An older hand at brewing beer but still so new to cheese making that it ain't funny - although I do have a Caerphilly, a Colby, an Akkawi, a feta and an Asiago under my belt (along with paneer , cream cheese and ricotta and two or three failed attempts at mozzarella) - True: the harder cheeses are still aging... But it struck me that one thing brewers do today that might make cheese making simpler is what is called "boil in a bag". In other words, many brewers line their brew kettle with a paint strainer bag (or something similar) and make their mash inside the bag. This makes it quite simple to then hoist the bag filled with spent grains off the wort (the liquor which will be fermented).
Strikes me that lining a vat with a similar bag made from butter muslin and adding the starter to the milk inside the bag , heating that milk, coagulating it and stirring and cooking the curds inside the bag and then hoisting the curd filled bag from the vat to rest it on a colander, rather than remove the curds from the vat and add them to cloth lined colander would be far simpler process than ladling a half cup or so of curds at a time from the vat. Indeed even the process of removing half the whey to reduce the source of nutrients for the culture to slow down its acidification could be simplified by transferring the bag of curds to a separate pot to which half the whey has been added with any additional water ...
My question: are there inherent downsides to the use of such a tool as a "culture in a bag" - CIAB (too early knitting of curds? matting of curds? ) ? Thoughts?
Hi Bernard. Interesting idea.
It could be a case of "We've always done it this way." On the other hand, there may be some problems. A couple of possible concerns which come to mind are:
- There is no guarantee that, when the milk coagulates, all of the curds will be on the inside of the bag. In fact, some of them probably won't. Even worse would be the likelihood of curd being inextricably inter-meshed with the weave of the bag.
- When you cut the curd your bag may well become shredded.
Still, keep the ideas coming.
Interesting points, Andrew. I don't use a sharp knife to cut the curds and so I cannot see the danger of shredding the bag but your point about some of the curds may well be forming outside the bag is something I never really thought about. As they say in Britain I guess I need to suck it and see - ie this is an empirical question and it can only be determined by experimentation... and experiment I plan to do..