Milk, Powdered - Using To Make Cheese

[Aris]

Has anyone here ever tried Powdered Milk and was able to get a firm curd that doesnt fall apart? Currently, i've been making cheese using it mainly because i have no access to raw milk and pasteurized milk. And i've read its possible to make cheese out of it unlike UHT milk. My problem with it is i've never been able to get a curd that doesnt fall apart. I've used twice the amount of calcium chloride and rennet. I do get a clean break and its quite firm but once i stir it, it falls apart. I can make cream cheese out of it though but i want to make Cheddar.



Thanks in advance

[FRANCOIS]

The protein is denatured in powder, you can only make soft cheese out of it (and yogurt).

[DeejayDebi]

Althought this newletter address pwdered milks as an addition to regular milk there are a few interesting insites that may help.

[DeejayDebi]

This is the only information I have on using powder milk - I hope it helps.

[FRANCOIS]

Deb,
The attachment covers standardization of milk by adding powder, which should not be confused with the question from Aris.  This information is actually somewhat outdated.  What we do now is strip out the cream, pasteurize that separately, then put it back in to the milk stream at the desired PF ratio.  If you have a UF plant you can tweak further by adding retentate (protein concentrate) or, if you have equipment to handle the slurry, adding milk protein concentrate (MPC). 

Note that on page 2 it talks about low heat powders, this is because normally produced powders are hot enough to denature the protein and you can't get it back into solution.  Also note all the exceptions and conditions around powder addition in this cases.

[DeejayDebi]

Ah I see. I was going to play around with mixing powdered milk into my cheddar - maybe not. I have some excelent tasting whole milk powder I wanted to play with.

[FRANCOIS]

You should only add powder if you know your PF ratios and need them to change.

[DeejayDebi]

okay I won't mess with a good thing ... 

[Aris]

The protein is denatured in powder, you can only make soft cheese out of it (and yogurt).

I guess i was just lucky or just persistent because in my first batch, i was able to make a hard cheese using Powdered Milk by putting the curds on a handkerchief, squeezing the hell out of it while shaping it to a ball, salting it, and letting it dry more than a week in the fridge. It was very laborious though and the curds were very fragile and not having a cheese press didnt make it any easier either. Anyways, thanks again for the reply.

[DeejayDebi]

Your welcome sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

[Tropit]

I have never tried making cheese out of 100% powdered milk, but I have added a tablespoon, or 2 of powdered goat's milk to some store bought pasteurized cow's milk.  It firmed up nicely and had an interesting effect on the final taste of my pyramids of soft cheese.  The flavor still had a slight, powdered milk taste, though.  I would hessitate from using all powdered milk for that reason alone.

[FRANCOIS]

Adding powder to milk is done all the time on an industrial scale.  The technical temrm is "cheese milk extension" becasue it is intended to increase yields of existing milk.  Cheese out of straight pwder is done in some situations but you're not going to be making a cloth bound cheddar from it, that's for sure.

[T-Bird]

I just came across this thread. I made a "colby" in feb. that turned out great texture wise. My curds were firm and looked better that the curds from homo milk. The cheese had a bitter finish  on eating. I cut it last week, I attributed this to the fact that I added more rennet that the recipe called for because I was afraid that it might be old, and have lost some of it's strength.(it hadn't since it flocculated in about 5min. I used 2 gal. nonfat milk powder together with 1 Qt. heavy cream . I got this idea from the  schmidling.com website. Going to try a gouda tomorrow. Thanks, T-Bird

[cheesehead]

Powdered milk is the most heat abused product out there typically.  It's likely pasteurized in the milk format, separated and then run through an evaporator to remove water AND then run through a dryer - alot of heat treatments.

I'll use powder only to adjust solids somewhat in cottage cheese when protein levels drop a bit to maintain yields.

[T-Bird]

I cut the "gouda" that I mentioned above today, I couldn't stand it! I used the powdered milk-cream combo. The texture was perfect, like commercial gouda. It had a slightly acidic finish on the tongue. The outside of the cheese was slightly moist, but I couldn't tell it while in the vacuum bag. Could sour whey cause the acidic flavor? In case yall can't tell , I'm not very experienced.