butter cheese from 200 Easy...

[Trisha in WA]

Hi Jeff,
I didn't take any photos. I also made another butter cheese. Honestly I didn't like either one of them. I thought they had a sour milk flavor to them. I thought maybe the first one was operator error, so I went ahead and made another. Nope...tasted about the same.
None of my other cheeses have a flavor that I dislike, so I think I'll just not make anymore butter cheese.
Trisha

[Hande]

Hi Trisha,
I have make often butter cheese with recipe "200 easy".
I think that your press is pit under weight and there is too much whey inside cheese after press. But I don't know how big is your mold.
Maybe that why it takes too long to get rind "dry". And there come some whey under wax or vac.
I use low PSI for butter cheese and it means 8" mold about 130lb. But if you use method under whey or keep curd warm in pressing process you don't need that much pressure.

Hande

[JeffHamm]

Hi Trisha,

That's a shame.  The first one I made had a very sharp taste, though not sour.  Butterkase is supposed to be a very mild cheese though, so my first one wasn't "right" either (although it was a very good cheese).  Like you, I found the curd to be very wet, and it required a lot of time to dry out.  In both our cases, I suspect that Hande is correct, and that the curd is not draining sufficiently and it's retaining whey.  The recipies I've seen call for very light pressing (as in 5kg), and I think that's supposed to be an a 6.25 inch mold, which gives 0.36 psi .  My first one I used 5 kg, the 2nd I used 10 kg (0.72 psi).  I would probably increase this to 20 kg and go for 1.5 ish psi next time; which is still much less then the 4.2 psi that Hande recommends.

My 2nd make seemed to go better with respect to the moisture retention, and there I pressed in the pot to keep the curds warm and used the higher weight (0.72 psi).    I'll let you know if this one turns out milder. 

- Jeff

[Hande]

I think that I don't recommend to use 130lb to 6.25" mold.
I say that I use 130lb to 8" mold what gives to me 2.59 psi, not 4.2.
I use raw milk what gives very strong curd and I need that pressure that texture don't left too open.
With homo/past milk I need much less psi.

Hande

[JeffHamm]

Hi Hande,

Yes, my mistake.  I entered my 6.25 inch mold size, not your 8, for the psi calc to get 4.2.  On a 6.25 inch mold, 100 lbs would give about 2 psi, so probably between 50 and 100 lbs would do it.

- Jeff

That shoudl be about 60 lbs or 27kg for 2 psi on a 6.25 inch mold.  Sigh.