Author Topic: Mold too small for recipe?  (Read 1429 times)

valereee

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Mold too small for recipe?
« on: February 04, 2009, 12:43:37 AM »
I've made three Farmhouse Cheddars (Carroll book, followed faithfully if occasionally incompetently especially early on) and pressed them in 6" molds.  Then I discovered the recipe was meant for a 4" mold, so this time I tried it in a 4" coffee can. 

But it won't fit.  It was totally piled up above the edge of the can, and there were still a couple handfuls of curd left in the bowl.  I'm pressing it now at 50, and the follower is barely beneath the edge of the coffee can. 

I've ended up with a nice 2" high cheese from the 6" press.  I haven't tried any of them yet (made the first one the 17th) so I don't know whether pressing them at the weights recommended for a 4" press while using a 6" press is going to cause a problem, but the cheeses look pretty good.  When they came out of the press, they looked like the photos here of other people's cheeses straight out of the press on the last pressing. 

I'm not seeing other people asking about this, so I imagine it's not usual?  What are my possible problems?

Thanks for any assistance!

Val


Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Mold too small for recipe?
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2009, 01:10:00 AM »
For soft cheese and other cheeses that don't have traditional rinds there is no problem. The problem with a 2" cheese is that the rind will take up some of the cheese and you won't have as much inside stuff of the good stuff.

If you seach around you'll find a pdf chart I made on here about mold pressures. It's already worked out the calculations for different size molds and all the pressures you will need. There really is no standard for size just use whatever you want as long as it comes out.

valereee

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Re: Mold too small for recipe?
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2009, 01:35:49 AM »
Carter, so the reason for wanting to do a larger/taller cheese is to have less rind-per-edible cheese, but otherwise if these 2# cheddars pressed in the 6" mold turn out well, there's no reason to try to change to a 4"?

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Mold too small for recipe?
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2009, 01:52:57 AM »
Aside from pressure changes no. But if you're going to do 2# in a 6 inch mold I wouldn't use the chart for pressure change. Leave the pressure as it were a 4" because 2" is pretty small and there would be no need for higher pressure.

wharris

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Re: Mold too small for recipe?
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2009, 05:58:05 PM »
I'm actually impressed with Carter's restraint.  I was sure that by this point in the thread there would have been some reference to his cheese being too large for a mould, or some such double entendre.

;)