This is my new mold just received yesterday from Serivdoryl USA.
It is a Fromagex mold made in France. From the packing slip is is Product number SER-MP-180 Micro perforated mould (1.8 kg) 180- x 150mm, lib 125 mm.
Appears to be very well made and sturdy.
I tried it out today on a Havarti made from about 4 gallons of goats milk. Very happy with the results.
Here is the cheese that just came out of the mold.
Since the exterior dimensions of the mould don't fit my screw down press that I usually use I had to use a board and some weights. Due to the design of this mould with a wide and stable base it was no problem at all to balance weight on top of it.
Both ends of the base are wide and stable so rather then removing and flipping the cheese during pressing I just flipped the mold around - very easy.
WOW,
very nice...I love the look.
That is so very interesting. Do you have a web site?
Wayne my website is listed in my profile - www.sunrisefarmnc.com (//http://) - but it is kind of out of date and just about the farm.
I have been concentrating on cheesemaking and working with NC inspectors, taking cheese courses, etc in order to hopefully have a dairy built and licensed by spring.
(not to mention working full time and milking our goats twice a day) ;)
That looks pretty kewl! You can't even see the holes in the mold. Looks like it will take tons of pressure on the lid. Good job!
That looks great, thanks for showing us
Beautiful cheese!! I love the rind. Very nice mold.
Christy
Wayne, I think you were looking for Servidoryl's website. I think it's the US distributor for Quebec Canada based Fromagex.com (http://www.fromagex.com). It's a very cryptic website, huge range of supplies but little details. If you click on Mould & Drainage Bags > Microperforated > MP180 model, but no details thus thanks to Seigfried again for posting this info.
Seigfried, very robust follower. I assume you are going to rub/brush off all the extruded curd as it dries? Also, was there any problem with cleaning the mold with those fine holes?
wow, I really like the look of that wheel.It looks like you did not use any cheesecloth. With all those micro-holes compared to the other types of molds did you have any trouble removing the wheel from the mold?. Also it appears really neat just being able to flip the entire mold insteat of breaking everything apart to flip.
Zenith - you are correct - I did not use any cheesecloth - that is the idea behind these - just like Kadova molds but last much longer according to the distributor (and I believe it).
I had no trouble removing it (although I was worried that might be a problem too) - just removed the follower , turned the mode upside down and a couple of taps with my hand.
I sent him a note telling him I was impressed and will be ordering some bigger ones.
I wonder what they are getting for the Manchego molds? I've been wanting a few of those... ::) The initially ried ordering the microperf edam and they didn't have them anymore. Now they have tons of micro prefs listed. Hmmm.
I wonder if they'd do a discount for a group buy from the forum? Might be worth a shot?
Deb-good thought. I would be interested. I did send them an Email about prices but have not received a reply as of yet.
If I remeber right I emailed several times before getting an answer and they sent me to Ann in Chicago. I still have her phone number in my cell maybe I will call her tomorrow.
I would be intgerested in a couple if we can get group prices.
I am also interested ;D
I bought and tried a microperf at my farm a few years back. I hated it, cheese was often times difficult to remove and it was impossible to clean. Flash forward to now and we have an armada of microperf. They can still be very difficult to remove but require no cheese cloth and they are cleaned in commercial caustic/acid baths along with the rest of our gear. In my view it's the only way you can use them, if you have a way to boil them in caustic to remove the deposits. Once the hole sare clogged draining is poor and the cheese starts to stick very badly.
Well that's four people or maybe 6 molds if I counted right. I always get two.
Francois
Are the holes to small to use a toothpick to clean? I often use hard toothbrushes to scrub small areas or stuborn spots on cheese cloth or mats.
They are far too small. Also the plastic is very thick and there are literlly thousands and thousands of holes. It's not practical to poke them all out with a needle etc and a brush won't cut it.
Ziggy-how did the molds clean up for you and how many times have you used them to date? have you noticed any buildup in the drainage holes?And how do you clean your molds after use?
I have only used my mold once and just put it in the dishwasher and then a sanitizing drip. I have asked the distributor for cleaning recommendations.
It looks good - but give me a few more uses and also once I hear from the distributor I'll let you know what they say.
Just wanted to let you all know I have not forgotten about this. Still waiting on a reply.
My second cheese with this mold came out great too - I decided to do a Christmas cheese - something like Deb's specialties..Hot Green and Red peppers...
Ziggy- thanks for the update. When you make your pepper cheese do you use just the peppers, or do you add liquid that they have boiled in also? Appx how much chili's do you use?
Actually what I did was use 6 medium size peppers from my garden that I waled outside to pick fresh while the curd was being rennet-ted.
I chopped them up into small pieces and then added them into the curds (5 gallons of fresh goat milk) and whey at the point when I had drained off half the whey - figuring that by leaving them in the whey and curds at this point I would get the heat distributed through the cheese more so then just mixing in after draining as Alex's recipe describes.
Alex and DeejayDebi have a couple of good posts on this in the hard cheese forum so I cant take credit.
I thought of posting a picture but it looks almost exactly the same as the one in Alex's post
See https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1886.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1886.0.html) and https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1635.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1635.0.html)
I got a call back from Servidoryl yesterday and an email quote today. To get a price break we have to order about 50 moulds.
The MM-180 - microperfed 1.8 kg St Paulin style moulds flat on top and bottom rounded sides are $80 each.
The ARO-001 - 3.2kg Manchego moulds non micro perfed are $49.88 each.
I think he misunderstood because he sent a quote for 7 of these.
I really need a 10kg gouda mould like these.
Well I need a 10kg too..they are $200 if I remember correctly.
It will take a lot to get up to fifty.
What kind of price break percent did they say at 50?
He just said not much of a price break maybe a couple of bucks each. They sell alot cheaper than most companies as it is.
Might be better to all make separate orders at that rate - we'd pay twice for shipping to save a few dollars.
Deb - you are probably right. Thanks for trying though.
This group buy thing isn't a bad idea though perhpas for other things. I have seen it done on other forums I used to be on (motorcycles, farm equipment) or maybe a discount at certain suppliers for forum members?.
Hey Deb- it was worth a try. Thanks for following through and making the contact for us all.
It would be nice is we all chipped to fund a library of moulds.
I don't need my 10KG mould but once every 2 months or so, and in the mean time it gathers dust. It would be nice if say, Sailor, needed to borrow it, he could just check it out like a book.
I don't think it would work in a practical sense, but the idea of a library of moulds to choose from is intriguing to me.
It would be pretty kewl if we didn't have to mail them all over the place.
Well I finally got a reply on Cleaning. They sent me a reply that obviously came from another user (and they admitted that) so I will post it here without the names:
"Robert,
We have only tried the round shouldered mould, as we were taken by its shape.
Flipping the cheese is unbelievably easy! Our lever press seems to have enough pressure (increased gradually over time) to form the cheese. The mould drains well and leaves a smooth surface. We have had no problem with sticking. We have been using a plastic pastry scraper (thin &
flexible) to go around the interior edge to free the cheese when dehooping...it works really well, and on inversion the cheese pops readily out. Afterwards the "squeeze out" cheese is trimmed with a serrated knife.
To clean we first spray the moulds with water from our sink's pressured spray nozzle. We are soaking the moulds in our dairy soap solution, brushing, then rinsing in water. Then we acid rinse soak them. The top and bottom fit handily together in one of our sink bays. After air drying, we then sanitize them in 100ppm chlorox/water solution before use.
Pretty exciting!
Is that shape also available in a 5-6 pound mould?
Enjoy your weekend,"
Ziggy, I use a similar approach as Francois and the instructions you posted, but more adopted to a smaller scale and equipment. I don't have a stainless sink, for example (not yet).
First, I scrub and spray to force large bits off. Then, I make a solution of percarbonate (this is roughly the same as most basic cleaning solutions, like dairy cleansers). I make the solution in a large (32 gal? might be 40) trash can and dump the molds in. I usually am too tired/lazy to clean everything immediately, so I let that soak overnight or during the rest of the day. The next day, I spray again and scrub with a cleaning brush to get any remaining pieces off. Then I toss everything in a citric acid solution, again made in a garbage can. I get both cleansers in bulk 50 lb bags from a winemaking supply shop. They come out pretty cheap, something like $1/lb. The garbage cans are #2, HDPE plastic. This is important, make sure you check what type of plastic they are and use #1 PETE or #2 HDPE. #3 is not considered food grade; I think #3 is PVC.
You can also use buckets if a garbage can is too big. But I really like having a bunch of ready made solution available.
Anyway, after the citric acid bath, I rinse and store. Then similar to what you posted, sanitize in food grade iodine solution, then a dunk in a water bath to clean residues, and use.
I think if you're at the point of using microperf molds, it's time to spend a bit of money and have a dedicated space and cleaning area because it's not fun cleaning them in the kitchen sink.
Thanks - I hope to have that setup in the spring by which time my "licensed facility" should be built.