Hi
For those of you who have familiarity with the adjustments that need to be made when working with a seasonal herd, I have a couple of questions about late lactation milk.
Recently I've been making cheese for a small grass based dairy in Western Massachusetts, we milk a herd of around 30 cows, mostly Jersey and Brown Swiss.
One of our cheeses is a tallegio style washed rind, weighing 3 or 4 pounds, using whole raw milk. In recent months, getting into later lactation, this cheese has been more rigid than is characteristic, or to say has less tendency to deform or settle over aging - losing some of the curve and texture that I'm after.
This symptom has led me to a couple of points that need clarification.
1. My understanding is that curd from late lactation milk is slower to undergo syneresis, and that this can be adjusted for by longer stirring; my thought has been that throughout the lactation cycle, the feel of the curd at hooping should remain the same, and the stirring should increase by the amount needed to reach this target, which remains the same.
Seeing the tendency of these washed rind cheeses to stay somewhat rigid has given me the question: is it possible that in adjusting to a constant texture I'm producing a less moist curd, in comparison to early lactation? In other words, does late lactation curd at the same level of moisture feel softer?
2. Is it fair to say that culturing time should be lengthened when using late lactation milk, given its typically higher solids (and so greater buffering capacity) ? The literature says that lower buffering capacity in these cheeses leads more easily to a soft texture. It seems possible that maintaining a set culturing time throughout the yearly cycle might produce a curd during late lactation that retains more calcium phosphate, and so resists the rise in pH (and softening of the texture) that allows the slight deformation during aging.
There are a variety of other factors that contribute to the final texture of a washed rind- having given the others a close eye, though, I'm thinking mainly of these questions of seasonality.
Many thanks for your insight on this, I'm fairly new to seasonal cheese making and certainly have a lot to learn.
- Mulligan
Not an expert here for sure but have some experience with my 3 cows at home. To start with are you using floc to judge how much rennet to use and when to cut the curd? If so your moisture should be somewhat close to begin with. The extra stirring is going to dry things out but like you say syneresis will be slower so curd feel is a good indicator of when to start draining (could also use a little higher cook temp to speed this up a little).
Are you using pH markers to judge when to drain as well? This post here might help you with that judgement: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,4855.msg37450.html#msg37450. (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,4855.msg37450.html#msg37450.)
As for lengthening culturing time I think if you are using pH that should help you decide if your pH curve is off. If you are hitting the target pH before the moisture is right (curd feels right) then you would need less culture but if you are having to wait for pH to hit target after curd feels right you will need more culture. If moisture and ph are on target and you still get the same result have you considered that there is more butterfat in the late lactation milk? This could also account for the stiffer paste (think double cream brie) I know my cows tend to move from 3% to around 4.5% when they get onto hay in the winter and start to drop off their production. Whith jersey and brown Swiss you could be a lot higher than that even.
Do you test milk components in your herd?
Butterfat % can nearly double in late lactation - this will have a major affect on the curd behavior.