Making larger batches - Question re brining and aging times

[Jeffrey.Rosenberg]

I am making a cheese using a multiplied recipe, with 5, rather than 2 gallons of milk.  In the ideal world, I'd have been able to keep the relative proportions of the finished cheese the same, but due to my selection of molds, this is not an option.

I'm curious what general best-guess suggestions would be re aging and brining.

So, the original cheese would have been a 2# or so 4.5" round cheese roughly 2.25" tall.
I expect to end up with a 5# or so 7" round cheese with roughly the same 2.25" height.
So, basically, it is the same cheese height, just a much wider disc.

Re brining, I know I need to get 2.5x the salt into the cheese, since there is 2.5x the amount of cheese.
But, the surface area to absorb the brine is also roughly 2x as large.  I know I wouldn't want to increase the brine time by 2.5x.

One thought is to say that if I would normally brine for 12 hours, I'd have to do 2.5x times that to absorb the right amount of salt, but then I'd half that since the surface area is twice the original and twice the salt will be absorbed.  12 hours * 2.5 / 2 = 15 hours of brining based on the new cheese size and surface area.

But I'm inclined to assume that most of the salt in a cheese this shape comes in from the top and bottom, and the 12 hours is what a 2.25" thick cheese needs, regardless of how large (wide) it becomes. 12 hours for a 4" wide, 2.25" thick cheese. 12 hours for a 7" wide, 2.25" thick cheese.  12 hours for a 12" wide,  2.25" thick cheese.  In which case brining for 15 hours (or even more for wider cheeses) could result in a cheese that was saltier than intended.

I know that nothing is exact when playing with recipes, but am I on the right track, or is there something else that I should be considering or some other way to be thinking about this brining question?

Then, when it comes to aging, I again have the same types of questions. 

My assumption is that this cheese, since it is the same thickness as the original, will dry, age, produce holes, mold, rind, etc, in roughly the same time as the original, since it is a thin-ish cheese and the height has not changed at all.

For pressing, I already know to increase the pressing weight by 2.5x since I have a much larger surface to distribute the weight over.

If this turns out, I will probably take advantage of the fact that the 7" wide mold has almost exactly 2.5x the area of my 4.5" molds, and try some other of my cheeses in 5 gallon batches.

Any guidance or general hints would be greatly appreciated.   

Thanks in advance, and thanks for the great forum.

[john H]

Hey Jeff, here is a great explanation on brining times a salt concentration in this link. Thanks to Jeffhamm

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,11122.15.html

The rule of thumb I have is 1 hour per pound per inch, using a saturated brine (26.5%).  If you use a lower saturation, you scale accordingly (i.e. if you use an 18% solution then multiply by 18/26.5  26.5/18).  This is for wheels, so I'm not sure if it translates perfectly for a cannonball.

- Jeff

Weigh the cheese in lbs, measure it's height in inches, and multiply the two together  Brine for that many hours in a saturated brine solution.  For less than saturated (around 26.5% salt), you scale by 26.5/X where X is your percentage of salt.

To calculate your salt percentage, it's weight of salt/weight of solution.  So, if you add 18g of salt to 100g of water, then you have 18/118 = 15.25% solution, and  1 part salt to 5 parts water (in weight) means 1/6, or 16.67% solution. 

As an aside, I find the easiest way to make a 3% solution for washing, is to just weigh out 97g of water then add enough salt to increase the weight to 100g.  That will last for awhile if you just washing a cheese or two.

- Jeff

This is my go to for brining. I call it brining for dummies.


Hope this helps John

P.S. I usually brine my 8LB Gouda for 27 hours

[Jeffrey.Rosenberg]

 Thanks. Although this formula seems very counterintuitive to me in this case.

If I have a 2 inch thick cheese, and it weighs 2 pounds, and I compare it to a 2 inch thick cheese that is wider and weighs 4 pounds, I would not expect to brine twice as much. I would expect brine to soak through the 2 inch thickness of the larger heavier cheese at the same rate, since they are the same curd density and height.

Perhaps the rule works in general but odd cases like changing only the width and weight lead to oddities?

I think I may have to try two of them over time and see which turns out more like the smaller cheese.

Thanks again and I'll let you know how it works out.

[MrsKK]

I make 5 or 6 gallon batches, scaled up from 4 gallon recipes and have never changed the times for brining.  The cheese always turns out good, too, so I don't know what to say about that.

As for aging, the size of the cheese shouldn't change that.  If your cheese were thicker it would probably age better than a wide, thin disk does.  The thinness of your cheese would leave it open for drying out a lot quicker, so you'll want to watch it for that.

[Gregore]

I know that salt does not actually soak in , rather it  uses osmosis . Salt goes in non salty whey comes out

This may or may not have a thing to do with it , I tried looking up how osmosis scales with volume change , no luck