If you make cheese with very fresh raw cow's milk, is CaCl needed?
I generally start my cheese with milk that is still warm from the cow. (It's usually just the right temperature for the first ripening.
) I've been making goudas, jacks, edam, cheddars, and fontina.
Here's my confession: I don't use CaCl. Even if it is in the recipe, I leave it out. When I first started making cheese, I did use it, but never liked the resulting texture of the cheese. It seemed to be too "brittle" when the CaCl was added.
I'm curious about what others think. It seems that many of you are fine tuning the quantity of CaCl you use. Are you using fresh milk or older milk for your cheese? Does the age of the milk have a significant effect?