First Traditional Cheddar

[nccheesemike]

Hi all. Being new to cheesemaking I tried my hand at a Traditional Cheddar and
Cheddared the cheese for 2 hours last weekend. The cheese has air dried for a week and I will wax the wheel and may try to bandage the cheese block. The error I made is cutting the cheddared cheese mass into cubes before pressing. The cheese block didn't fuse as well as the wheel but still turned out.

Wanted to share this one. It was a long process ~6 hours but fun. Thanks all

[Danbo]

Oh yes... Cheddaring is time consuming - but fun...

Cheddars just require a great amount of weight to knit well. I'm not the master of cheddar but I know that a couple of the other cheese heads in here are.

I don't think that cutting the mass into cubes makes a significant diffence.

Thumbs up for your work so far.

:-) Danbo

[awakephd]

Yes, as Danbo says, it wasn't cutting the curd into cubes, it was insufficient weight and/or time. Cheddars are some of the most difficult cheeses to get a good knit. (Only thing more difficult, in my experience, is a Cantal.) What sort of press are you using, and how much weight / time did you use? For comparison, I generally press a 7" diameter cheddar at a final weight of 300 lbs - which may be more than absolutely required, but it does the job.

[nccheesemike]

Thanks for the feedback Danbo and Awakephd!!! I didn't realize Cheddars were that hard to press. I pressed this one at 50lbs for 24 hours for its final press. Nowhere near 300 lbs!! Wow. Well I'm just using weight plates on top of the molds. I need a better press setup. Any suggestions are welcome

[Danbo]

When pressing a cheese the mould diameter has a lot to say... A mould of say 20" require much much more weight than a mould of 10". That's why Awakephd says how much weight he uses for a specific miuld diameter.

Some cheese heads use PSI when describing how much force is needed...

[Danbo]

Take a look at this post: http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13848.msg104995.html#msg104995

I pressed the cheese at the following PSIs::
     2,2 psi for 30 mins
     4,4 psi for 30 mins
     8,8 psi for 1 hr
     8,8 psi for 9 hrs (without cloth on top)*
     16,2 psi for 15 mins (without cloth)*

     I was using a mould with a diameter of 20 cm / 8 inches:
     50 kg / 110 pounds for 30 mins
     100 kg / 221 pounds for 30 mins
     200 kg / 441 pounds for 1 hr
     200 kg / 441 pounds for 9 hrs (without cloth on top)*
     370 kg / 816 pounds for 15 mins (without cloth)*

     If I had used a mould with a diameter of 10 cm / 4 inches it would have been:
     13 kg / 27,7 pounds for 30 mins
     25 kg / 55,4 pounds for 30 mins
     50 kg / 111 pounds for 1 hr
     50 kg / 111 pounds for 9 hrs (without cloth on top)*
     93 kg / 204 pounds for 15 mins (without cloth)*

     Calculations:
     Area of mould in inches = 3,14 * (Mould diameter/2)^2
     Weight in pounds needed = Pressure in psi * Area of mould in inches
     Weight in kg needed = Weight in pounds needed * 0.45

[awakephd]

As Danbo says, the key is the PSI applied to the cheese, which is a function of the area of the cheese, which in turn is a function of the square of the radius of the cheese.

Not sure it is any less confusing to say it this way, but here's a "simple" rule: as the diameter of the cheese changes, the weight needed to achieve the same PSI changes by the square of the ratio of the diameters. So, let's say that, instead of the 7" mold that I used 300 lbs. on, you used a 5" diameter mold instead: (5/7)^2 = 25/49 = approximately 1/2 - so you would need approximately 150 lbs. to get the same PSI using that size mold. But if you went up to an 8" diameter mold: (8/7)^2 = 64/49 = approximately 1.3, so you would need 1.3 x 300 lbs = 390 lbs. to get the same PSI.

Clear as mud?

[smolt1]

OR, if you hate math, just use a calculator.

[awakephd]

No, that is cheating!

[Danbo]

 

[smolt1]

Ok Andy. What is the square root of 97896545, BY HAND....NO CALCULATORS. QED!

[awakephd]

Well ... I worked on it by hand until I got it narrowed down to between 9895 and 9885, at which point I realized that it wasn't going to be a round number, so I decided I didn't have time to take it out further.

[nccheesemike]

Thanks Awakephd!! Clear as mud. I do follow though