Question about chedder and caerphilly cheese process

[inspiron23]

Hi, everyone.
I made my first cheese yesterday. My first pressed cheese that is. And it (kinda, sorta) looks like a success. so far. I guess I'll let y'all know in a few weeks!
I made a Caerphilly. 2lbs. It's drying at the moment, before I age it.


Question I had was, What does the recipe mean with this :

Drain the curds into a cheese cloth–lined colander, and let whey drain
into a catch bowl for a few minutes. Cut the curds into 1" (2.5 cm) -thick
slabs, and stack on top of one another. Turn the stack over, top to bottom,
two times in ten minutes.

First the receipe states to cut the curds in 1/4 cubes . and then to cut the curds into 1" slabs...ect ect

Can someone please explain?

Thanks.

[JeffHamm]

Hi inspiron23,

Welcome to the forum.  Lot's of good people here and you'll learn a lot just by reading various threads and seaching for stuff.

Anyway, to get to your question, the first cutting of the curds (the 1/4" cubes) is to facilitate whey expulsion.  The smaller you cut the curds the more whey gets expelled and the drier the final cheese (so for things like parmesian, you use a whisk to get rice sized curds, but things like camembert you cut larger).  There are multiple aspects of the make that influece the final moisture of the cheese (read up on floculation - just search floc - to find lots of discussions on that), and the size you cut the curds is one of them.

Now, after cooking the curds and draining off the whey, you put the curds in some cheesecloth, place that in a collendar, and drain for 5 minutes.  More fluid gets removed.  I put a follower on top (a round cutting board will do) place a 2 litre jug of water on top.  This presses the curds back into a solid mass again.

Now, take that flat pancake and cut it into slabs (that's the 1" thick slabs).  Lay those out on the bottom of your pot that you made the curds in and place the pot in a sink of water water (around 32 C) to keep them warm.  Put another layer of slabs on top of the first, and keep layering them until all your curds are in the pot.  After a few minutes, flip the stacks over).  AFter a few more minutes flip again.  This is a short "cheddaring" period.  For cheddar, you would do this for a few hours (though not flipping every couple minutes).  This helps to expell more whey and also allows the acidity to build up.

Here's a link to a photo showing the curds stacked up in the pot from my last caerphilly make:

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8617.0.html

Hope that helps.

- Jeff