After reading this post on making mother cultures https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=5165.0 (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=5165.0) I decided to give it a go!
Added 1.0g of RA22 to 16oz whole milk kept at 85F overnight, in the morning the Ph was 4.35 used 8oz to 4 gallons of P/H whole milk and froze the other 8oz.
After heating the milk to 90F and adding the culture the Ph drop was instantly 0.1 this has already saved me 1 hour!
See my acidification graph below, also picture of the final cheese, everything went according to plan except the final pressing, the curds did not seem to knit very well on the sides? Maybe it was too cold, does anyone press cheddar under warm whey to help with the knitting? I had planned on keeping this one for at least 6 months, however I am very nervous about the cracks on the side, would vacuum sealing help?
Jon
I have just put in my cave a cheddar that looks very similar to yours and I have had a curd knit issue as well, I vac sealed mine and I am hoping for the best, so far so good
Vacuum sealing will make the cracks a non issue. I press under whey, smooth side rind is still a hit or miss for me.
you can seal the rind in hot water by quickly dunking it at 60c water. I've done it once, works! if you vac seal, it doesn't matter. just make sure the cheese release enough whey if you didn't use a lot of pressure during press as often done with cheddar so it doesn't do so in the bag and cause souring.