Hello all,
I've been milking Brown Swiss cows for over a decade, making some cheese on and off. This summer I decided to get serious about making cheese. Cheese cave, cheese press, thorough documentation, pH meter, etc.
The pH of my raw milk starts at about 6.75. It doesn't matter which culture I use, the pH almost refuses to drop. It takes 3, 4 or 5 times longer than the estimated times given in my book (Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by G. Caldwell) to hit pH targets.
What's going on here? Should I go by time or pH or something else? In an effort to make a repeatable cheese, I've been trying to go by the pH meter, but it's causing cheesemaking to be a 24 hour a day job.
I'm using new, DVI cultures from getculture.com, a calibrated daily ExTech 110, my cows don't test positive for mastitis and the milk lasts for 2 weeks so I don't think I have poor quality milk to start.
I'd appreciate any help.
Pat yourself on the back for having really great milk . Good milk has extra buffering abilities , read caldwells section on ph again and pay special attention to where she talks about milks buffering abilities .
I had the same problem when I first started will the raw milk I was getting at the time .
That s why I went to a starter cultured overnight , it gives about an hr head start.
Keep in mind that the buffering abilities of the milk are at its best in the late spring / summer soon it will drop quicker .
Gregore, thank you so much for your helpful reply. I haven't finished reading Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Caldwell but the only tidbit I recall that I thought applied to my situation was..."milk from late lactation will have more buffering capacity". Two of my cows are later in lactation. But, I thought she would surely mention if instead of 60 minutes ripening to a pH of 6.4, I should expect a 4-5 hour wait. She also mentions that raw milk comes with its own bacteria, and you could probably use less starter culture. I used the starter culture amounts recommended in the recipes, but I thought maybe these two items would cancel each other out in rate of pH drop.
For anyone in my situation reading this ages and ages hence...
Gregore's mention of a starter culture led me to a search which uncovered a thread here:
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5165.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5165.0.html)
Making Mother Cultures started by Sailor Con Queso
This is the way to go for me!
Caldwell mentions mother cultures only to dismiss them as a starter culture. "...mother culture, the oldest, most time-consuming, and most unpredictable method..."
Using DVI cultures has proven very time consuming and wasteful to me. I've jacked around with cheesemaking all day long, sometimes sleeping through my 2 or 3 A.M. alarm intended to get me up for the next recipe step, wake up at 5 A.M., throw the whole mess to the pigs and start again with that day's milk.
I used to make what I call Half-Ass cheese...stir in a glug of buttermilk or clabber to that morning's milk, go do something else, come back to stir in some rennet, go do something else, come back to cut the curd and stir a bit. If it tastes too acidic, wash with some water then press, else press. Age in the cellar. Eat.
Gregore, thank you again for redirecting me to a method that I know works for me.
Quote from: SwissMiss on July 12, 2017, 06:28:36 PM
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5165.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5165.0.html)
Making Mother Cultures started by Sailor Con Queso
Caldwell mentions mother cultures only to dismiss them as a starter culture. "...mother culture, the oldest, most time-consuming, and most unpredictable method..."
I have made and used Mother Cultures every week day for the last few years. My observations are the exact opposite of Caldwell. MCs are not time consuming, and in fact they cut about an hour off of the front of every make. A MC is alive, awake, and ready to go to work. And a MC is far more predictable than a DVI culture that might have lost its potency. If you want/need your milk to acidify quicker, just use a little more MC at the start. Much more consistent results.
Sailor, I completely agree with you. I've now made mother (primer) cultures of all of my mesophillic and my one thermophillic culture. These mother cultures have saved me hours of time plus a lot of frustration. The DVI cultures were taking so long that every cheese seemed to have a "middle of the night" step.
There are a few recipes I'd like to try that call for MA4001. Any thoughts on which separate mesophillic and thermophillic mother cultures I would use and in what proportions to approximate MA4001?
And one final question that I can't seem to find an answer to...
My raw milk starts out at a little higher pH than the books assume. I've read that I should rennet at a delta pH of between 0.05 and 0.2 units depending on cheese type. At the subsequent steps, should I wait to reach the absolute pH values given in the recipe or continue using the change in pH between steps? I think that question makes sense! If not, I can give a numerical example.
Thank you!
LA4001 is a meso/thermo blend - LL +LC +LD +ST. I personally would do 2 mother cultures. One would be MM100 which is LL + LC + LD (all mesos). And a second of just the ST (a thermo). I actually use this combination frequently. Proportions are up to you. (and easy to control with mother cultures).
If your pH meter is accurate, I would shoot for "relatively" absolute values after rennet.
Does anyone have a good complete reference detailing pH acidification of milk and rennet coagulation. Like what's is chemically happening, so the more I understand when something goes nuts I know what to do..like when pH is going down so quick you're out running the recipe or too slow. Same for rennet setting not coagulating or going to fast.
I posted a link in the library thread , to a book that will certainly have the answers