Haloumi Flocculation time?

[RenaissanceM]

Anyone know the optimum flocculation time for Haloumi cheese? Or even a table that has various other cheeses. I have a small table that lists only a few.

[linuxboy]

Most cheeses use 3x, including halloumi. It's just a guideline to help you achieve consistent final moisture targets when used in combination with curd size and heating/stir schedule.

What cheeses are you looking for specifically?

[RenaissanceM]

Thanks for the info linuxboy. I wasn't looking for anything specific other than the Haloumi at this time. I have the book "American Farmstead Cheese" and in one chapter Peter Dixon mentions the times of a few cheeses, however I wanted to have a more thorough table for future reference/use.

[linuxboy]

Thing is, floc, like pH, are not absolutes. You have to understand why you're making the decision.

With floc, you're making the decision to arrive at a final moisture target regardless of what the milk is doing. But for the same cheese using two different milks, you can have two different floc multipliers. For example, for winter milk, I will use a lower floc multiplier. Why? Because it can have as much as twice the solids. And I just don't need to wait as long. Or I will use a little less rennet and target a longer time to floc.

Same for pH. I can get you a drain pH of 6.2 and 6.1 and have the final cheese have the same calcium content by using two separate strains of the same species. How? It's because they have different rates of slope in their acidification curve. Or to be more exact, the derivative of their pH function is different, and you can adjust your make based on the speed of acidification to get the same result.

That's why a straight table is helpful in terms of providing guidance for the relative moisture targets of the curd, but by itself it's not so useful. A table that listed PF levels, acidification curve, temps, target times, curd size, stir schedule, etc would be more useful, but such a table is also somewhat pointless because why not just use a detailed make sheet for each style?

And Peter already provides a table to help target the relative moisture target ranges for each style. So if in doubt for most cheeses, use 3x. If you have questions, just ask .

[RenaissanceM]

Thanks again. I have begun to understand the secret behind making good and consistent cheese after reading "American Farmstead Cheese", and I was able to make my first (after numerous failed attempts) successful mozzarella just by observing the milk/curd and modifying time and temperatures to get there. Despite that, I find instructions on the flocculation and ph levels at the important milestones (such as ph at drainage) important guides for a novice like me. In my case, I use the typical store bought pasteurized and homogenized milk, so my milk has a relatively consistent make up. I was finally able to find (if I were to believe Parmalat Canada) a milk that is pasteurized at 72 deg Celsius for 15 seconds, sold under the brand name Beatrice and Lactantia here in Canada, to be the best readily available milk for cheese making. As you may know, it's illegal to sell raw milk in Canada.