Pressed Cheese, Swelling - Causes?

[Luckyksc]

This is the first time my cheese has puffed up.  I use pasteurized non hom milk from the store.  I always sanitize my equipment but I did add mustard seed and did not boil it or anything first.  I am wondering if it was the milk, seeds or something else, maybe yeast.  I do bake bread quite often although I was not baking that day.  I made the cheese (a Frankfurter recipe with frozen buttermilk starter), pressed it and put it out to dry.  After one day of drying it looked like this.  It does not smell like yeast but I had it in the fridge for a while so that is what it smells like.  I hate that I have to throw it out.  That is $6 worth of milk and 3 hours of effort gone.  I would like to get an idea of what happened so I don't repeat it.   

[MrsKK]

Is it shorter than it was when you took it out of the press?  If so, the curd may be settling, rather than puffing up, even though it is wider than the mold now.

Cheese that is moist will do that - my Colby ends up being about 8 inches wide and three inches tall, although it starts out 6 inches wide and about 4-5 inches tall.  The moisture in the curds mean that the size/shape isn't as stable when you take it out of the press as a dryer cheese would be.

If that isn't the case, don't throw it out unless it smells bad.  If it smells yeasty, you can eat it young.  It won't be the same, but not inedible.

Yeast and other beasties are in the air all the time, so it is difficult to avoid them completely.

[Luckyksc]

I wish it were shorter but it is pretty big.  It got bigger today when I woke up.  The top is starting to round out as well.  Still just smells like young cheese.  I am thinking about cutting it open to see what it looks like.

[NimbinValley]

If it continues to bulge outwards it is probably blowing.  Yeast or e-coli or something.  I would boil the seeds before putting them in to make sure they are clean.  Just cover with water and microwave until the water starts bubbling should be enough.  If it is e-coli it will start to get a faecal smell pretty quickly from my experience.  Good luck.

NVD

[Luckyksc]

I cut it open and it had a million tiny holes in it.  It looked like bread holes so I think that it was yeast.  I have been having some crazy yeast in my kitchen lately.  My bread rises super fast and even comes out of the bowl.  Must be the weather.  I live in the North West so molds and yeasts of all kinds are everywhere.   I was wondering, if I boil the seeds, or any herb for that matter, will it rob the herb of all its taste?

[NimbinValley]

I guess it may affect flavour a little but I don't know of any other options.  If you put just sufficient water to cover the seeds (even a bit less since it will boil up over the top of them) you shouldn't lose too much.  You could always throw in the liquid with the seeds too since such a small volume shouldn't be a problem.

Many small holes sounds yeasty to me too.

NVD

[Cheese Head]

Hi (un)Lucky!

From your first picture as top was flat I'd have also suggested slumping as cheese to moist out of the press but from your other posts that also swelled and when cut lots of tinny holes. Very much sounds like a wild or baking yeast infection, there's some info in our Wiki: Body Defects, Mechanical Holes article, also if you search the forum for "swelling" or "yeast infection" you find several threads.

Could also be from the seeds, last time I made a cummin seed cheese I boiled and added the water and seeds, great cumin flavour.

[DeejayDebi]

I am with John the top is flat when cheese is expelling gas it does it in all directions or just from one sopt for the most part. Looks like it just sunk some as some really soft moist cheeses will.