curd and has higher success rate. If cost is the concern than finding a locally produced gentle supermarket milk will not be cheap and you might as well go for the good  non-homogenized stuff at Whole Foods (I pay $9/Gallon and it's the expensive Whole Foods in Manhattan).  Rest assure that a producer that makes generic homogenized milk from cows that eat corn and silage has no desire and see no value in gentle pasteurization and short shelf life. Even the national organic brands such as Organic Valley and Horizon homogenize and ultra pasteurize their mediocre milk to death before you buy it at $8/gallon at Whole Foods.  You of all people Dave... should go nuts living in CT.... it's a raw milk state!

[dthelmers]

When I can afford the treat, I buy raw Jersey milk from Deerfield Farm in Durham, about 15 minutes away. It makes a wonderful cheese! I'm experimenting now with two cheeses made with 1 gallon of raw milk to 3 of my discount milk; the Caerphilly should be ready to try next week. It's just imperative to keep costs down, and the food budget is the most flexible. For the most part, if I don't make my own inexpensive cheese I just don't eat cheese. Same for beer and bacon. Beef is a very rare treat, as we budget about $2 per pound for our proteins. We make a lot of rice and beans, and Indian dishes. Maybe I can pick up some side work with one of the farms and get paid in milk!
Dave in CT
Where times will surely improve...

[iratherfly]

I hear you buddy!  I do find though that meat on a budget can still give you good results. I get pork tenderloins and bellies into civili chinatown and it makes for a great sausage and slab bacon. Not exactly acorn-fed Jamon Iberico but not too shabby either.  All of my attempts at trying to shape supermarket milk into cheese however gave me results that weren't in line with I recognize as good cheese (and cheese that you make must be better than what you buy otherwise there is no point to me). I just let it go.  Would love to hear about your creative solutions for it though. Maybe I'll try some?

[dthelmers]

Here's a photo of the one I'm currently eating. I pre-ripened the milk for close to three hours with MM100 at 76f, then brought it to 92f and added S. Thermophilus. Also added lipase and calcium chloride. Brought to 102f taking twenty minutes after I cut the curd. Drained at 6.0, then pressed at light pressure for one hour. tore the cheese into olive sized pieces and salted, then pressed at heavy pressure overnight. Aged three weeks. The flavor has elements of cheddar and provolone. It melts well. This is following the basic process for Pav's fresh cheese curds, except I use the MM100, 'cause that's what I currently have, and it's working. I made previous batches with thermo C, but this batch with straight S. Thermophilus tastes better. The contents of the glass are a brown ale I made with Cascade hops, which goes well with this cheese. It certainly tastes better than any cheese I'm able to buy in the under $5 per lb. range, where the Caerphilly I made from raw Jersey milk was as good as any I've bought for over $8 per lb. For the most part, I'm compelled to put a dollar value on my activities, but periodically will splurge to do one for my soul's sake. The other picture is the latest cheese press I built, with a 10:1 mechanical advantage.
Dave in CT

[korsul]

Hey I just wanted to let you all know that the unhomogenized milk I used worked! I had a gel after about 8 hours! It's currently sitting in a really simple press over night and tomorrow I'm going to put it in a brine for a couple days; I'm making Feta. Tomorrow I think I'll also try making some Ricotta from the whey from today's exploits. I only made 1/4 of a gallon, so there isn't much to work with, but now that I am starting to get things working I can start using more milk. Hopefully within a few days to a week I can try my first hard cheese. I just need to find one that only needs to age for 2-3 weeks as I'm going to Texas at the end of July.