Help with first farmhouse cheddar

[chibi]

Hi,
    we had our first go at making farmhouse cheddar and it looks and tastes OK, but instead of one homogenous wheel, it is made up of chunks of curd stuck together.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10rinjJ3OSTDfh8Nl3fSoWrcotSbwu0VC/view?usp=sharing

  1. What did we do wrong?
  2. Should it be air dried and matured or eaten just as it is because there's no point in wasting more time on it?
  3. We were going to bandage it, but it doesn't have a smooth surface, so is there any point in that?

thanks
chibi

[paulabob]

Cheddar is one of the most difficult to press.  Wonder how many pounds you put on it?

There are quite a few recipes out there that call for 50, but i usually find 75-100 gives a nice solid cheese body.  I would eat it now, or vack pack in regular fridge and eat within a month.

If it hasn't been long, you can try adding more weight, possibly more warmth too to see if it will knit.

[Gregore]

If it is lumpy and has enough holes  I would treat it like a Stilton and smooth the surface out ( you will have to watch a video of how they do it )  I have never made one so I am unfamiliar with all of the exact steps

Gregore

[chibi]

Thanks @George and @paulabob

I think it's too lumpy to smooth like stilton (I watched a video).
I think we'll stuck some in a vac pack and the eat the rest.

We probably didn't have enough weight on it. The mold is 27sq inches and we put about 54lb on top.
Oh! I finally found something useful on pressure....cheddar needs 3.14psi. https://www.batguano.com/cheese/index.html
Our mold is 6" so we need 88lb or 39kg. Crikey! Why don't cheese books give pressure in psi instead of meaningless pounds??

[mikekchar]

Commercial cheddar producers will put up to 8 psi on it.  To be fair (as I'm always ranting about :-) ), pressing pressures don't belong in general recipes (again IMHO).  There is enough variation in makes that the amount of pressure *you* will need is almost unrelated to what the author of the recipe needs.  Having said that, you can't over press a cheddar.  If you press too hard, too early, you may end up with some mechanical holes in the middle as the air wasn't allowed to escape, but it's not a really serious flaw.  If it's not closing, you just need to keep upping the pressure until it does.  If you run out of things to pile on top, then you can try to heat up the cheese (to 30 C, for instance) and press it warm, but that's a last resort.

I usually make a Caerphilly instead of cheddar because you cheddar for less time, half salt the curds, and let the cheese slowly acidify in the press.  The higher pH allows the curds to knit more easily and so you need a *lot* less weight.  Then you finish salting it after the cheese has acidified to the level that you want.

[stephmtl222]

The curd knitting not only depends on pressure. Assuming that you attain the correct pH at the end of cheddarring (5.3-5.4) and have not over acidified, you also have to limit the curd drying when salting and maintain the cheese at relatively warm temperature when putting the curd in the mold and pressing.
Salting too rapidelly with all the salt will dry the curd surface and prevent good knitting of the grains. Salt in successive portion of salt, shaking and resting in warm environnement before adding more salt, until you get to the target salt content (2.5-3% of curd mass). The right size of salt grains will allow good rate of formation of surface brine without drying the crud excessively. I would avoid cosher salt.
I struggled with that on my first few attempts and then tried to compensate with a lot of pressure. It didn't lead to very good knitting until I changed salting and temperature. I had very smooth rind with my last cheddar with only 220g/cm2 (3.1psi).
In «Les pâtes pressées pas à pas» from Profession fromager, a very good practical book for professional cheesemakers, they suggest 30' at 750 g/cm2 (10.7psi) then 18-20h at 1500g/cm2 (21.3psi) although it's for a much larger cheese.
Good luck with your next cheddar !

[broombank]

Stephmti222 - I have been looking for Profession Fromager. I can't find it in Amazon.fr or Amazon.ca -   can you provide a link ? I would like to see how the French do it for a change...

[stephmtl222]

Hello Broombank,

Here is the link for the english version «PRESSED CHEESE STEP-BY-STEP». A small book with a lot of usefull informations. All the detailed instructions, pH, cultures, temperatures, affinage details that you can need to reproduce the real thing. Many french cheeses but also other non french cheese: cheddar, gouda, Maasdam

https://en.professionfromager.com/vpc-guide-fab-pp-va/

Also have a look at the «SOFT CHEESE STEP-BY-STEP» and «CHEESE RIPENING GUIDE»

I have all 3. Although they are a little pricey for the size and they are aimed at professional cheesemakers so they include information about cheesemaking facilility organisation and parameters that are harder to control for home cheesemaker, they are my best reliable source of all needed practical information to reproduce some classic french cheeses and a few more.

[mikekchar]

I can't believe it never occurred to me to read French cheese making books...  My French isn't great, but I'm *sure* I could struggle through... Facepalm moment :-)