PH readings for Farmhouse cheddar

[Ross]

I need the help of this forum to try to understand the significance of PH readings at certain stages of the cheese making process. I had a go at a Farmhouse Chive Cheddar yesterday from the 'Artisan Cheesemaking at home' book by Mary Karlin. When I started the PH was 6.7, I am using store bought milk, pasteurised and homogenised, the brand is not important as almost all milk produced here in NZ is collected by Fonterra and distributed to several smaller companies to distribute under their 'brand'.
The starter I used was Flora Danica, not Meso II (I think they are the same) as stated in the recipe. At the time of cutting the curd the PH was at 6.2, after heating to the required 102deg F(39deg) stirring/resting and stirring again, which I accidentally heated to 110deg F(44deg C) I forgot to turn of the heat and started ladle of the whey, whooops! this I have learned from a previous 'accident' with a Havarti, resulted in a very 'creamy' close texture, still tasted great but was quite soft in body.
Anyway, the ph was still at 6.2 at the time of draining and adding the salt and chives. I continued with the pressing and the brining, all has gone well, looks good, pic attached.
So, have I been too impatient, should I have stuck my PH meter in the curds and waited until it went to below 5.0 or less 4.5?
The meter is new and calibrated , Room temp was approx 15 - 18deg, first solution is a PH 6.86 at 25deg, set meter to 6.9,  then into a 4.0 solution and had a PH reading of 4.4. I have just re calibrated the meter, first to PH6.8 as per the label on the bottle, then to PH4.0 as per the bottle and have a reading of PH4.2. The meter is a PH107, no brand name.
Most of my cheeses never go below 6.0., even when I try Mozz!
Any suggestions would be helpfull

[Ptucker]

Flora Danica is slow to generate acid, I would increase the ripening time to somewhere around 1 to 1 1/2 hours and increase the dose to reach the final PH of 5.2 -5.3.

If you want a faster acid production I would use MA 11 or 16 and increase the amount used until you have the final PH you are looking for.

The books starter usage may be for raw milk not pasteurized. Raw milk requires less starter and pasteurized milk requires more. Compare the books starter usage to the package directions for use.

[Ross]

Hi Devon, thanks for the info.
The book calls for pasteurised milk and a ripening time of 1 hr, so next time I will give it 1.5hrs and duck out and do the shopping while I wait for it to ripen.
I will also look for MII starter, there must be someone here that sells it, maybe on the Cottage Crafts web site .

Cheers
Ross

[Ptucker]

Monitoring of your temp is very important, you could have also had a problem in killing off some of your starter when you went to 110 degrees.

Try increasing the amount of Flora Danica by 1/8 to 1/4 more plus the original amount you were using to help you reach the final PH of 5.2 -5.3.

Flora Danica and meso II are basically the same thing.