Maintaining Temperature During Making Phase

[Quesa]

During the cheese making process the temperatures have to be kept at a certain number for some time.

I have handled that by having the pot inside the sink and adding hot water to the sink until temperatures are just right.

But, I find that to be wasteful of water, and of electricity for using the water heater, and of time having to be stuck in the kitchen testing the temperature and adding water to keep it going.

So, I want to know if anyone has a better way to do this.

I thought of an electric skillet, but not sure at what temps it starts heating. I checked my griddle and temps start around 100F, so not useful when temperatures have to be 85F-90F.

The LO on my stove is around 115F, by my readings, so not good either.

TIA.

[wharris]

Temp control is a tough nut to crack. 

I have yet to find a system that will allow me not to be right there.

[DeejayDebi]

I have had good luck with an electric chaffing dish warmer but I do use hot water from the sink to start the warming or for cooling it's much quicker.

[MrsKK]

I also use the kettle in a sink of hot water method now.  As the house is quite cool at this time of year, it is a challenge to maintain temps.

I'm also looking for a solution that doesn't require draining and refilling the sink.  I've thought of the bucket water heaters they sell for use in barns, but it looks as though they continue heating to near-boiling and don't have a thermostat that can be controlled by the user.  Here's an example of what I'm talking about:  http://www.kyhorse.com/store/equipment/bucketheater.htm

[Alex]

A simmerstat may be a cheap resolution instead of a thermostat:

An electrical control device which turns a heating element such as a stove hotplate or grill on and off in a fixed cycle. The control knob on the simmerstat determines what proportion is spent on, and what off.

The device should be adjusted relaying on a thermometer and finding the required temperature by trial and error.

[Zinger]

Although not perfect, I have been using a turkey roaster with more success than either stove top or a sink of water. My turkey roaster ( and I think this is typical of all turkey roasters) has the main contanier which sets inside of the roaster. Thus allowing water in the lower portion to more evenly distribute the heat to the main container which holds the milk.

[micah]

I recently procured a Ranco ETC-111000-000 temperature controller. 

http://www.rancoetc.com/ranco-etc111000000-digital-temperature-controller-p-86.html

This unit is a single stage controller (one device, rather than two devices, where one is used for heating and the other for cooling).  It is programmable for the temperature set point, Fahrenheit/Celsius, temperature
differential, and cooling/heating mode.

The built in relay can handle 16 amps for 120vac devices and 8 amps for 240vac devices.  This relay is not burly enough for toggling a 4500 watt 240vac heating element (4500/240 = 18.75 amps) for which I have some uses for.  But I figured out how to wire it up to an external solid state relay (ssrd 240d25) that can handle such a device (actually two); I embedded a 9 volt battery in the control unit such that the built in relay switches the lead coming off of the battery's common terminal.  The 9 volts are then used to switch the external relay.  I've mounted the unit on a small board and also mounted a heat-sink that the external solid state relay is piggy backed on.  120vac and 240vac devices can be easily swapped in and out via the external relay terminals.  I also spliced a head phone jack and plug into the temperature probe's leads so I can swap the probe out depending on what use I have for the controller.  I've order a bunch of compatible 30k ohm thermistors from DigiKey in order to fabricate my own probes.

I'll let you all know how it works out.

Here are pictures of the 1) controller and external relay, 2) controller guts w/ 9 volt battery, and 3) the probe quick disconnects and a thermowell (the compression spring keeps the probe tip in tight).

[Quesa]

Thanks for the suggestions.

With my skills in electronics, I will surely cause a fire sooner or later if I mess with electric stuff.

I will post, if I find something that works. I hope if someone has something that works that they would share the idea.

Thanks.

[wharris]

i use a thermometer and an on/off switch.

[Quesa]

I found the "warm" setting on my crock pot hangs around 95degrees so I will try it out during my next cheese making session to see how it goes.

I see potential in this by switching between low, high, and warm settings.

Will report how it goes after I try it next time I make cheese.

[iratherfly]

I don't know how large is your Crock Pot, but considering the post-curd yield you need for most cheeses - do you have enough milk capacity in it?

Also, many cheeses require a heating point of 102 degrees. Some cheeses would have requirements such as moving the temp up from 85 to 95 over 30 minutes with no more than 2 degrees in 5 minutes - this would be challenging with the Crock Pot.

Another thing to remember is that milk is dense and tends to actually keep a stable temperature for a very long time. The last Cheddar I made had 4 gallons of milk that held temp through the entire process - there was never a need to reheat (except for when it was called for by the recipe). Remember that larger the batch - the more it will keep the temp and not cool down or fluctuate quickly. A pot/vat of correct proportions is helpful  too. You want enough surface to cut a nice curd but not too much surface as it will cool down too quickly, so a tall large pot works better than a shallow wide chefing dish.

Frankly, in spite of your resistance to the double boiler or sink methods, I do find them the most controllable in the household environment. I think that a 1000W kettle warmer and other such gadget actually consume way more energy and are even less controllable. You must already spend much on the cultures, equipment, literature and good quality milk, so a couple of lukewarm gallons of water in the sink are quite negligible here. Wouldn't you think?

[Quesa]

Many good and very valid points there, Iratherfly. Thanks.

I'm always looking for an easier and more effective way of doing things. But, like you say, it seems the ongoing method is the better choice.

I'll try the pot to see how it goes tonight. It's 7 quarts, which will force me to use a one gallon recipe, but will just be testing it to see if the temps can be maintained and how more convenient, or more difficult, it is to use it.

[Quesa]

I meant 5 qts, not 7.

Anyway, I had to do only a gallon of milk at a time, due to the size of the pot.

Temperature was taking forever to hit 90 degrees, so I placed the ceramic part over the range and the milk hit 90 degrees real quick. Then I put it in the crock pot.

It held the temperature for the 30 minutes required for ripening with the lid on, no need to put warm water in.

At one time I had to put it on HIGH to keep the temperature at 102F, and it got up to 102F fast, and it held until I drained the whey out.

Overall, it was easier to keep temperatures at a certain number, but it was hard to (1) get the milk heated up to start, (2) drain, and (3) it has a limited size.

I think that I would use it in the future for gallon-sized cheese batches.  Still searching for the perfect cheese cooker.

[iratherfly]

That's great!
You know, just as it took you forever to bring it to temp, you can imagine it takes it forever to lose temp. So now as you can see, it's not so hard to keep it in temp and you don't need to go crazy with sinks of hot water most times. (but when you do it is a widely adopted best practice for a reason). Milk really holds temp in a controllable manner.

I always heat it up in a double boiler setup over the stove to get it to temp fairly quickly. If you attempt to warm up refrigerated milk in the sink (or crock pot) it will take very long. This isn't just a matter of time or patience; heating it up for too long will develop lactic acid, incubate bacterias and change the ph levels. You may essentially arrive at temp with a milk that has replicated the conditions of unfresh milk. You want to do the heating part as quickly as possible. Just remember that if you go quickly it's also hard to stop... watch it closely to prevent over-heating

[Quesa]

I got an email from The Cheesemaker about a cheese vat he's designing.

"As a home cheese maker I always find it challenging taking the whey off the curd mass in my warming vessel(or pot).  I have a proposed design for a small (up to 6 gal.(22.7 liters) milk warmer (cheese vat) which will include an adjustable self draining spout so one can easily turn a knob and slowly drain off the whey instead of scooping the whey off the curds. The bottom of the warmer would be pitched slightly so whey slowly drains to the middle of one end of the warmer.  This proposed warmer would be priced so us home and small artisan cheese makers can easily afford it. This warmer would utilize a heating element and heating controller.

If there is enough demand for this product I will continue with it's development. Is this a product that would be beneficial for your home cheese making?

Thanks so much for helping and your thoughts.

S**** S******
www.thecheesemaker.com