Although I have been reading through the forums here for awhile this is my first time posting here. I attempted to follow the recipe in "Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking" for Stirred Curd Cheese. Things did not quite go as expected and I am wondering if trying to age this for 6-12 months is a lost cause. I am relatively new to making anything other than soft cheeses and am worried that these cracks, although they seem smaller than some other pictures I have seen throughout the forum, will make it impossible to stop the mold from getting into the middle of the wheel and ruining it.
Aside from using 4 gallons of milk and doubling the other ingredients, the make started off following the recipe until I had been stirring the curd for 15 minutes. At this point I was supposed to begin increasing the temperature to 95F while stirring. To get a baseline I took a pH reading and it was already at 6.1. The texture was definitely not there yet, but since the recipe called for a whey pH of 6.1-6.2 at the end of stirring I decided to wash the curd because I remembered reading that is a good way to slow acid production in the vat. So I removed 1 gallon of whey and replaced it with 1 gallon of same-temperature water. Then I continued stirring until the texture was correct which took about another 30 minutes.
I used a water bath to keep the curd at 95F, I flipped and stacked the curd after 15 minutes. When I was getting ready to flip and stack it again I checked the pH of the curd and it was already 5.1, much lower than the goal of 5.4 already, so I milled the curd. It took longer than I thought it would to mill and salt the cheese and I am afraid that the temperature may have dropped more than it should have.
I have one of those Dutch style cheese presses and after gradually increasing the weight over 1.5 hours I went to bed and left what I calculated to be 75 pounds with the mechanical advantage overnight. The top and the bottom seemed to be closed fine, but the sides did not. So I tried submerging it in 160F water for about 2.5 minutes and left the same weight on for about 12 more hours. This wheel was in the press for roughly 24 hours and I am not sure if I should put it in my cheese fridge or not? Is it acceptable to soak it in hot water again and try pressing with more weight?
Anyhow I am at a loss and would appreciate any advice anyone could give me on what to do with what I ended up with and how to improve future makes. My only ideas are to try using less culture next time and make a smaller batch so I can get the milling done faster. Perhaps more weight is needed too?
First off a cheese for your efforts. I don't think that it is a loss and would certainly put it in the cheese cave and start aging it. All the rind to develop and when you see some mold wipe it off with a solution of 1 tsp each of salt and vinegar in 1 cup of water. In a couple of weeks the rind will firm up and if you start to see some cracking then begin wiping it with some olive oil and keep a thin oil coat on it during aging. During the first week flip the cheese every day. The sides will round a little bit as will the top.
Well done on your cheddar, and on responding to the overly-fast acidification. You may have added too much culture, but also some cultures, and/or combination of cultures, acidify much faster than others. Sounds to me like you did a good job of catching things before they got out of hand.
I agree with Kern that this is definitely not a loss, and should age just fine. However, I do think you may have trouble with mold getting into the crevices -- and once in there, no amount of wiping will get it off. And if your experience is like my first few cheddars, don't be surprised if the cracks open up some in the next few days as it dries.
I would suggest letting it dry in the cave for a few days, and then either waxing or vacuum-bagging it. Note that wax might get into the crevices as well -- that happened with an earlier cheddar that I made that didn't knit well. But the final result, 11 months later, was heavenly; you just had to pick some occasional wax out. :)
You won't get quite as much character with wax/vac-bagging as you would with a natural rind, but it may be a lot less frustrating, especially for someone new to this hard cheese affinage. Or to the hardships of cheese affinage. Or something like that ... :)
Wow. The cracks have really been opening up more. I have been turning it and washing it with a salt and vinegar brine everyday and so far no mold. It was dry to the touch when I washed it this morning, even though it hasn't been quite a week yet, and I am thinking of going the vacuum sealing route. However my bags are not large enough and I was wondering if I cut it into quarters and bagged them separately would that hurt anything?
It ages better in a larger wheel, but do it if you have to.
Dan,
You only made this a few days ago, I would think it a bit early to be washing it, if it needed it at all. I wouldn't wash it unless I saw an unwanted mold. I have a suspicion that the washing may be contributing to your cracking. As long as your cave humidity is up there, 85-95%, I would let it develop it's rind. Perhaps others would disagree, but I think you can cause problems giving your cheeses too much attention/treatment. They mostly know how to make themselves better than we do. If the cracking is superficial and doesn't penetrate into the cheese a salt rub might help to reform that rind.
John
The biggest crack is the one that is in this picture. There are other smaller ones that are mostly around the sides and edges of the cheese. As I don't yet have enough experience to call it does this crack look superficial?
nope I wouldn't call it superficial. If the cheese isn't swelling, my guess would be that it's drying too fast. Perhaps a more experienced maker can chime in here.
John
There are some discussions about making larger vacuum bags on the forum:
here (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1979.0.html)
or here (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8157.msg57041.html#msg57041)
or here (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8157.msg57976.html#msg57976)
-Boofer-
So I have decided to wax it instead of trying to alter the bags I have (Ziploc vacuum seal w/a hand pump) or investing in more equipment. I read in Caldwell's book that you can wax at different temperatures. She also mentions that the cheese temperature makes a difference too. It states that to wax at 220F would help kill any mold spores, but that you need to chill your cheese when the wax is hot; she doesn't say what temperature you "chill the cheese" at? It has been sitting in my wine fridge at 55F 85-95%RH (have a difficult time keeping the humidity that low too), is this cool enough to wax at these temperatures or should I throw it in my regular fridge?
Well it isn't the prettiest job, but I got her all sealed up. Looks like I need more wax to fill my crock pot deeper so I won't have to paint the stuff on. :D
Looks like my phone decided the picture should be sideways. Oh well... That won't matter in 6-12 months.
@Dan, Just keep an eye on the area where the cracks appeared as you might not have killed the little beggars hiding in the bottom of the crack... If you notice any darkening under the wax I would peel it off and clean it up - rewax.
-- Mal
So I noticed the wax was cracking a bit around the corners about a week ago. So I peeled it and put it into a 1 pound Vac-Seal bag. Didn't think to take a picture of the cracking until it was too late, however I am happy to report that there was no mold growth beneath the wax. The outside of the cheese was a bit damp though and I am not sure if this will cause problems, maybe out of mold-paranoia I waxed it too early. I am discovering there are lots of wild blue and green molds in my aging environment though and I know they would probably love to nestle up in the cracks given the chance. On another note the smell is rather pleasing. Since this did end up being a cheddared washed curd I am wondering if it would taste good before the 6 months minimum aging the recipe I did not really follow suggests.
It's not a good idea to wax or before about 20 days. A major part of cheese development occurs in that point, where the ripening bacteria are reproducing and doing good works before dying and releasing flavor things. They need air exchange at this point. If you keep any air from reaching them, the cheese will not be as good.
At this point, let it dry off before you wax or vacuum.
Hi Dan,
Try Bandaging your Cheddars
Here are some of my posts that might help.
My first
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10146.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10146.0.html)
The end result
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10377.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10377.0.html)
and this one:
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13721.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13721.0.html)
and the method:
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13778.msg110920.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13778.msg110920.html)
It's a bit fiddly but the results are worth it. Have a look at the photos of the molds that grow on the covering and look at the final result. Wax tends to be a complete seal and there is no gas exchange or moisture balancing. With Cloth bandaging I find that the cheese cultures and those enzymes that are still active can still do their thing and there is no build up of moisture - where I find there is in Wax. The Lard, I'm a full fat, meat and Lard type of guy (or Crisco - for vegetarians if you can get it) is still porous enough to allow some moisture and gas passage.
I hope that helps.
-- Mal