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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => EQUIPMENT - Making Cheese => Topic started by: Digitalsmgital on November 10, 2013, 05:17:37 PM
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I am looking into buying a meter but the $100 price tag of the Extech PH100 seems exorbitant when I am only making a batch or two per month. Plus the cost of maintenance and calibration, I wonder what the final annual cost would actually be.
Does anyone here use the titration method? Seems to me that the initial cost would be much less, yet I don't see any mention of it on this forum. Is the process too slow to use in cheese making? I'm no chemist or mathematician either, but it seems doable.
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It is overall harder to use titration without experience for how it works for a specific cheese style using specific milk and repetition. pH is more actionable because it ultimately gives you a more clear picture of the micellar degradation from the acid activity, which helps to determine bound vs unbound calcium, which in turn helps to determine what texture characteristics you want to achieve in the cheese. That said, it's very possible to use TA. We have discussed it some before.
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5816 (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5816)
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10010 (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10010)
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2586.msg21615.html#msg21615 (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2586.msg21615.html#msg21615)
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Using the tritation method should be referred as the "Walter White" method of making cheese. ;)
About the $100 ph meter expense; After the initial expense, the maintenance and calibration shouldn't cost you too much. PH calibration bottles aren't that expensive (about $6 each) and last quite while. Maybe change the batteries once a year. Probe shouldn't need replacement in years if you maintain it well.
This is, of course, for someone who uses a meter about twice a month.
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"Walter White" method of making cheese.
Lactic acid even shows similar chirality behavior to meth (both have dextro and and levo enantiomers). Coincidence? Next step, collecting illegal raw milk and making underground raw camembert with the traditional not-only-white p candidum strains. Street name" "the Smelly". "Hey man, you got some Smelly, or only the stabilized stuff".
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LMAO!!!
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"Walter White" method of making cheese.
Lactic acid even shows similar chirality behavior to meth (both have dextro and and levo enantiomers). Coincidence? Next step, collecting illegal raw milk and making underground raw camembert with the traditional not-only-white p candidum strains. Street name" "the Smelly". "Hey man, you got some Smelly, or only the stabilized stuff".
LOL, my plans are much more sinister than that! (think psychedelic cheese)
Yes, I read your article and the threads from 2010, but my concerns were that no one seems to use TA despite the obvious monetary benefits. I thought maybe by the time you used the TA method the acidity had changed significantly.
Thanks Spoons, I think my $106 will be spent on my upgrade from styrofoam-cooler cave to wine-cooler cave. Maybe down the road a few more makes I can justify the pH meter.
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TA is different. You get this drop when you titrate. You can start at .16, get to .18-.19 and add rennet. Then when you cut and get some whey and measure that, it can drop to .08 or so, and then go up again, so you then wait until .20-.25 to drain and .4-.6 (or more) to salt. It's just a bit more particular and you often have to make adjustments if you change milks. Plus, it takes a bit longer than pH. So even with all the hassles of pH, on a smaller scale when one or two people are doing everything, the slight additional cost of a meter makes up for it due to the time savings and more ease of use.
Psychedelic cheese, eh. What, like a banon version but wrapped in marijuna leaves soaked with LSD? Or ground up rye after it's been inoculated with ergot? "mushroom" brie? :P
Not that many people use TA, true. Up to you, whatever's easier.
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Definitely convenient to grab the meter and touch it to the curds or get a reading on a wheel in the press. The amount of worry and frustration, that might otherwise exist, simply vanishes with my ExStik. The right tool for the right job.
Yeah, once or twice a month makes.
-Boofer-
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Definitely convenient to grab the meter and touch it to the curds or get a reading on a wheel in the press. The amount of worry and frustration, that might otherwise exist, simply vanishes with my ExStik. The right tool for the right job.
-Boofer-
If you don't write copy for an ad agency then you have missed your calling! I am sold!