pretty every chesse I am making does not really melt well and tends to get crumbly when aging longer.
This will be that your cheese is too acidic. There could be a number of reasons but there are a couple of main things. Timing for when you salt the cheese is critical. This determines the final pH of the cheese. Recipes that say "wait X hours" are just wrong. Each cheese will be different. You milk will be different. You room temperature will be different. Many, many, many things will be different. I tend to taste the whey that's draining from the cheese to judge when to salt it. Jim Wallace has a good chart for estimating pH for your cheese:
- pH 6.2-6.5 the curds and whey should taste sweet like milk
- 5.8-5.7 the curds will still have a slight sweetness but nearing neutral
- 5.5-5.4 they will taste neutral, neither sweet nor acid.
- 5.2-5.3 a slight acid tang develops
- 5.1-4.9 a definite acid tang
- 4.7-4.4 and below the taste begins to have the tang of a euro style yogurt
For good melting you want it between the 5.1 and 5.3 range.
However, I suspect another likely problem may be over pressing. Most recipes call for over pressing and a certain very popular Youtuber regularly over presses his cheeses.
The idea with pressing is that it's *not* to get the whey out. That will happen naturally with no effort on your part. Pressing is *only* to "close the rind". Basically to make a smooth cheese on the outside. Ironically, if you press too hard, too early, you will close the rind too quickly. This will lock whey in the cheese and it won't be able to drain properly. Over time the whey starts refermenting and causes your cheese to become more and more acidic. The fact that your cheese gets more crumbly over time is a good indication that it's over pressed.
When pressing, a good rule of thumb (from Gianaclis Caldwell) is to press just enough that whey beads up in the holes of the mold. It should not run *at all*. If it's running, then you need *no weight*. Next, you should flip regularly. Many recipes have you waiting and hour or more between flips. I like 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes. That's 5 flips. The rind should be closed (or nearly closed) after the last rest (2 hours in) and *not before*.
Normally I will press with the cloth for the first 90 minutes and the last 30 minutes without the cloth. Then you want to do a "depress" which is just a light press (or no weight at all) in the mold to erase any cloth marks and stiples from the holes in the mold. Flip every hour until you hit your acidity target. You can press as hard as you want after the first 2 hours if the rind isn't closed yet, though.
There is a lot more that you can think about with this stuff (cheese making is *deep*), but that should give you a place to start.
