Hi All,
Darius, you're correct, the book calls for a 50/50 mix, but I only have Flora Danica. I really should pick up something else, but this works ok. So far, all my cheese making has used only two cultures (FD for meso, and a thermo, whose name escapes me at the moment).
Hi Fied. I've tended to get more mechanical holes in my caerphilly (but made by salting the curds, and stacking and milling, etc), so I tend to go for heavier weights than the books call. This still only ends up at around 1.4 psi once I'm up to 20 kg, so it's still quite low pressure. That reminds me, must pick up another 10 kg worth of weights.
And Ian. It is possible to make cheese with a little one. A lot of cheesemaking, as you know, is waiting time. So, during the waiting (as apposed to weighting) you look after little one, then during the make times, you hand off. It is best to concentrate on relatively simple, hard pressed cheeses I think, as the more attention demanding cheeses (stiltons, etc) are probably not a great idea.
Oh, and here's the cheese. It weighed in at 1438g after the press, but before the brining. That's very typical for the weights I've had before (which were roughly 1.3, 1.5, and 1.4 kg). So, it's not retained more moisture than other makes. Should be interesting when the final results are in.
- Jeff