Scaling Cheese - Pressing Weight?

[pcar2674]

Hi, I'm sorry if this has already been answered, I have searched unsuccessfully for an answer.

My question is, if altering a cheese recipe to produce a larger cheese (say fivefold), does the amount of weight used in pressing also need to be altered?

Thank You in advance for your help

[coffee joe]

The weight needed is based upon the surface area of the hoop or mold. If you increase the area, or diameter of the hoop, the total weight needs to go up so PSI remain the same. For a deeper mold of the same surface area no change needed. There are several topics under equipment for more info

[Groves]

Not to get too picky, but its only a generalization that you don't need to increase the weight for a deeper mold of the same diameter. There are friction losses on the sides, you just don't get all of the force acting between the ends.

This is especially true if you're doing a giant longhorn or breaking up that mega length with separate cheesecloth segments folded over on top. The top of the top segment gets the full brunt, but not the bottom segment.

In general though, it's true, you don't have to scale up the weight as long as the hoop is the same size.