Emmental maturing temperatures

[Mufasa]

Hi all,

As an enthusiastic but unsuccessful cheese maker, I wonder if you might be able to help out with some advice. I’ve had numerous cheesy disasters to date and am not sure whether to cut my losses on this latest attempt.

I’m attempting an emmental. Several issues have cropped up so far and I’d like to know the likely consequences on the final product;

1. Firstly, my curd matted quite early on in the cooking process. I tired to dissect it down again with some success - is this a disaster? Although I stirred it at all times whilst heating,  I think it heated it too quickly. I heated on a flame - should I have rather used a water bath? Or just less flame?

2. Brining. I scaled down the recipe as my press can hold only about 750 g curd and calculated I should have left in a heavy brine for 4 hours. I momentarily forgot and left for 5 hours. Will this ruin the cheese?

3. I’m currently in the first stage of maturation - 14 days in 11 degrees C with 90% RH. Now my setup isn’t ideal - I bought a small bar fridge from Guntree which has no condenser, rather circulates cool air with a fan. I’m using a sonic humidifier with a fancy device to monitor and control RH. I don’t know what exactly the issue is but it seems the temperature will not fall below 14 degrees with the high humidity. Is this a big problem? Should I abandon this stage and move on to mature at warmer temperatures for the proprionic bacteria? Would I have this issue with a more expensive condenser refrigerator?

Can this cheese turn out to be any kind of okay? Should I invest I any new equipment - water bath, better quality fridge or should I persevere.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheesemaking is a vast and mysterious world!

[River Bottom Farm]

1) hard to say for sure but possible the faster heating resulted in faster pH curve. This may or may not ruin the cheese.

2) will result in more salt up take and may or may not be the tipping point for the PS to either work or not work (propionic is salt sensetive)

3) don't abandon the cooling stage. The cheese needs this stage to get the rind sealed up and elastic enough to hold the gas in during the swelling stage.

I would recommend lower flame (unless water bath is an easy option). The fridge is likely collecting moisture on the temp probe and fooling the controls into thinking the temp is cooler than it really is possibly all you would need to do is move the humidifier away from the temp probe or decrease the humidity a little.

The more important piece of equipment you should invest in (unless you already have) is a pH meter it will help you out a lot on when to do things like renneting and brining

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Just a couple of things to add to River's wise observations.
Most importantly: Yes, you will probably end up with some kind of cheese. Not necessarily what you were trying for, but quite possibly very good. (Never give up!)
When you cook the curds, the temperature should rise gradually at first and at an increasing rate. A water bath will make it easier to control the temperature rise but the important thing is the rate of the temperature rise, not how you achieve it. I gather that you are only making relatively small quantities - about 6 litres of milk? If this is right, it should be possible to organise a water bath.
I normally make cheese in a stock-pot in the kitchen sink. The sink is full of warm water and I heat it by draining some of the water from the sink and topping it up with hot water. Not high-tech but it gives a slow, steady increase in temperature.

[Mufasa]

Thanks so much for the advice. I have tinkered with the position of the temperature probe and it’s worked a treat - I now have temperature regulation! I’ll be sure to invest in a pH probe for the next batch.

Yes Raw Prawn, I’m attempting small batches for the time being (all around 6L), so I’ll give the kitchen sink a whirl.

Hopefully I’ll report back an excellent cheese soon enough, I don’t think I can take any more ruined-cheese heartbreak!