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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => RENNET COAGULATED - Hard Cheddared (Normally Stacked & Milled) => Topic started by: mokumeguy on September 28, 2008, 03:50:15 PM
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I have made this recipe 4 times now, modifying it a little each time. I think I am happy enough with it to post. It is very simple, and can be eaten after just 60 days. I have no idea what it tastes like aged longer, none has made it past that.
3 Gal/11 Ltr fresh raw whole milk
2 pkts direct set mesophilic starter or 1 pint cultured meso starter
Rennet per instructions on package, I use 1/3 tablet dissolved in 1/4 cup water
1-2 Tbs sea salt according to taste and curd volume
1- Bring milk temp to 88F/31C
2- Add mesophilic starter
3- Let it ripen for 1 hour
4- Add rennet and stir for 1 minute
5- Let curd set for 45 minutes
6- Cut curd
7- Slowly raise temperature to 100F/38C over a 30 minute period
8- Stir every few minutes to keep curds from matting
9- Keep at 100F/38C for another 30 minutes while stirring the curds often
10- Drain curds until very little whey is coming out. Mine takes about 5 minutes
11- Add salt to taste and mill curds in large bowl
12- Press curds at 15lbs/7K for 1 hour
13- Turn cheese and press at 30lbs/14K for 1 hour
14- Turn cheese again and press at 50lbs/23K for 12 hours
15- Air dry until rind has formed. Mine takes 24 hours
16- Wax cheese and store at 55F/13C for 60 days
17- Consume happily while staring at all those other cheeses your waiting on
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Thanks Michael, clean and simple recipe . . . :).
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Thanks Michael, this looks promising. The recipe I used said to expell whey for 2hr, so your 5min is alot different than that. I am guessing that you have a lot of whey expelled while pressing?
Also what do you mean by "mill curds"?
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Actually, because I am cursed with firm curds no matter what I try, there was very little whey expelled during pressing. As in maybe a couple of tablespoons in the first few minutes, a couple of drops on second press, and none on third press. Not a drop.
"Milling curds" I just picked up out of the recipe books. That's what they call breaking up the curd matt that formed while draining. My curds were matted into the shape of my funnel, so I dumped them into a bowl and broke them up with my hands to mix in the salt.
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I made this 3 days ago.
It was so simple, I'm making it again tonight.
I hope it turns out well. My wife wanted me to make something we could consume within 2 months.
B
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Good man, but are the pics and details so we can learn from your tricks 8) & traps :-[.
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Okay, this is one that I'll have to try. It sounds a lot easier than the Stirred Curd Cheddar and a LOT LOT easier than a Traditional Cheddar.
Thanks for posting the recipe. I'm always looking for something new to try.
Dave
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Odd, for the most popular cheese in the world it's amazing it's one of the most time consuming.
Michael are you still on here? If so where are you located I'm in SF.
This recipe sounds good, I'll try it soon. I love the way farmhouse cheddars look on the inside. They are a little dry and crumbly and look scrumptious.
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Well, I started out making Farmhouse cheddar. I ended up making Stirred-Curd using Ricki Carroll's recipe.
THAT meant that I stayed up until 11pm making cheese.
B
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Cute Pug. Is he yours?
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Yep. That's Buster before I realized that he would stare at me that way for hours because he wanted to be on my lap as I drove. Which he does now.
Looking for a German Shepherd lady friend for him.
He likes my cheese that doesn't turn out.............................
Brian
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OOOO, I'd hate to be in the room when he's processing the botched cheese.
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If I was to try this recipe as a 1 gallon batch instead of 3, how much weight do you think I would use for 1st and second pressing? I am thinking of trying this tonight.
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It's not the size, gallonage or weight of the batch it has to do with the diameter of your mold. What is the diameter of your mold?
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I believe its a 4.5 inch diameter mould. Thank you for your quick reply by the way
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I have to know what the exact diameter is or I can't make the calculations.
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I measured the mould, it is 4.5 inches in diameter. Is there a good book that anyone can recommend to me that would have these kind of formulas in it? I'm pretty new to cheese making, this is my second attempt. I would like to invest in some larger moulds and don't want ot keep having to ask for others to do calculations for me.
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Yes, you're talking to the book...LOL I cry sometimes at night.
Where was I? Oh, What you do is take the radius of the mold (4.5" divided by 2) 2.25" and square it and times it by 3.15 (Pi). It will look something like this.
2.25 * 2.25 * 3.15 = 15.95 (rounded up) this is the square inches of the mold (your follower the part that goes in on top of the curds before you press).
So once you know that you take the chart I already made...you know just use the chart I already made, since you're using a 4 1/2" mold instead of the standard 4" just increase you pressure by a little. If your molds you get don't fall into the chart I made then ask again. The chart is in one of my posts so much has changed in the past few weeks I'm not sure where it is. But basically what you're doing is taking the sq. in. of you mold and seeing what force (pounds) you need to get the actual Pounds Per Square Inch on the mold. In the chart I made you'll see that the PSI doesn't change, for instince when making a cheddar as big as a house or small as a mouse you want 4 pounds per square in, but as the size of the mold increases the standard (for a 4" mold) of 50 pounds of weight is not enough as the weight is now spread over a much larger area. It's not a hard concept to understand but it's hard to type out. Hope this helps.
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OK, this discussion on PSI has got me thinking. Say one day you make cheese and you put curds from a gallon of milk in the 4 1/2" mould and apply 50 lbs of weight on the top. The next week you do the same thing but you use 5 gallons of milk to make the curds (it's a tall mould).
Is the larger batch going to get compressed as much as the smaller batch? I don't see how.
I wonder if area calculation should maybe be the entire area of the cylinder of curds (2 x pi x radius x height of curds)? This is how you would calculate PSI in a bicycle tire I think.
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I've thought about that but it seems unlike as I would then have to press my 10" molds at 471 pounds, and there's no way it could stand that. You would have no moisture left at all. The reason it's only the diameter of the hoop we're taking into consideration is the spreading out of surface area but still maintaining the pounds per square inch.
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Thanks Cartierusm for your help. That will help me a ton in the future as I hope to get some other size moulds.
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Cartierusm, how would you find the recommended PSI for a particular style of cheese? I know that you had said it is 4 psi for cheddar, but how would I find that out for other cheeses?
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Well it's not 4 psi for cheddar at the begining, there are different psi during the inital press and subsequent presses, 4 PSI is just the last which on a 4" mold comes out to 50 pounds of weight.
Most recipe designed for the home cheesemaker are calculated for 4" molds. So just base it off of those pressure and calculate for your new mold. I have a cheat sheet I made up somewhere on here which gives all pressures for 4", 8" and 12" molds. Here I've including the same PDF but V2 which has pressures for 10" molds. The Base Force is all you should ever need unless you are designing a custom cheese.
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I hunted around and found your chart last night. That is an awesome tool. Thank you much for posting that. I think I got the gist of how to work it out now. I attempted this farmhouse cheddar recipe and it appears to have gone well so far.
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cozcoester,
I can attest to the fact that Carter is right on the mark concerning the need for higher pressing weights. I'm close enough to Missouri that I had to see the proof but I have no doubts whatsoever at this point.
I had some serious problems seeing my curd knit together properly when moving from a 6" to 8" mold. Right away Carter posted that I was not pressing with enough weight. Since I started following his advice I have done several 8" cheeses with no problems at all.
I might not completely understand the physics but I have seen the results of his logic and that's good enough for me.
Hope this helps.
Dave
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Thank you likesspace. I've had my eye on this forum for the past month. I've found this forum in general to be a very helpful source. The people who post here have been great. I have learned a lot in a short period of time from reading this forum. This is such an exciting new hobby for me, I had to get in on the action going on here.
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Just remember too much pressure is not good, you'll have dry chalky cheese. The pressures we are talking about are tried and true and just have been mathematically scaled up for specific size molds. If you are going to use a different size mold you need to calculate the new pressures. Just increasing the diameter can increase the volume drastically.
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Gotcha. ;)
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I'm making this again with fresh cows milk tomorrow.
Uhmmm...... maybe the stirred curd. I can't decide.
I have yet to taste the others I've made. I want to give them a good 2 months. Only been 1 so far.
Brian
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Brian...
I have two pieces of advice for you...
1. Make the Stirred Curd Cheddar
2. Definately follow Carter's recommendations on pressing.
Tonight I opened a 2 months old Stirred Curd Cheddar (mainly because I noticed a mold spot under the wax) and I have to say that this is the best tasting/textured cheese I've made to date!
The texture actually LOOKS like cheddar and the best part is that it slices without crumbling! I can take a very....VERY thin slice off of the wheel and it still holds together. I'm pretty pumped about this. :-)
The taste of this cheese is not only correct, it is really very good for how young it is. I kept a small piece out for the family to snack on and the rest is going back for further aging.
I contribute all of this to Carter and Wayne's research and experimentation on pressing weights (and of course my own fantastic cheesemaking abilities ;D).
Honestly, all of my other cheeses have had an open texture since I moved from a 4 inch mold to a 6" mold. I could never figure out the problem.
Once I moved to an 8" mold I knew I had to seek help with this problem. That just so happened to be the same time that I registered on this forum and right away the help and answers came.
Now I'm looking forward to cracking open some of my other 8" wheels (which number about 8 right now) to see how they are doing.
Many thanks to Carter and Wayne and good luck on your next cheese.
Dave
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Dave you've help us a ton too so don't short change yourself.
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OK.
I'm sold. I'm making the stirred curd cheddar.
I have a 6 inch mould. It's actually a Jacuzzi spa skimmer basket with a 6 inch PVC cap as the pressing end.
What pressing schedule did you use on that stirred curd cheddar you made that cam out so well?
Thanks
Brian
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Basket Skimmer, that's inventive.
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I thought so too. It came with a "kit".
I plan to press this cheese this way:
20lbs for 10 minutes, add weight to 30 lbs and press for another 15 minutes.
Remove, flip, redress and press at 40lbs for 2 hours
"" " 50lbs for 24 hours.
Sound about right or do you have a better suggestion?
thanks
Brian
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If you're moving up in size you'll need to move up in pressure. In the other post where you asked where the chart is I posted it.
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Thanks!!
I'm adding rennet in 5 minutes to this raw milk. I will snap photos this time of the process.
And it's a 7 inch mold.
Brian