One of the tough things about being older is that you have to learn how to use devices (iPhone in my case) that ten years ago you never dreamed could exist. But, about the time I started to make cheese earlier this year I also started to use my iPhone for something other than texting or making telephone calls. I leaned how to not only take photos but to get them off the iPhone and use them for other purposes! So, I made some hot water washed curd cheese last weekend largely following Caldwell's recipe for Hillis Peak cheese. I won't bore you with the details as these are all in the book but I did learn a couple of things that really helped make this work well.
I guess the main transferable skill I learned is how to get the whey out of the vat sans curd in a fast efficient manner removing exactly what I wanted. What I did was move the rectangular steam table vat (4-gallons) next to the sink while still connected to the heating griddle and temperature controller. I wanted to remove one gallon of whey so I placed a gallon jug with funnel in the sink (once filled, a gallon was removed). Then I put a kitchen sieve in the vat pushing the curds aside. I used a glass measuring cup as a dipper and in no more than two minutes filled the gallon jug with curdless clear whey from the little pool created by the sieve. Then I moved the pot with the 160F water into the sink and added the hot water back into the sieve with stirring my little pool. This put the energy back into the vat to raise the temps from 89F to 101F without risking hitting the curds with very hot water. With each cup added I raised the sieve and stirred the now warmer whey around in the vat and started the process again. Over about ten minutes I had raised the vat temperature to 101 mostly without scalding any curds.
This would have been cool to photograph but I had no one else around to help so missed this moment. At any rate here are some photos of the rest of the day: :)
It looks pretty!
Nice technique, and a lovely result! AC4U. What mold are you using for this 4-gallon make?
Looks like one of John's clear molds.
Quote from: awakephd on April 08, 2015, 07:33:01 PM
Nice technique, and a lovely result! AC4U. What mold are you using for this 4-gallon make?
Thanks for the cheese. The mold is a six inch polycarbonate mold made by John at Perfect Cheese.
Congratulations on your new skills, Kern. Have another cheese.
Larry
LoftyNotions,
Thanks for the Cheese.
Kern
Nice work (again) Kern and I'd give you a cheese but that may reflect a conflict of interest :). What I will do is provide this link (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13934.msg106273.html#msg106273) to remind the members of your efforts to encourage artisan cheese makers in your area in WA.
Nice job on shaping the cheese sides! It has an awesome finish!
AC4U Kern :)
Ah, I see -- I didn't look closely enough to realize that the white color I was seeing in the picture was the cheese or cloth, rather than the mold itself. If I had realized it was clear, I would have suspected John's mold.
Nice job Kern----AC4U
Qdog
Kern, somehow I missed how you ended up with that nice shape. Do you do the final bare press to get the bulge right after de-molding and just use pressure as needed to get the look you want?
I checked the pH and found I was getting close to the goal right before I was going to do a bare press. The rind was closed and looking acceptably smooth so I decided to skip the last press in the PC cylinder and go for the "shaping press". This was both simple and tricky. Simple because all I had to do was put a cutting board on top with a little weight on it. Tricky because the cheese wanted to become lopsided. So I flipped the cheese, put replaced the cutting board along with the weight and started measuring the distance from each of the four corners of the cutting board down to the counter top. The goal was to keep moving the weight around keeping all four measurements the same. I did this for about 45 minutes flipping and rotating the cheese about every ten minutes to keep the curve symmetrical. After this I was at the goal pH and put the cheese in the brine turning it about every 15 minutes until it firmed up (about an hour). ^-^
Clever idea to get that nice rounded shape. I'll have to try that!
Try it on the cheddar you are making this weekend. :)
Quote from: Kern on April 09, 2015, 10:34:56 PM
The goal was to keep moving the weight around keeping all four measurements the same. I did this for about 45 minutes flipping and rotating the cheese about every ten minutes to keep the curve symmetrical. After this I was at the goal pH and put the cheese in the brine turning it about every 15 minutes until it firmed up (about an hour). ^-^
As I write this I'm "Kerning" a Costwold and I'm having the same problem keeping the surfaces parallel. And believe it or not there was a loud noise in my kitchen just now and on checking it out my cans of beans sitting on the cheese keeled over and rolled off the island >:(. I think we need to contract Stinky or Smolt to correct the problem of the tipping bean cans ;D.
This happened in the early conceptual designs of pressing the brick mold. I'll think about it. :D
And since when am I getting lumped together with smolt? It's an honor.
I've been thinking a bit about the "Kerning" process - a way to make it more effective. ::) The idea would be to put something at each corner of the cutting board sitting on the cheese in the photo above such that it would limit the amount of slump and assure that it did not cause the cheese to become lopsided. Suppose you put four dowels (thick enough for them to stand on their own) at under each corner of the cutting board. The length of the dowel might be a half-inch shorter than the initial gap between the counter top and bottom of the cutting board. The weight, then, could push the cheese down only a half-inch and would do it evenly as the cutting board bottomed out on each dowel. :o Of course, to preserve symmetry the cheese should be flipped several times in the process. :)
I have no doubt, whatsoever, that Dr. Awake (awakephd) could come up with something elegant that would adjust for cheeses of different initial thicknesses (thicknae?). ;)
Quote from: Kern on April 10, 2015, 04:13:20 AM
Try it on the cheddar you are making this weekend. :)
It works really well on semi-firm cheeses like washed curd cheeses, but I suspect it could be disastrous for milled cheeses. Just a guess though...
You could do something sort of like my setup with two boards. They would then rest on something like a small can, and you just take small items lying around the house and stack them between the boards and the can, removing each top one once the pressure get too low? It's not ideal, though. You could rig something up with ropes, that would be complicated.
Kern, I think the form you are looking for is "thicknorum" -- that would be the genitive ("of different thicnesses"). :) (Sorry -- my daughter has decided to take Latin, which is only offered on-line in her high school. Guess who gets to help her learn it??)
Out of curiosity, why not use the cheese press for this? Light pressure, of course.
Spoons, I had the same thought about trying this on a cheddar. I shall proceed cautiously ...
I was thinking more of four tiny spoked ship's steering wheels at each corner tuning a screw. ;D The reason I didn't use the press is because I didn't think of it! :P
Well, we could certainly build it to any specifications you desire. :) Let's see ... maybe a cogged belt that ties together all four posts so they turn synchronously, maintaining a consistent height ... definitely need to use titanium for these screws ... and we need a heavy, corrosion resistant metal for the top and bottom plates -- of course, gold! 18K should do ... yes, yes, I believe I can put that together for you for a mere $45,000. Not including tax. :)
The check is in the mail. ;)