Cheddar monster

[Hambone]

Hi Guys, first post here after reading for weeks, and  following attempts at cottage, haloumi and feta before that. I go so hooked on it, i bought a commercial cheese press and launched into cheddar immediately. I've since tried two runs of basic cheddar, baby steps using 6 litres of milk. This time, I tried 10 litres being the capacity of my pot.

Firstly, let me explain my location, I am in Singapore where the only economic milk you can buy has been 'over' pasteurised and homogenised, necessary to extend shelf life given the import distances. While the milk coagulates nicely, the resultant curds when cut are very soft and do not hold their form when stirred even by the gentlest motion, on slowly raising to the magical 38 deg C (cheddaring temp) the curds are really small, however the why is pretty clear as well. I have to drain into a collander lined with cheesecloth and then allow the why to drain which it does within half hour, and even quicker if I form a bag and hang it for a while. I then salt, and press, slowly increasing the pressure for a 24 hours till at then end I feel I cannot really tighten the press realistically. The resultant is a nice firm wheel, which dries nicely which can be easily waxed.

This time, with the 10 litre batch, all went well and decided to weigh it... check this out:

I was expecting 1 kg... instead got 1.6 kg. Immediately I am thinking too much moisture, but the wheel is firm, slightly resilient to the touch, like a cylinder of rubber (hope it wont taste like it). I am getting similar yields with smaller batches.... am I headed for trouble after leaving it to ripen after waxing ? Any comments ?

[GortKlaatu]

Wow, lots of adversity to overcome.  Follow what happens with interest.

[River Bottom Farm]

Are you using calcium chloride to help strengthen the curd? That would probably help with the delicate structure. Are you following a recipe for your cheddar? When do you salt the curds or do you brine the cheese afterwards to stop the acidification at some point? AC4U for your efforts so far

[Hambone]

Are you using calcium chloride to help strengthen the curd? That would probably help with the delicate structure. Are you following a recipe for your cheddar? When do you salt the curds or do you brine the cheese afterwards to stop the acidification at some point? AC4U for your efforts so far

Howdy!

Yes , I add 1/4 tsp CaCl2 and use double strength liquid veg rennet. It can only be the processing of milk that is the cause, but I have no choice.

recipe from https://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/23-Cheddar.html though because of the delicate nature of my curds I cannot perform the cheddaring phase which is "Turn this curd mass at 15 min intervals for 2 hrs (at the 1 hr point cut the mass in half and stack the 2 halves). This is the CHEDDARING phase".

there is another recipe, which is from the starter kit I bought ; https://www.madmillie.com/site/madmillie/files/PDF/New/V3_MM_Artisan_Bklt_WEB.pdf which doesnt describe the cheddaring phase above, but does require a 1 hour cook at 38 deg C. Given the size of my curds I am figuring that 1 hour should be more than enough at this temperature.

I salt after I have drained by mixing in the specified quantity, then transfer to the press.

Again, yield seems impressive and really keen to know if I have made edible cheese. The offcuts prior to waxing taste fine to me, more like a mozzarella with rubbery texture but I wont really know till its been aged. However I'd still like to pick up tips so I can build some stocks without having to wait 6-12 months to find out!

Tks..

[Andrew Marshallsay]

However I'd still like to pick up tips so I can build some stocks without having to wait 6-12 months to find out!

Maybe it would be worth trying something else which will provide instant satisfaction. Caerphilly is a perennial favourite, being ready to eat in as little as 3 weeks.
By the way, welcome to the forum.

[River Bottom Farm]

I have opened cheddars after one month to evaluate texture etc. It's not ideal flavor wise (a little bland) but gives you a good idea if the cheese would have turned out in the end.

[Gregore]

You have certainly made something edible from what I can see , I think you did exceedingly well considering the milk you started with.

Commercial cheddar no longer gets cheddered so you are fine on that point

[feather]

Great job on that cheese.

I use a calcium chloride solution of CaCl2 30% in distilled water. This is the standard solution that I bought at the cheese making store.
I use pasteurized homogenized milk (whole), not ultra pasteurized milk.
For 4 gallons or 16 liters, I use 1 tsp of CaCl2 solution.

For 10 liters, or approximately 2.5 gallons of milk, would you consider using a smidgen over 1/2 tsp of CaCl2 solution? It might make your curd stronger. What I'm suggesting is that you use more CaCl2 solution.

Then for rennet I use a liquid vegetable rennet and follow the directions on the bottle for the amount to put into 1/4 cup of distilled water.

[Hambone]

However I'd still like to pick up tips so I can build some stocks without having to wait 6-12 months to find out!

Maybe it would be worth trying something else which will provide instant satisfaction. Caerphilly is a perennial favourite, being ready to eat in as little as 3 weeks.
By the way, welcome to the forum.

Caerphilly hard cheese in 3 weeks, an excellent suggestion thanks. Could you point me in the direction of a tried and proven recipe ? Would be a great help.

[GortKlaatu]

There are lots of variation in Caerphilly recipes....mainly stemming from the fact that there is the "industrial" version and the farmhouse version--which are not very similar one unto another. Just search on the forum and you'll find several versions.


Here's mine that is more like the original farmhouse version--you'll note I use raw milk so my quantities of rennet and culture are about half of what you'd use for pasteurized milk:


4 gallons raw milk
Heat to 86F (Use your normal amount of CaCl--I don't use it since I use raw milk)
Add 1/4 tsp MM100 (I also add a tiny bit--like 1/128 tsp of Mycodore and KL71 --that's optional)
Ripen for 60 minutes
Add 1.5 ml of Rennet (You'll probably want 3 ml)
Set time goal is 45 min (I use Floc Factor of 2)
Cut curds to 1/2 inch
Wait 15 min
Stir 15 min
Raise temp to 92F over 15 minutes
Hold until whey pH is about 6.45-6.5 (About 45 minutes)
Drain the whey
Pitch the half the curd mass to each side of the pot leaving a central canal for whey drainage.
Keep warm and drain the whey every 5-10 minutes
Cut and restack every 15 minutes till curd pH is about 5.75 (Normally takes about 30-40 minutes)
Mill to 1 inch pieces and salt with 1% of the weight of the curd.  Do this is 2 or 3 partial portions waiting 5 minutes between
Place in a standard cheesecloth lined 7.5 inch Tomme mold
Press at 5# for 10 min
Turn and redress and press at 10# for 30 min
Turn and redress and press at 10 # for 1 hour  (I'm looking for a pH of 5.3 here). The rind will NOT be closed completely
Rub exterior with another 1% of weight of salt
Place back in the mold and press with increasing weight to close the rind (I usually need only 20 pounds)
Hold in mold with final weight for 12 hours, turning one way through
Brine in saturated brine for 45 minutes per Kg
Air dry to stabilize the rind a bit (for me it's usually one day)
Then to the cave at 55F and 90-95% RH
Turn daily for the first 2 weeks. Do NOT brush off the mold/yeast growth.  Just pat it down.  You're looking for a nice fairly thick velvety natural rind
Turn every other day for the next 2 weeks
Then turn twice weekly for the next 2 weeks and weekly thereafter.
Because you're striving to attain that really great rind (which affects the ripening/aging/texture/taste of the cheese it will not be ready at 3 weeks.
You could try it at 6 weeks but I think it's best closer to 2 months. With the natural rind version you can even let it mature to 4-5 months like the Welsh (but almost no one does)

It should look like the first picture.  NOT the second (that is the commercial, industrialized version)
If you age it out it will "breakdown" as they call it, under the rind and look like the third picture.

Best of luck

[Andrew Marshallsay]

These are the details of my last make. It looks pretty similar to Gort's except for the quantities and the flocculation multiplier:
   • 8l Fleurieu pasteurised, non-homogenised. P = 3.3%, F = 3.8%
   • 1/4  tsp (3 dashes)   MTR4 starter
   • 1.8ml of 200 IMCU rennet in 35ml of water.
   • 2.5ml CaCl2 in 50ml water
Heated milk to 32oC
Added culture. Left to stand for 4 min.
Stirred in culture for 2  min.
Allowed to sit for 60 min.
Stirred in CaCl2 and allowed to sit another 5 min.
Stirred in rennet.
Allowed to stand and checked for flocculation ~12 min . Used a multiplier if 3.5x to calculate coagulation time of 42    min.
Cut to 12 mm. Rested 15 min.
Stirred 15 min.
Temp. raised to 35C over 15min with stirring.
Maintained temp. with occasional stirring for 35 min.
Transferred to cloth lined colander and drained for 15 min.
Sliced and stacked. Left 10 min. Turned stacks and left 10 min. Turned again and left 10 min.
Milled and mixed in 15g salt (1% - curd mass 1460g).
Transferred to lined mould.
Pressed as follows:
1 hr @ 0.33  PSI. Turned.
2hrs @ 0.57 PSI. Turned and sprinkled with 1 tsp salt.
5hrs @ 6.4 PSI. Turned
16 hrs @ 6.4 PSI.
Pressed naked @ 1.6 PSI for 4 hrs
Brined for 4  hours.
Air dried for 1 day at room temp.
Moved to 13C  .

[GortKlaatu]

That's cool, Andrew.  Thanks for sharing.

[Hambone]

Many thanks for the recipes , this is extremely helpful indeed.

Will give this a try this coming weekend. I am a beer brewer and have a pH meter handy, I will certainly make use of it to determine correct level of curd acidity.

Can you please explain what you mean by flocculation multiplier, of course I will search in the meantime.


P.S Update on cheddar monster I created: While drying I did notice an accumulation of whey on the base of despite turning the cheese regularly. This confirmed my fears that I'd not expelled sufficient during the pressing as suspected by the weight of the product. What I did was slice the barrel into two and re press each half. In doing so I expelled another 50 ml or so, dried and waxed already... heres hoping !

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Can you please explain what you mean by flocculation multiplier

Flocculation time is the time from renneting until the curd just starts to set. If you measure this and multiply it by the appropriate multiplier you get the time from renneting to cutting.
One way to measure it is the spinning bowl test. It all works like this:
When you add the rennet, float a small bowl (not too light) on the milk and start timing. If you give the bowl a gentle spin, it will spin freely.
Keep spinning the bowl, say every 30 seconds. At some stage you will notice that it spins less freely because the milk is starting to gel. Your timer will give you the flocculation time at this point.
Choose the appropriate multiplier, depending on the type of cheese and multiply the flocculation time by this number.
This gives the coagulation time. i.e. the total time from renneting to cutting. This is more reliable than following a recipe.
Typical multipliers are: Swiss, alpine, hard grating   2.0 to 2.5
                                  Cheddar, Dutch, tomme, mozzarella, Provolone   3.0 to 3.5
                                  Blue, feta    4
                                  Soft ripened, washed rind   5 to 6
The greater the multiplier, the more moisture is retained in the curd

[Andrew Marshallsay]

I have not had enough experience with blues to be certain about this so I dragged out my copy of Caldwell's "Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking".
That tells me that brining is an option if the curd is well knit but is definitely not a good idea with an open structure. You do not want the brine penetrating into the cheese.
Dry salting is probably a safer option.
The photo looks promising.