Hello,
I'm making caciotta (and posting) for the first time.
Caciotta acid-development instructions by Jim Wallace seem to be based on time only. With other cheeses I prefer to be guided by pH measurements in deciding when to move to drying/salting etc. Controlling acid development seems to be important here as we are told to avoid late acid development but I can't find a target pH.
Has anyone measured pH, for example at the point of moving caciotta from the warm chamber to room temperature?
Many thanks for any help.
Marnicheese
Caciotta is a melting cheese and similar to cheese like Asiago and Gouda so I aim for a pH of 5.2-5.4. I don't use a pH meter so I measure pH by taste and smell. Once it has a slightly sour smell and the whey coming out of it is slightly sour, I dry salt it with 3% weight of cheese in salt and store it in the fridge or cheese cave to halt pH drop. My room temperature (80-95 f) is too warm.
Quote from: Aris on March 19, 2024, 12:28:06 AM
Caciotta is a melting cheese and similar to cheese like Asiago and Gouda so I aim for a pH of 5.2-5.4. I don't use a pH meter so I measure pH by taste and smell. Once it has a slightly sour smell and the whey coming out of it is slightly sour, I dry salt it with 3% weight of cheese in salt and store it in the fridge or cheese cave to halt pH drop. My room temperature (80-95 f) is too warm.
Great advice - thank you Aris. I'll try that next time as summer room temp in my Australian city is also too high.
:)