Adding calcium to brine, after the parmesan is already in it.

[GlennK]

I'm trying a parmesan from Ricki Carroll's book and her recipe for brine is 2 pounds of salt in one gallon of water. So my cheese is in that brine and now I read other recipes for brine (including her website) they say to add calcium chloride to a new brine.  Should I try to fix this now?  How might this affect my cheese if I don't?

[Spoons]

Salt content, CaCl2 amount and PH level are important for a brine. Here's how to make a brine:

https://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-making-cheese-brine/

There's also a link in that article tha explains how to maintain your brine.

[GlennK]

Thanks Spoons.  I read that wiki and now I'm worried about my cheese.  As of this post, it's been in brine for 3.5 hours with 21 to go.  I wonder if I should make a new brine with calcium and put my cheese in that?

[Spoons]

I truly don't know if it's too late for your parm at this point, but I'd take the parm out of the brine and adjust the brine with CaCl2 and vinegar. then dunk the parm back in. Should not take longer than a minute.

Careful though, vinegar is VERY acidic. it REALLY doesn't take much to take your brine PH to about 5.00-5.10.

[GlennK]

I did it. I don't have a pH meter, so we'll see what happens.