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GENERAL BOARDS => Introductions => Topic started by: DianneAder on January 18, 2013, 03:47:02 PM
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Hello,
My name is Dianne Ader. I have a passion for making cheese. We own a small farm & have dairy cows & milk goats. I milk to make cheese, butter & drink cream ;D
I have been making cheese for 12 years. I make cheese about once a week. For years I just made a fresh farmers cheese that is pressed & not aged. I joined the Cheesepalooza this early fall to improve my cheese making skills. I also took a cheese work shop this fall in town at a local goat dairy farm.
I have had trouble making cheese that was so dry, you could not cut it very well.
We live in a very DRY area. My cheese workshop I took the lady told us to cut the curds at 1 1/2 inches to 2 inch grid on top & make a couple swipes, instead of cutting 1/2 curds or 1/4 inch curds, to help with the dry atmosphere.
I am having trouble with my cheese cracking out of the press, while the cheese is skinning. I need help with that. I made FarmHouse Cheddar using Mary Karlin's book Artisan Cheese Making at Home. I have made that twice now...the second time I did not heat the curds to 102 deg...I heated them to 98 deg. I also on the second time did not stir for 20 min...I stirred once every 15 min. I put the press in a pot & covered it when I pressed it too. The second cheese I did not brine.
I really want to be able to make Cheddar Cheese.
Here is my cheese blog...you can see what I have done.
http://barovervranch.weebly.com/blog-about-cheese-challenge-with-cheesepalooza.html (http://barovervranch.weebly.com/blog-about-cheese-challenge-with-cheesepalooza.html)
Thank you for your help & knowledge.
Dianne
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I like your blog Dianne :D
Just glancing through it
you will find there is a lot of info on the forum that will help your cheese making.
search and ye shall find, good luck and have fun ;)
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Welcome to the forum!!
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Hi Dianne! I also live in a VERY dry climate (22% humidity in my kitchen), so can relate to your cracking cheese. I air dried my first parmesan overnight on the counter and it had tiny cracks around the base by morning (yikes!). So then I made Mary Karlin's farmhouse cheddar. Bound and determined not to get cracks in that one, I set it to air dry in the microwave alongside a damp sponge to increase humidity. Thankfully, after 5 days of air drying in that environment, not a single crack :-). The cheddar actually "wept" for the first 2 days from the sides (just 3-4 tiny weeps really), but those dried up quickly when I left the cheese out on the counter for an hour or two at a time each day (never longer than that). Today I wiped it down carefully with a vinegar/salt solution (because it had some dry white spotting - maybe light mold?) and waxed the cheese. I am currently air drying my second parmesan in the same manner...day 2...and so far so good. Hope that helps :-)!!
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Hey, Dianne! I'm glad you came on over - nice to hang out with friends in several places.