Where to find a 6" wide mold?

[Thewitt]

I made lots of cheese as a kid on a small farm and for our 2 gallon cheeses we used a mold that was 6" x 3"

I've started making cheese again and I can't seem to find a commercial mold of that size.

I have the small and large Tomme and the Cheesemaking.com M2 and M3

I generally make 2 gallon recipes just for manageability, and I'm not thrilled with 4 1/2" round and 5" tall shape. My Colby makes more curd than can fit this mold, so the finished cheese is very tall and thin - and I'd rather have short and fat...

I'm getting ready to order the M222 basket and followed from Cheesemaking.com, but I'm not thrilled at the taper (why are these tapered?). It goes from 6 1/4 to 4 3/4 and is 3 1/4 tall - which should make a reasonable wheel, but why the taper?

Any ideas where I can find a 6" round, 3" high suitable for hard cheese?

TIA

[Gregore]

If your mold is 6x3 then you will end up with a cheese about 6 X1.5 or so , I don't suppose when you were young you used one of the wood molds that squeeze from the side like a hose clamp ?

Like this

https://www.google.com/search?q=wooden.+cheese+molds&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=sivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSt-j2xPLZAhUI02MKHQbHDQMQ_AUIEigC&biw=1024&bih=672#imgrc=uGQh42djN-zICM:

[Thewitt]

We had a bunch of wooden molds of different sizes that were made like little barrels.  I wish I'd kept them... of course I wish I kept a bunch of stuff from the old farm

There are several pictures in your search page that look very similar. I suspect they were all just trashed when the new owners got rid of the milking parlor.

The largest one was used for parmesan and romano - which we put up every other month and aged for 18 months before selling. This was 20" in diameter and 16" high and made a beast of a wheel

We generally had between 8 and 10 gallons of milk to process, which we did in a steam heated cheese table that would hold up to 20 gallons.  All those curds would usually get packed into the same size molds before being compressed, and of course I never had the exact amounts to fill all the molds - so one would be thinner than the rest. That one would generally be eaten by family and we would the rest.

The one I used for cheddar most of the time was 6"x4", which resulted roughly a 6"x2 1/2" wheel, which was a wonderful size.

Here's my current thought process.

A 6x3 mold is 84 cu inches
The 4 1/2 x 5 I'm using now is 79 cu inches

My 2 gallon hard cheeses have been filling the 4 1/2" x 5" mold - some overflowing a little - and then compressing to about 3".  I suspect this mass would fit perfectly in the 6x3.

If I could end up with a 6x2 or 5 1/2 x 2 wheel I'd be happier than the tall thin column I'm making now.

I guess I'm going to have to fabricate some molds and play around with this.

Hobbies are fun

[panamamike]

Cheesemaking.com has one that is wood and also check out Fromagex they have food grade polypropylene molds of all sizes and shapes.

[Thewitt]

Thanks for that.

I don't think I need a $95 wooden hoop, but the fromagex site looks very interesting.

[dickdeuel]

I have been using this mold (6X6) for most of my three gallon makes.  You will need to make a follower.

https://www.thecheesemaker.com/medium-italian-soft-hard-mould/

[Thewitt]

This looks great. What did you do for a follower?

[dickdeuel]

This looks great. What did you do for a follower?

I cut one out of 1/2" plastic cutting board stock purchased at a woodworking store.

[Thewitt]

Just an update for anyone following.

I ordered the 6"x6" mold and the Brie-Solid plastic follower.  It was too big (I knew that) but I cut it down to fit with the circle cutter for my Dremel.

Fits perfectly, and works like a charm.

[Thewitt]

Much happier with this 6x6 mold. Here's my first cheese - a Pepper Jack.

[RayJ]

Nice cheese! AC4U

[panamamike]

Nice looking cheese! Did you boil the fresh peppers?
Job well done AC4U

[Thewitt]

The peppers were dried. I broke up about a dozen into a little water in a pan and brought to a boil. This kills any foreign nasties that might want to infect the cheese, and gives you "pepper water" to add to the milk for more flavor in the cheese itself.

The strained water goes in with the calcium chloride.

The bits of pepper go in before molding.

I did not mill in salt with this cheese, I brined it instead.  I could have milled in salt and the pepper parts together I suppose, but I wanted to brine this one anyway.

Be sure to wear gloves when handling the peppers at any step!

[dc-k]

Much happier with this 6x6 mold. Here's my first cheese - a Pepper Jack.

Looks really nice, let us know when you taste it!

BTW I use the Mad Millie cheese press which is about 6 inch in diameter and quite widely available.

[Thewitt]

Much happier with this 6x6 mold. Here's my first cheese - a Pepper Jack.

Looks really nice, let us know when you taste it!

BTW I use the Mad Millie cheese press which is about 6 inch in diameter and quite widely available.

Thank you.  I'll be sure to report on the cheese when it's ready.

I looked at that press. I have a SturdyPress and I'm very pleased with it. I know many people use spring based presses, but I grew up using a wall-lever press and the Dutch-style presses just feel more natural to me. Needing to periodically tighten a spring press to keep the pressure maintained as the cheese compresses seemed fiddly as well.

I also press in several different sized molds, so I needed a little more flexibility.

I'll be putting up a 16 quart Parmesan next week, which takes a pretty good sized mold. I'm putting it into an 8" diameter, 6" high mold and the SturdyPress will handle that just fine as well.  Parmesan seems to really age better in larger wheels. When I was a kid, we did 12"x8" wheels for Parmesan and aged them for 18 months.