4 Goudas - My first 4 Days of Cheesery

[Baby Chee]

Yeah, that was me going off of the erroneous directions of various "how to make cheese" instructions.  They said, ADD SALT, and they probably meant Calcium Chloride, and when I read Calcium Chloride I just thought SALT.  So it was a total mistake.  I found some brewing Ca.Chlor. in my back room and began using that instead.  It improved the break.

If you are using ultra-pasteurized milk, you won't a good break.  Make sure your rennet is kept refrigerated or frozen.  make sure you revive or dissolve the rennet in COLD water.  Anndd.... not sure what else I can tell you.  My mind is a little scattered at the moment.  There must be a reason for the problem in break, and you'll find it with time.

[FRANCOIS]

You can add salt to the curd in the vat.  It retards acid development which, while not advantagious in gouda, is great for other cheeses.  It is, however, unrelated to clean break.

Clean break is having enough Ca ions, rennet and the right pH drop.  I hate clean break though, use floculation, it's much more accurate.

[Baby Chee]

That's true.  My first cheese didn't have a clean break and it still delivered a good amount of cheese.  I'm sure if it matured enough it would have been a fine gouda.

[Sailor Con Queso]

You can add salt to the curd in the vat.  It retards acid development which, while not advantagious in gouda, is great for other cheeses.

So Francois, under what circumstances would you add salt to help control acidity? How do you determine how much salt to add?

[FRANCOIS]

It is difficult for me to say without violating confidentiality, as it is something we do specifically for a certain cheese.  I think I can say generally though, there are certain cheeses that are designed not to melt.  These cheeses are essentially dead, the culture has been deactivated in them.  In a case like that you can add the salt directly to the vat because your cultures are essentially done producing acid for you and will be killed off anyway.  I kow that's vague and doesn't give you guidelines but it is the basic idea behind when you'd use the premise.

[DeejayDebi]

Havarti is one

[FRANCOIS]

Not any havarti I have ever made.  I have made traditional smear and various levels of high fat versions.  They all needed ripening time.  I was refering to cheeses that are essentially done when the curd comes out of the vat.  In those cases the level of salt added is to personal taste, shooting for a final salt content and realizing that most will be lost in the whey.  It is a short cut to get around brining. 

[DeejayDebi]

Ah so you mean fresh cheeses.

[Baby Chee]

Aw.  The last bit of Gouda from that romp 8 weeks ago.
It's good stuff to eat through the day.