Failed at my first cheddar... what went wrong??

[lauravanb]

This was my first attempt at a cheddar. I used the recipe from Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Caldwell. I made a 4 gallon batch and cut the curd after cheddaring for 2 hours (turning every 15 min) into 1x2 inch cubes as instructed. The texture was just as described, firm and similar to cooked chicken breast when torn. The temperature was at about 90 by the end of cheddaring, not the 95-98 that was recommended. I used an 8in mold, which I think was a bit too big as the proportions are a bit off and the resulting wheel is thinner than ideal. I do not have a pH meter so I'm not sure if that could be a factor here with the pressing. In her recipe she does not give specific weights for pressing. The weights I used are as follows:

-18lbs x15 min (tried to flip but it was falling apart so I put it back in the mold)
-28lbs x4.5 hours
-50lbs x14 hours
-70lbs x24 hours

My final weight after pressing was a bit under 3.5 lbs, which was a smaller yield than I expected.

I'm hoping my pictues attach properly. In case they dont... I can still see the distinct outline of each curd and could pull them apart like monkey bread if I wanted to. I know I can't age this cheese because of the structural defects so I am planning on breaking it up and frying up some curds this weekend (I'm hoping that will be a good use for it??). Any input would be awesome!

[Al Lewis]

Looks like the curd may have been a bit too dry.  I always press these, and all thermo cheeses, under hot whey for their first press just to ensure the curds mold together.  Helps a lot.

[Stinky]

This has happened to me before. Don't worry too much, I think. One of mine looked like this on the outside at one point. I dunked it into hot water for a few seconds and then pressed again, and did this one more time. There were still one or two large cracks, but those could be filled with lard and were fine.

Anyhoo, I was expecting the inside of the cheese to be like that, with lots of gaps, but the paste actually firmed up into a perfect smooth unbroken block.

Look for yourself.

It's probably too late to do this with yours, but you can remember that next time. Dunk it either into hot water or I think some put it a warm oven for a few moments. Then press again.

But yeah, if you're able to pressing for the first 15-30 minutes under the warm whey can help the curds maintain their temperature and fuse better.

[awakephd]

Hmm ... you might have let the curd get too acidified, but regardless I would say you just didn't have enough pressure. Cheddar is inherently stubborn to knit, due to the combination of the extended cheddaring (which dries out the curd) and the salting before pressing. The too-large-diameter mold contributed to the problem; 70 lbs applied to an 8" mold gives a psi of around 1.4; when I press a cheddar, I generally finish with 5 psi or more to get a good knit. (I generally used a 6.5 - 7" diameter mold for a 4-gallon make.)

Pressing under whey is a time-honored technique for many cheeses, but I wonder if it is really appropriate to a cheddar -- since the cheddaring process is supposed to lose whey, and since the curds are salted, it would seem putting it back under whey is a step backwards -- ?? But I've never tried, so I don't really know ...

[awakephd]

By the way, don't discard it. If you have a vacuum sealer, seal it up and let it age. (You could also seal it up with wax, but that will leave wax in all the crevices ... I speak from experience!) Cheddar is just not that good until it reaches 6 months or so of age; 3 months at a bare minimum.

[lauravanb]

70 lbs applied to an 8" mold gives a psi of around 1.4; when I press a cheddar, I generally finish with 5 psi or more to get a good knit.

This is good to know! I'm not sure that kind of weight is achievable with my system, though, since my homemade press's mechanism is simply gravity. Based on your math I'd have to stack hundreds of pounds on top of my mold I think! I need to look into how to figure out psi (and possibly look into a Dutch style press).

[lauravanb]

By the way, don't discard it. If you have a vacuum sealer, seal it up and let it age. (You could also seal it up with wax, but that will leave wax in all the crevices ... I speak from experience!) Cheddar is just not that good until it reaches 6 months or so of age; 3 months at a bare minimum.

Awesome! So you think I can still do that? It's been in the fridge now for 2 days while I've been trying to figure out what to do with it.. should be ok still right?

[Stinky]

70 lbs applied to an 8" mold gives a psi of around 1.4; when I press a cheddar, I generally finish with 5 psi or more to get a good knit.

This is good to know! I'm not sure that kind of weight is achievable with my system, though, since my homemade press's mechanism is simply gravity. Based on your math I'd have to stack hundreds of pounds on top of my mold I think! I need to look into how to figure out psi (and possibly look into a Dutch style press).

It's also fairly easy to set up some sort of improvised level system that's relatively safe- see my setup for brick-shaped cheeses.

By the way, don't discard it. If you have a vacuum sealer, seal it up and let it age. (You could also seal it up with wax, but that will leave wax in all the crevices ... I speak from experience!) Cheddar is just not that good until it reaches 6 months or so of age; 3 months at a bare minimum.

Awesome! So you think I can still do that? It's been in the fridge now for 2 days while I've been trying to figure out what to do with it.. should be ok still right?

Yes.

If you have a cave, then let it sit in there for a few days if possible, maybe rubbing lard or butter in the deeper and more obvious cracks and brushing any mold, to let the pH, salt, and moisture levels in the cheese stabilize and make sure it's dry and ok.

[Gregore]

I would make up a salt brine of 3.5 percent and get a small brush about the stiffness of a shoe polishing brush and use the brush and brine to make a smear on the surface and use that smear to seal in the cracks .

Then let it dry in the cheese cave and age out as normal.

[awakephd]

Sure, a couple of days in the fridge won't be a problem. The cold will slow down development, but it will go back to its regularly scheduled aging when it goes back in the cave.

To calculate psi:

Surface area = (Diameter of mold)^2 * pi / 4
psi = (weight applied) / (surface area)

So, for an 8" mold, surface area = 8*8*3.14/4 = ~50 square inches.
If you apply, say, 250 lbs using a dutch-style lever press, 250 / 50 = 5 psi.

By the way, with a dutch style / lever press, you will calculate the amount of weight as the weight applied to the end of the lever * the mechanical advantage of the press. Mechanical advantage on a basic lever press = (distance from pivot to weight) / (distance from pivot to ram).

So if this is the lever:

0------0------------0

The left-hand 0 represents the pivot point. The right hand 0 represents the place where the weight is attached. The middle 0 represents the place where the ram attaches to press down on the cheese. So, let's say it is 6" from the pivot to where the ram attaches, and 12" more from there to where the weight attaches, for a total length from pivot to weight of 18". The mechanical advantage of this press would be 18 / 6 = 3. So if you put 50 lbs of weight on the end of the lever, 150 lbs of weight (force) will be applied through the ram to the cheese.

Hopefully that is at least as clear as mud ...