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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => Problems - Questions - Problems - Questions? => Topic started by: tal_d1 on April 20, 2013, 04:43:30 PM

Title: Cut few cheeses, thoughts and questions.
Post by: tal_d1 on April 20, 2013, 04:43:30 PM
Two days ago I cut 4 cheeses and I want to share my thoughts and questions.
I will start with the bad:
Parmesan made from 8L 3% p/h milk + 8L 1% p/h milk, 1/4 thermo + 1/4 sharp lipase.
Opened at 9 month old, turn out disgusting and wend directly to the garbage!
The taste and smell of the Lipase was so strong. Since my lasts experience with Lipase are quite the same I decided to stop using it. (All my new parmesans are from raw milk). http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,11088.0.html (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,11088.0.html)

Cheddar:  This was made from 16L fresh raw milk that I pasteurized and it is 5 month old.  The make of this cheese was very good. The texture is good but the taste is flat and I am very surprised the taste lack of salinity, no salinity at all.

Emmental: This is the first cheese I made from raw milk (16L) . I add 1/4 PS and the cheese is 5 month old. This cheese has the unique emmental smell that come out from the PS. The cheese has many holes some of them about 1cm but none of them look like a nice rounded hole. It has a nice taste but too sweet and little dry (not to dry but not elastic as it should be) even though I wax it at month and a half. I decided not to make emmental again but I do want to make gruyere and I will add a no more then 1/8 PS for 16L of milk.
Gouda: the Gouda turns out very good.
What most surprised with all of them is that there is no salinity at all even though there were in 20% salt brine for many hours. (22 hours for the Emmental).
Another problem with hard cheese I have is that I feel that the curds before press are too dry. Maybe it is because I am not using double boiler?  I cut the curds to 0.5 cm and stirring gently.

I got the ExTech PH110 last week  and made Gruyere. It took 45 minutes to get to 47C but more 45 minutes to the target P.H. Maybe it is also because of the direct heat that kill some of the starter?  The made were from 16L of raw milk, 1/8 TA061 + 1/8 LH100 and I am using high quality stainless steel pot.
Title: Re: Cut few cheeses, thoughts and questions.
Post by: Zoey on April 20, 2013, 07:16:25 PM
I think the main problem with direct heat is that you either turn off the heat for the waiting periods (such as coagulation) or you get uneven temperature when you have to wait and cannot stir. Even with a double boiler you easily get a several degrees difference in temperature near the edges of the pan versus the middle, if you need to heat during those resting times.

If you don't have the heat on but retain warmth another way (for example by covering the pot in blankets), you shouldn't have that problem.

Try to only heat when you are able to stir, and do so enough to ensure that the bottom doesn't get hotter than the top. At other times, control temperature with blankets (but please avoid fire and do not do this on a hot stovetop... I move my pot elsewhere first)

Also, how large do you cut your curds? a half millimeter sounds awfully small, so I assume you mean something else? half centimeter, half inch?

To me it seems that cooking your curds for 45 minutes longer, would give it time to expell a lot more moisture. But I'm no expert (I don't even measure pH), so hopefully someone more knowledgeable will answer.