Today I made a Cotswold and a Double Gloucester cheese. Each with 5 Gal of fresh raw milk. Ph 6.7 in the vats. PH 6.4 added rennet. PH 6.3 cut curds. After raising Temp. to 104F said to keep stirring and maintain temp. of 104F for 30 min. but PH was at 5.6 in 20 min.. curd was firm and springy so I drained, salted, and added onion and chives to one of them. Pressed at 15lbs for 15 min., flipped and pressed at 35lbs for 15 min., flipped and pressed at 65 lbs. for 60 min.. It has been 6 hours at 65lbs and I have no whey coming out of the cheese. None for about the last 4 hours. The recipe calls for pressing over night. I'm not sure if I should leave in the press for the nite or move to the drying rack. It has a nice closed knit. Any help would be appreciated.
What's the pH doing now? Has it continued to drop after salting? If knit us good you can probably take it out and let it sit like you say.
The PH meter I have, I can only check the whey so it doesn't do me any good for checking the cheese. I guess I'm going to have to get another one when I go back to the States in Sept..
The last Double Gloucester i made was in the press for over 40 hours. That is more than I have usually left it for but it turned out well so I don't think you should be concerned about leaving it overnight. Even though the whey may have stopped I would be inclined to give it a good long press to ensure a good knit.
Thanks Andrew, I did leave it in the press overnight and will as your suggestion leave it in the press at least 24hrs at the final press weight. That should give me a total press time of about 30lbs.
Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.
Both cheeses finished drying and coated with Evoo. One weighed 4 lbs 2 oz and the other 4 lbs 5 oz.. Seems under weight for being a raw milk make.
Trying to dry off both cheeses. For some reason the evoo didn't save the cheeses from being infected with mold growth. Started out with PC would wash and dry then three days ago the cheeses started to smell. Today when I went to flip I noticed B. Linens growing. Oh that smell I know it so well!
Now I'm drying and coating with cream wax.
I usually find with oil that it takes a number of thin coats over several weeks before the mould is beaten. I currently have a Hispanico which I started oiling four weeks ago and which is still throwing up small amounts of mould.
One effective strategy is to rub the cheese with dry salt after oiling. I only do this occasionally.
When you say you have BL, I immediately think that perhaps the humidity is too high.
Thank you Andrew, I will try dry salt on my next oiled cheese. What I did was coat two times a week apart. Sucked the oil up like an old dry rag.