Initiation into the Cheddar Club (aka "first stirred curd")

[Susan38]

I've been waiting to do cheddars (other than farmhouse cheddar) till I've mastered easier-to-make cheeses, but I was recently reminded that most of the cheese we eat in our household are cheddars...with a request to start making some!  So I finally took the plunge into this huge cheddar board...

I decided to do a stirred curd, and first went to Caldwell's "Mastering" book for a recipe.  I got confused comparing her stirred curd to the traditional cheddar recipe...at last realizing her stirred curd method seems to be a hybrid of stirred curd and the traditional cheddaring process.  Next went to Carroll's book for a recipe, but was puzzled by the addition of salt prior to the  stirring process....then speculating that is done when using a high acidifier for a culture, as one might need to salt early to control the pH.  Finally I found Wayne Harris' and Dave's (Likesspace) recipes on this board, which seemed to be more in line with what I was looking for, with target pH's listed.  A big thanks to these two for sharing their recipes, along with others' associated comments (linuxboy, Sailor, etc.)
So with these four recipes aligned side by side I proceeded into my first cheddar journey.

One thing I changed was culture choice:  I used kazu.  I've read in posts in this forum that kazu is a "somewhat slow" and "seriously slow" acidifier.  Well I am here to report with this cheese make I heartily agree with these statements, adding that I think it is "ridiculously slow".  Progression of the make:

Two gallons pasteurized fresh Jersey/Brown Swiss milk @ 90 F:  6.65 pH
Ripened milk @ 88 F after 45 minutes ripening w/ 1/4 teaspoon kazu:  6.57 (on target for what Caldwell says should be happening pH-wise at this stage)
Addition of 1/4 t. single strength calf rennet clean break at 45 minutes
Cut curd into 3/8 inch cubes, let rest 5 minutes (horizontal cuts not ideal, curds larger than target, spent cooking time chasing down and cutting larger curds into smaller pieces)
Cook to 95 F for 30 minutes:  6.51 pH
Increased temp to 100 F; hold for 30 minutes:  6.48 (by now I was hoping it would be at the 6.2 target for draining.  But curd was not ready via Caldwell's test (p.52)
Held for another 20 minutes:  6.45
Held another 15 minutes:  6.41  (curds passed the Caldwell test for readiness)
Held another 15 minutes:  6.40 (curd at 6.30).

At this point with the current pH curve I thought I might be standing at the stove for who knows how many more hours.  With the curds "ready", my impatience won out and I decided to drain instead of waiting for the pH to drop to the target 6.2. ( I am starting to establish a pattern of my cheese makes with slower-than-recipe-times for pH drop in the vat, with faster-than-recipe-times pH drop with drained curds, so I hoped by the end of the process, that the resulting pH would closely match target.)

Drained curd, started stirring process, after 20 minutes:  6.1 pH
after another 25 minutes:  5.95 (hey, we're making progress)
after another 15 minutes:  5.85 (still making progress but should have been to 5.3-5.5 by now?)
after another 15 minutes:  5.73
after another 15 minutes:  5.62
after another 15 minutes:  5.53
after another 15 minutes:  5.43

Looking at this pH curve, logic would have predicted had I waited yet another 15 minutes I would have reached a target of 5.3, but again impatience won out and I proceeded to the salting stage.  (In my defense, I was concerned the double-time in the vat and with stirring, compared with the recipe recommended times, were resulting in curds that would be too dried out.)

Drained curds, weight 920 grams (2.02 lb), salted roughly 2% with 19 grams salt in 2 installments over 10 minutes.  Five minutes after salting, pH at 5.32 (higher than the target 5.1-5.2 in Dave's (Likesspace) recipe.

Started light pressing in 4 inch diameter 2 lb mold.  This mold does not have a long follower, and after a few light presses and flips I could not press down any further.  (Note to self: get a longer follower) So I put the curds in my 5.5 inch diameter tomme mold, and started pressing according to Carroll's recipe, as I have NEC's spring press and their recipe guidelines work well with this press.

After the first 12 hour press at what my press reads at 50 lb, I did accidentally let the room temp get down to 67 degrees, so the curds were not quite knitted at this point.  However, after temp adjustment to 72 degrees, and increasing weight to what my press calls 60 lbs, it did knit up quite well at the end. ( I took pictures, but just found out they are blurry so I'm not posting them here.  Before waxing I will try another photo attempt.)  I forgot to weigh the thing right out of the press.  pH out of the press...it was hard to get a consistent reading but taking about 20 readings, they  varied from 4.8 to 5.15, with most of the readings in the 4.9-5.0 range. 

It's now in air dry stage in the cheese cave @ 55 F, inside a Maytag glass cheese preserver to maintain humidity...we're on day 4 and I just weighed it at 740 g (1.63 lb).  (Nineteen percent loss from drained curd pre-salting, to day 4 air drying...is this too much?)  I'm concerned it is quite dry and I'm thinking I need to wax asap to avoid further moisture loss.  I'm wondering due to the long cooking/stirring stages if the texture will be quite dry and the result will be more of a "parmacheddar"?  One thing for sure is this cheese has the most outstanding, mouthwatering aroma so I'm quite sure the flavor will be fantastic.

At this point, I'm not sure if I have passed the cheddar club initiation, if I just managed to stumble and fall backward across the line, or if I'm not quite there yet...

Questions:

1.  What should I do in the future to avoid the super long acidification times, using kazu?
2.  Should I wax this cheese asap to avoid more moisture loss?
3.  Any comments on the pH curves I experienced?  I did end up with an almost ideal pH, I think?
4.  Consequences of draining at pH 6.4?
5.  Consequences of long vat cook and stirring stages?
6.  Speculations how this cheese will turn out in 6 months?  (Recommended affinage time)

Thanks for having a look/think on this.  Stay tuned for pre-waxing pics.

[awakephd]

Hi Susan,

Well done on your first cheddar! Here are my thoughts, FWIW - I have made around a dozen cheddars, so some experience but certainly not an expert:

On the pH curve that you had during the "cheddaring" (stirring) phase, I'd say you were right on target - 2 hours of cheddaring time is about what I like to have.

You may indeed have gotten a bit dry from the extended cooking and stirring. I confess that I have never worried too much about the draining pH, in part because of working with store-bought P&H milk that doesn't want to follow the idea pH curves - which is to say, t'were it me, I would go ahead and drain once you get the desired texture of curd. Maybe someone else with more experience or knowledge of the science can chime in on the implications of draining at different pH values.

On the pressing, I doubt that the external temperature was the major factor in getting it to knit. Because the curds are allowed to acidify and are already salted, cheddars require much more pressing to knit than, for example, an alpine cheese or a Gouda. 60 lbs sounds like barely enough to me.

In general, I have found two things to be true of the cheddars I have made:

1) They need a good 6 months to really develop full flavor. That will be especially true if the cheese has less retained moisture - the less moisture, the longer the aging. My first cheddar, I tried at 3 months, and was very disappointed - it had smelled so cheddary when I made it, but the flavor when I tasted it was only faintly cheddary. But when I aged it on out to 6+ months ... what a transformation!

2) They seem to be pretty forgiving in terms of the make - I've stopped the cheddaring at 5.4, 5.3, 5.2 ... probably some other values as well. The result has always been fantastic in terms of flavor. I will say that pretty much every cheddar I've made has been crumbly, not something that can be sliced in neat smooth slices like an Asiago - but given the flavor, I haven't cared.

Last comment: next time, go ahead and do the "real" cheddaring. It is no harder to do than the stirred-curd version, and it does produce a better cheddar - and it is kinda fun!

Okay, really the last comment: I look forward to the pictures, and in about 6 months, the taste test!

[Susan38]

Andy--Thanks for your response and comments!  I just waxed the little guy, after taking pics.  After taking the pics and comparing to others on this board, I continue to speculate I got this one too dry and/or I did not press hard enough.  It's kind of hard to tell from the photos, but the surface is completely knitted (save for a small glitch here and there on the corners), but through the rind you can see individual curds, as if they have not knitted together completely.  Is that what it looks like to you?  In hindsight, should I have pressed with more weight even though the surface was completely knitted?  I didn't think the surface could knit without the inside also knitting...is that true?





I do like the crumbly sharp cheddars, but I am also interested in the smoother, milder, sliceable ones...so I would be interested in finding the specific tweaks to recipes to get me to both places, eventually.

And thanks for the continued advice about having the patience to wait at least 6 months for cheddars.  That's the time all the recipes I looked at recommend, as well as you.  So that is what I shall do (hmmm, that means soonest to open will be May 1).  Meanwhile I will keep my time occupied with shorter-aging cheeses, as well as more cheddars....

[TravisNTexas]

Well done Susan!  A cheese for you!

[awakephd]

Susan,

It is possible to knit the outside prematurely, trapping whey inside - this can happen if you apply too much press weight too quickly. But I don't think that's what's going on in your cheese. It looks to me like the individual curds may have been dry around the edges (and thus a bit darker), leading each curd to show up distinctly in the knit. My guess is that, as it ages, the moisture level will even out and so will the mottling. But that's a guess - maybe someone who has experienced this same effect will chime in.

Meanwhile, AC4U!

[mikekchar]

Not sure if Andy is right in his reasoning, but my latest Caerphilly looked a little bit similar after pressing and ended up completely homogenous in the tasting.  Best one yet, actually.

[Susan38]

Travis--Thanks!  Haven't seen you post lately...have you been making cheeses or are you taking a break?

Andy--Hope you are right about the moisture/texture even-ing out.  It could very well be that the outside of the curd was dry-ish.  I have read where some people do the first pressing in warm whey, or in a very warm room to help knit the curds together.  Maybe these techniques would have changed the appearance of my cheese.  I too don't think it's the whey-trapped-inside scenario as I did several light pressings for several hours before I went to the 50, then 60 lb pressings.  I did see a couple of pictures in this board where the cheeses looked the same/similar as mine, but I did not bookmark them and now I cannot find them again.  Anyway, yep we will see what the result is in 6 months!  Thanks again for your thoughts/comments on this project!

Mike--Oh, good, someone else checking in with a similar looking cheese!  So happy to hear the results turned out great and hoping my cheese does too.  How long did you age this last Caerphilly?  Did you use Caldwell's recipe?  Just curious.

More on pH--I found it kind of fun to sleuth out the various pH targets to see what folks were using and why.  It's interesting to see how they all vary a bit.  Supposedly the whey pH at draining is quite important...Caldwell says for most semi-hard cheeses, draining at 6.2-6.4 is where you should be...if lower than that, it is what leads to the dry crumbly over-acidified cheeses (that unfortunately some of us are all too familiar with).  There are still some posts in this board on cheddar pH I have not gotten to yet, but one that I did find was quite an interesting read...linuxboy explaining concepts of crystals and curd squeak and at what pH and why...follow the thread toward the bottom for a read: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,3168.0.html

[mikekchar]

Very similar to Caldwell's.  I only aged it for 3-4 weeks, actually.  I still have a bit left in the fridge... Hmm... Might make a nice lunch :-)

[TravisNTexas]

Travis--Thanks!  Haven't seen you post lately...have you been making cheeses or are you taking a break?

I'm still one the forum all the time but have been making pizzas lately   Made paneer again a week ago for Saag Paneer, but other than that have been too busy to make cheese.

[River Bottom Farm]

Hi Susan great job on your cheddar make! To get faster pH drop but still get kazu flavor you can replace part of the culture (adjunct) with a faster curve culture (like Flora Danica) and get similar flavor results. Here is a link to a cheddar make sheet I like to use (minus the culture recommendation) Ozzie is a long time cheddar maker and has/had a rolling stock of 2 year old cheddars.

[Susan38]

Hi River--thanks for checking in.  Now I am beginning to understand why folks use certain cultures and certainly is solving the puzzle for me why mix different cultures.

As for the make sheets, I have seen Ozzie's posts and it seems after a quick initiation with stirred curd, he quickly went to the traditional cheddars.  When I get to doing the traditional cheddars, I will look up all his posts again.  He does seem to be the "cheddar guy" to go to.

Right now, none of the make sheets I've tried are working for me.  I seem to fill in the blanks, but not all are applicable but more importantly there's no room for notes.  Since I'm not finding the time I would like to do regular cheese makes, I'm still in the beginner stages of "what the heck is going on here" so am trying to document as much as possible.  So far what's working is to follow the recipe steps and document what happened at each step.  At some point I hope to "graduate" to using a good make sheet!  But thinking of using different ones for different cheeses?

Cheers,  Susan

[Susan38]

Well 6 months flew by and I sampled this cheddar.  It was *okay*.  Smooth, a tiny bit flaky, but bland in flavor.  There was a slight aftertaste of the cheddar flavor.  So nothing to do but rewax the opened part and put it back in the cave!  Think I'll wait another 6 months.