Can anyone advise me where I can find pH level recommendations ? the few recipes I checked on this site do not reference ideal pH levels and nor do any in the books I have looked at.
In fact I have a pH meter, but I wonder why people suggest I should use it, because just about all recipes don't seem to bother.
I'd like to know because alot of my cheeses of late have developed an over acidic taste and crumbly texture, and while I have read up on the variety of reasons I can only think the pH meter might tell me more but reference levels would be enormously helpful!
Thanks in advance...
This book
Caldwell's book for sure is a great resource and all the recepies have pH markers. Posts by GortKlaatu, linuxboy, and many others have recepies with pH markers in them. Generally you take a starting pH reading, add culture and wait until you see the pH drop by .1 then rennet and cut etc, the next step varries a lot by cheese type but hit a pH target and drain then maybe another target and mold. The out of mold pH before brining usually is around 5.3 or 5.4
thanks for the replies...
I'll certainly get my hands on the Caldwell book.!
If you want a cheese that melts with heat then above about 5.1 or so with cows milk buffalo is a little lower 4.8 I think I read somewhere and goat I do not know for sure but would guess to be close to cows milk.
It is also the same ph range for cheddars to be hooped .
Lactic acid set cheese are less than 4.7 /4.8 before hooping
One can always ask here for ph markers for a specific cheese , usually some one knows.
As for why most books do not offer recipes with ph markers is that they probably do not want to scare away potential purchasers of book.
Glad this came up, since I had the same question! And I've read many of the awesome posts by Gort and Linux. I ordered the Caldwell book once I saw this post the other day.
I think Gregore's last point is spot on. For most people cooking/cheese making is art and many might be put off by science and scientific equipment in the recipes. But I'm and engineer, and I cook like an engineer! ;D
I can understand the feeling -- my wife is just like that. She doesn't want to hear me babbling on about scientific things. I wish people would relax about pH, though. You use a thermometer to measure temperature. When the milk is hot, then the number is higher. When the milk is cold, the number is lower. pH is exactly the same thing, only with sourness (and to me, it's kind of magical). If the milk (or cheese) is more sour, then the number is lower. If the milk (or cheese) is less sour, then the number is higher. All you really need to know is that the cultures that you add to the milk will make the milk/cheese sour. Just like temperature, you want to do different things when the milk/cheese is at certain sourness points. Apart from the need to calibrate the meter, it's just like a thermometer -- you jam it in the milk/cheese and it gives you a number. You wait until the number is what you want. Sure, it helps to understand the science and to understand how the milk can be buffered, but not knowing that doesn't diminish the utility of using a pH meter.
Quote from: TravisNTexas on September 29, 2018, 01:00:33 PM
Glad this came up, since I had the same question! And I've read many of the awesome posts by Gort and Linux. I ordered the Caldwell book once I saw this post the other day.
I think Gregore's last point is spot on. For most people cooking/cheese making is art and many might be put off by science and scientific equipment in the recipes. But I'm and engineer, and I cook like an engineer! ;D
Thanks for the compliment. And I have to say that Caldwell's book is my go-to cheese book when I need some in-depth reading.
Quote from: mikekchar on September 30, 2018, 08:11:54 AM
I can understand the feeling -- my wife is just like that. She doesn't want to hear me babbling on about scientific things. I wish people would relax about pH, though. You use a thermometer to measure temperature. When the milk is hot, then the number is higher. When the milk is cold, the number is lower. pH is exactly the same thing, only with sourness (and to me, it's kind of magical). If the milk (or cheese) is more sour, then the number is lower. If the milk (or cheese) is less sour, then the number is higher. All you really need to know is that the cultures that you add to the milk will make the milk/cheese sour. Just like temperature, you want to do different things when the milk/cheese is at certain sourness points. Apart from the need to calibrate the meter, it's just like a thermometer -- you jam it in the milk/cheese and it gives you a number. You wait until the number is what you want. Sure, it helps to understand the science and to understand how the milk can be buffered, but not knowing that doesn't diminish the utility of using a pH meter.
Great point with a great analogy!