Segmented Wooden Cheese Mould

[lacaseus]

For a while I pressed my cheeses in a mould made from a plastic bucket. Recently I've doubled the size of batch I typically make, so I needed a larger mould. I wanted to try using locally-sourced materials instead of plastic (part of my big-picture interest in developing a holistically sustainable lifestyle). Wood seems like the best option given that I need relatively high strength for cheddars (ruling out baskets and pottery). I had some trouble finding advice about how to do this online, so I thought I'd share what I learned through experimentation.

I initially tried a single thin piece of wood bent into a hoop. I believe it was 1/4" thick white ash. Although it was still green and I poured boiling water over it, I had a lot of trouble bending it into a small enough hoop to fit into my press and produce an appropriate diameter-to-height ratio for the amount of curd I'm making. I would also have needed to come up with a way to smooth the inside end and some way to bind the mould so that it wouldn't spring open. While my attempt was unsuccessful, I have found some pictures of old moulds of this type, so I'm sure it can be done if you know how.

My second attempt was based on the design of a wooden barrel. I made eight "staves" with edges angled so that they fit together into a regular octagon. The hardest part was figuring out what material to use to bind the staves together. I tried two rings of riveted sheet aluminum, but it was soft enough and the forces were large enough that the rivets tore slots into the aluminum. What I'm currently using is two rings of doubled used baler twine. When the twine is tight enough, the form is stable without any other fasteners, which means that when I'm done I can just pull off the twine and take the whole thing apart for washing. I'm not a fan of the reliance on plastic, but I think it can be replaced in the long term with a natural fibre cord; likely I'll just need to use a few more strands or a heavier cord. The twine tends to stretch and the knots slip, but this can be addressed by retying as tightly as possible before starting pressing and inserting opposing wedges under the twine during pressing when the cheese is out of the mould to be redressed.

A few refinements which are worth noting if you try this style of mould:

• My cheese press has a solid "floor" with channels carved across it. This mould has a completely separate bottom board. I drilled holes in it and carved channels in the underside that run perpendicular to the press's channels, allowing whey to escape.
• I initially had trouble with getting cheeses out of the mould. While it's always an option to pull off the twines and take the mould apart, that's a lot of bother to do in the middle of a pressing. To alleviate the sticking, I tapered each stave so that they're about 1/8" thinner at the top than at the bottom. Since the corner geometry and stave width is unaltered, this produces an octagonal prism on the outside (good because it's stable under pressure) and an octagonal frustum on the inside (which allows pushing the cheese out the top). I also added little teardrop channels into each drain hole on the inner surface because the cheese was pushing the cloth out into them and I thought this might be part of the sticking problem. While having smooth edges to the holes is important to prevent tearing the cloth, I don't think these channels are very important for helping with release.

[pickles]

Barrels and buckets can be held together with iron hoops.
The hoop is made undersized and is heated to high temperature to expand it, when it is fitted over the timber. As it cools it shrinks and tightens around the 'staves'.
The staves will need to be very dry so that when wetted they will expand and further tighten the joints.

It is probably quite do-able in a home wrokshop, though you might need to find someone to weld the hoops. You'd need a burner to heat the hoops too.

[lacaseus]

I did consider the idea of steel hoops when I was building this. I had run into the method of thermally expanding hoops for fitting when I was researching cooperage a few years ago.

My main reason for not going with that idea was that I was concerned about rust. A mould is obviously frequently covered in whey and frequently washed, so I figured that any non-stainless steel would quickly start rusting, which would make a mess and would likely impart off-flavours. I assume this is less of an issue for barrels and buckets because they're usually dry on the outside. Do you know of tricks that could be used to get around this problem? I try to avoid working with stainless when I can because it's more expensive, harder to weld (particularly to forge-weld - I'd like to move away from electricity/oxy-acetylene eventually), and my impression is that it is more difficult to produce (a long-term concern of mine in the context of trying to localize metalwork).

Another issue is that my particular design has staves with a relatively high width-to-thickness ratio. This means they can't be shaved into an arc to match a circular hoop. I would either have to make an octagonal hoop (which I think would be hard to shape correctly so it matches with the corners) or use more/thicker staves so they could be shaped into a circle. Probably the latter option would be the most sensible solution.

All of that said, my current solution to the hoop problem isn't entirely satisfactory, so I'd welcome more ideas about how this could be done. Do you know of examples of wooden cheese moulds that have been made with metal hoops?

[OzzieCheese]

For your external clamps. Add two more per stave, in the middle and top and try something like these ducting pipe clamps.

https://www.hydroexperts.com.au/Fan-Ducting-Clamp-254MM-10-Inch-For-Duct-Fan-Connector?gclid=CjwKCAjw0qOIBhBhEiwAyvVcf7OwzAH1Xzk4QVjAsc_JakIlVyHSC4a9HyQqSg2POMLXNO_NzSNUDhoCRwAQAvD_BwE

Just a thought.  BTW I love your idea. A cheese for your wonderful idea.

Mal

[bansidhe]

This is too cool! AC4U.  How big are your batches?

[lacaseus]

Thanks, both of you!

@OzzieCheese That's an idea. Those clamps would certainly be easier to remove for cleaning than some kind of solid hoop. A concern I have is that, in my experience, garden hose clamps (same idea; much smaller circumference) have a tendency to strip after a while. The ones you linked look like they might be better quality, though. And of course, with my interest in being able to make things myself, manufacturing a clamp of this sort would be pretty involved.

@bandsidhe Right now my batches are typically 8 gallons. Yield varies a bit, so sometimes the milled curd just barely fits and sometimes I have to press it for a few minutes before adding the last bit. That doesn't seem to cause problems with knitting.