Following post split off a thread as separate subject and worth it's own thread.
It's interesting I was complaining about no clean break a little bit ago using the ricki carroll hard cheese kit and all my curd sunk to the bottom and was crumbly. I think m milk may have been old. I had to leave home for a bit and I left the cheese in my Dad's care and he through it out said it got moldy through and through (he is not very good with foods with cultures/ molds-- they freak him out if they don't look exactly like what they are supposed to..)
In addition finding something heavy enough to press in the little mold was a challenge so I used a moss covered rock from the mountain stream next to my house. I was worried about the contaminates it might have so I washed it in soap and water and put it ziplock. My Dad said the mold was through the entire small wheel. The cheese was, in his words "unsalvageable." Do you think it was contaminated by the rock?
Minamyna, I've never had a rennet coagulated uncut curd being crumbly. But there is a discussion here (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,3938.msg30012.html#msg30012) on the same thing.
Mold growth is from excessive humidity, either from environment or because the cheese is throwing off excess moisture. If you had mold growth internally then I suspect moisture content of cheese was too high.
As the rock, great natural idea! The mold could have been from it or also from the milk itself or from airborne "wild" mold spores, there is no way to stop contamination. Best practises are reasonable hygiene, using fresh milk and critically your cheese making process.
Can you describe your ingredients and process more and for what cheese type (ie milk type, age, pasteurized & homogenized etc, what starter culture added, type and amount of rennet, temperature and time when got crumbly curd and assume this was uncut).
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,3938.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,3938.0.html) was where I had mentioned the cheese problems before.
One thing though is my rock was only 6 lbs, which I know is really heavy enough. I had trouble finding something small enough to fit on the mold that weighed 20 lbs, so the lack of enough pressure was probably what caused the extra moisture and thus the mold.
I am thinking about buying a cheese press, do they come with instructions on how many turns is how much weigh etc. Also do I have to have enough curds for the cheese to be sticking out of the mold?
I often refill old milk jugs and used them for extra weight.
I use a homemade mold for my cheeses - a tupperware plastic canister w holes drilled. It is moderately tall so I must put things inside the extra top space to be able to stack heavy things on top of that so the cheese will be pressed with enough weight. I do have some small diameter flat 2 1/2 pound weights that work for this, but often to add even more weight, I have to use a larger can of pumpkin that fits inside, then start balancing more on top of that. I've stacked up over 100 pounds of weight using this method... very carefully. ;D I do this between 2 chairs and have a 'safety system' so things cant fall (too far). Too hard to describe, and no photo. :o