Simple Cheese Press Idea

[MarkShelton]

I wouldn't say you were wrong. Spring presses do have some serious drawbacks, but for the most part, you can compensate by being vigilant and paying extra special attention as the cheese presses (pretty much constant supervision for the first stages of pressing, then less as the cheese reaches its fully compacted state).

Knowing what force is applied to the cheese is important also. If your press isn't calibrated to measure the force applied, you should at least know the amount of force applied by the springs. I have about 4 springs that I know take 10lbs to fully compress, so if I use 2 and they are fully compressed, it will exert 20lbs on the cheese as long as I make sure they stay fully compressed. I can also use them to determine the force applied by springs of unknown compression strength.

So far, I have successfully attained pressures equal to 150 lbs on my spring press, though I don't think I would try any more, so I am limited by that. However, I don't plan on making huge (8 inches plus) wheels of hard cheeses like cheddar or parmesan, partly because I would need quite a bit more milk, bigger pots, a different means of heating, etc.
And besides, I am quite pleased with the size and proportions of a 5 gallon cheddar in my 6" mold. It makes quite a pleasing cylinder.

Don't feel like a bad student. While spring presses aren't ideal, you can certainly make them work for you. You just have to pay special attention to them and know how to work around the drawbacks.

[MrsKK]

"Secondly, the plans that Mrs.KK linked to from fiasco farms site are not good. The theory is all correct for making that kind of press, but you will probably end up with the flimsy setup I had after following their instructions. They holes arouns the dowels are not tight enough, making to much shifting ability. I came in the other day and there were weights scattered everywhere and the little 1lb kadova I was pressing was on the floor (right side up, lid still on  ). I have considered remaking a tighter version of that system now that I understand just how simple the contraption is."

Just to clarify, I posted the link as a "close to" what my pressing set-up is like.  We used one inch dowels and the one inch hole cutter attachement to the drill, then had to sand out the holes so that the boards would move freely on the dowels without shifting.  It really does work well and I've never had a load of weights shift and fall since my hubby helped me build this press.

It is very simple, was very inexpensive (about $20 or less, including the barbell weights, as I recall) and works very well for my situation.  I also like it that it breaks down into a compact, easy to store bundle.  I have a rubbermaid tote that I store all the weights in and keep the press parts in a cupboard.

[BigCheese]

Mrs. KK, I didnt mean to suggest you followed those plans, I just wanted to warn any readers. What you did sounds right, those fiasco plans have you drill the hole bigger to begin with, which makes for lots of shifting.

[Sailor Con Queso]

Nitai - You weren't exactly wrong, but pressing is very important. Mark may have somehow achieved 150 pounds on his spring press, but every spring press I have ever seen will start to bend and deform if you try to go over 50 pounds. That is NOT enough weight (pressure) for an 8" wheel.

As Mark says, if you are diligent and keep tightening the screw, you can make a spring press work very well (on smaller wheels). However, most of us press overnight, so what do you do - get up several times a night to tighten the press? A direct pressure press like the one from Fiasco Farms is a much better solution, especially with MrsKKs modifications. A step up is a simple Dutch lever press. Both are inexpensive and easy to make. With either type, the pressure remains constant for the duration of the pressing, with no adjustments. And you can press any size hoop by simply changing the weight.

One of the things that I strive for in my cheesemaking is consistency. If a cheese turns out inadequate, then I want to know what went wrong. More importantly if I end up with a great cheese, how do I duplicate that? For me, that means measuring and keeping records of every step along the way. That includes pressing weights and times.

[BigCheese]

Yes I think that type of thinking is why I had decided to retire my spring press. But then out of lack of time, money, energy, and an excess of milk, I decided not to build a press now.

My experience has been with almost all my recent cheesemakes that within 4 hours the wheel is not losing any whey. This was the case with my recent Parms and leaving them fully screwed overnight i come back to only a very slight change. I have only been pressing my Goudas for like 6-8 hours because the PH has been good and the knit looks good. The Havartis are unique in how little pressing they get, but they have seemed to be going well to me too.

[Mondequay]

My press is similar to the plan by fiasco farm but my top board has a dowel extending up at the center point. I stack my weight plates on the dowel (through their center hole) and even if the board slips or binds the weights stay in place. No more dented floor!  We are working on the binding this weekend; I need to make the dowels absolutely perpendicular to the bottom and parallel to each other.

[BigCheese]

The center dowel is a great idea!

[wharris]

I also had reached this conclusion because I recall a thread where Wayne pressed a relatively small cheddar with 500lbs and it still did not fully knit.

I am still evolving my cheddar pressing techniques.  But I think there is a distinction to be made between curds not fully knitted, and having an open curd.

Curds not knitting correctly is a fault in one's cheese. This means that the casien strands are not forming aligned fibers. This may be due to temp, acidity or moisture problems. But it's this knitting that gives the cheese that distinctive oriented grain and 'chicken breast' feel.

Having an open texture is is not necessarily a fault.  You can have a curds that knit, but have voids (openness) to the texture.

My complaint, was that even under adequate pressure, my curds knit into a 'still open' texture. I am really trying to achieve a fully closed cheddar.  What I found that is most large scale cheddar cheese factories press cheddar in a vacuum.  They use a cheddar tower that uses the wieght of the cheese itself, along with a partial vacuum to continually produce closed texture cheddar. This is is all about removing the trapped air pockets.

From one of the books I read:
"The texture of a brine-salted cheese is less open than that of traditionally-made Cheddar cheese because the curd is pressed under the whey to remove pockets of air before brining. As a close texture is a pre-requisite for the formation of ‘eyes’, it has come to be generally believed that ‘eyes’ can be obtained only in brine-salted cheese. The technique of vacuum pressing allows the removal of air from between the particles of dry-salted curd. This can result in a closeness of texture similar to that of Gouda-type cheeses."

[Boofer]

I've found that pressing under warm whey does close the knit a lot better than cool curds. But the Big Boys don't do this, right? Seems like I saw one of those shows on Discovery Channel showing just the thing you're talking about, Wayne, with the tower of cheese pressing down and compressing with the weight of the upper cheese column. Then, at the bottom, they cleave off the tightly-knit cheese blocks.

-Boofer-