Author Topic: Calcium Chloride - How Necessary For Store Bought Pasteurized & Homogenized Milk  (Read 4071 times)

Tobiasrer

  • Guest
I live in an area where getting cheese ingreients is not easy, and will have to but store bought milk. What is the easiest way to get CaCl, or what would happen if I tried making cheese with out it as I would have pasturized milk?

berrys66

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Hi Tobiasrer.

I live in the UK and over here it is illegal to sell unpasteurized milk. The only way you can get it is either by knowing a dairy farmer or owning your own cow. I have had reasonable success with pasteurized and pasteurised+homogenized milk on their own, but the addition of CaCl2 deffinitely makes a difference. Without CaCl2 the curds are not as firm and need to be handled very gently in the first stages after cutting the curd.

You can buy CaCl2 online, in the UK it's about 5 GBP per litre, which goes a long way considering you only need between a quarter an half a ml per litre of milk.

[edit]doh! - I did of course mean CaCl2 rather than NaCl2 as I originally wrote[/edit]
« Last Edit: January 30, 2011, 08:21:22 AM by berrys66 »

Tobiasrer

  • Guest
Okay, thanks
I am worried though about ordering these things online, as its winter here and COLD, at about -20, so If its just regular post and sits in my mail box or delivery trucks all day will it still be fine, the CaCl and any starters etc?
If I cant get CaCl what is meant handle carefully?

berrys66

  • Guest
CaCl2 doesn't need any special storage requirements as far as I know, so if it sits in your mailbox or a truck for a day or 2 at -20 it probably won't do it any harm. Similarly freeze-dried starters won't mind the cold either.

tananaBrian

  • Guest
It's just a salt.  Cold won't hurt it and it never goes bad.  If you are worried freezing, leaking bottles and what not, note that you can buy it in powder form and mix it yourself after you get it (most suppliers sell a 30% solution for cheesemaking: 30 g CaCl in 100 g solution, e.g. 70 g water plus 30 g CaCl ).  You can buy food-grade dry calcium chloride in brew shops, pet shops (for aquariums), in canning supplies of many stores (for pickling), or at cheesemaking suppliers ...not to mention eBay and Amazon.com.

Brian

« Last Edit: February 03, 2011, 06:36:34 PM by tananaBrian »

zenith1

  • Guest
the cacl2 helps give a firmer curd with the pasteurized milks.

berrys66

  • Guest
Correction to my statement "I live in the UK and over here it is illegal to sell unpasteurized milk." Sale of unpasteurised cows milk has been banned since 1983, but it is still possible to obtain unpasteurised goat and sheep milk.

Offline fied

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Just an update: no, it isn't fully illegal to buy unpasteurised cows' milk in the UK. It can't be sold via the usual outlets, shops, supermarkets, catering firms, hotels, or supplied to hospitals or schools, etc., (1989 legislation) in England and Wales. It can be bought (Green Top bottles) from government certified farmers or farmers' delivery men. Similar conditions apply to Northern Ireland. It's completely banned in Scotland - unhappily for cheesemaking:

http://www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/guidancenotes/hygguid/rawmilkcream
« Last Edit: August 28, 2011, 04:02:57 PM by fied »