Well guys, here's a couple of pics of the stirred curd cheddar I did yesterday.
I feel as if I hit my Ph marks pretty well on this one and after taking it out of the press I'm happy with it.
After giving it a lot of thought I doubt that I age this one long at all.....probably only a couple of weeks.
My reason for doing this is because I am trying to perfect a process and there's no sense in making more of this variety, (using the same recipe) unless I know that my recipe is correct.
If I am happy with what I find I will continue aging the rest of the cheese for several months, taking samples at 3, 6 & 9 months to see how it ages.
I will probably be doing a lot of the early cuttings on many of my cheeses this year.
Last year I was not happy with many of my cheeses after aging and of course I had several of each variety that were pretty much all the same.
This year is devoted to refining things and keeping what works and getting rid of what doesn't. This process worked well on my Camemberts so I'm going to apply that reasoning to the rest of my cheeses as well.
Honestly the only varieties of cheese that I've been happy with are my Camemberts, Stiltons, Goudas and Swiss (happy with the taste and texture of swiss but not with eye formation).
I've decided that it's time to rethink all of my recipes and make adjustments as needed. The first variety that I'm trying this with is cheddar so here's my results so far.
Dave
Wayne will tell you that this cheese has character. I will tell you that it has bumps and that I hate them. :)
The only good thing is that the bumps do seem to go away with aging so I've learned to live with them, straight out of the press.
Dave
Hey Dave - nice bumps!
Seriously it looks good. I don't know why but the bumps seem to go away when I brine.
Dave:
What recipe did you use?
-M
Michael...
Here is the recipe.
It's one that I've been working on for the past year or so and it's basically a mix of several different recipes and my own experience.
Anyway, here it is:
4 gallon recipe ingredients:
2 gallon Prairie Farms Whole Milk
2 gallon Prairie Farms 2% Milk
3/8 tsp. MA Starter Culture
2 tsp. 30% Calcium Chloride Liquid (dissolved in ½ cup of water)
1 tsp. Liquid Veal Rennet (dissolved in 10 tsp water)
1/16 tsp. Cheese Color (dissolved in ¼ cup of water)
3 oz. Cheese Salt
Process:
Allow milk to set at room temperature for 1 hour.
Add milk to vat and add cheese colorant.
Check Ph and note on cheese making record.
Begin heating milk, taking to a temperature of 90 degrees F.
Add starter culture to surface of milk and allow to set for 3 minutes.
Gently stir starter culture into milk using 25 up and down strokes
Wait for 40 minutes and add calcium chloride.
Check Ph and note on Cheese making record.
Wait for 5 minutes and add Rennet
Wait for 45 minutes and cut curd to 3/8" cubes (cut as evenly as possible)
Allow curds to settle and heal for 15 Minutes
Heat on
Heat to 100 degrees F in 30 minutes time (stirring gently and occasionally)
Heat off
Check ph and note on cheese making record.
Check ph several times during this period. It is important to hit ph 6.15 on next step!
Keep at 100 degrees F until Ph is 6.15 (stir very gently and only occasionally during this time)
Drain whey from curd and return curd to vat (drain as much whey as possible in shortest time)
Keep curd at 100 degrees F while gently stirring curd every five minutes by hand.
Check ph several times during this period. It is important to hit ph 5.30 to 5.40 on next step!
At Ph 5.30 to 5.40 drain curd completely. (do this quickly)
Add ½ of salt to curd and mix in gently.
Wait 5 minutes and add other half of salt to curd and mix gently.
Target Ph at this point is 5.1 to 5.2. This is a benchmark point so make sure you hit it as closely as possible!
Add Curd to cloth lined 8" mold and press at 7lb. Line Pressure for 10 minutes
Flip and re-dress and press at 15lb. Line Pressure for 20 minutes
Flip and re-dress and press at 29lb. Line Pressure for 2 hours
Flip and re-dress and press at 39lb. Line Pressure for 12 hours
Flip and re-dress and press at 39lb. Line Pressure for additional 12 hours
Remove cheese from mold and air dry for approximately 4 days or until dry to the touch.
Place cheese in cave at 45 to 55 degrees and 70% - 80% humidity for 4 weeks
Vacuum Pack Cheese and return to cave for minimum of 3 months.
NOTE: Instead of waiting 45 minutes to cut the curd I instead used the flocculation method posted elsewhere on this forum. This resulted in the curd being cut in 39 minutes.
Also, my pressing regimen is for the pneumatic press that I use, but it translates to the standard pressing weights for 99% of the cheddar cheese recipes out there. The weights have been increased to provide the correct p.s.i on my 7.5" mold.
Dave
thats a good looking cheese~
Hi Dave,
I'm new here, but have been reading through many of the old posts before making myself known.
My question is, what did your final cheddar weigh in at? Thanks,
Cheddarhead, hi and welcome to the forum. I think you'll like it here. :)
As for the weight of this cheese, I really can't say.
I do normally weigh a cheese that will soak in a brine bath but I usually don't weigh a cheddar. I would guess the weight to be in the 4 lb. range but that is just a guess.
Honestly, I think I should start weighing all of my wheels so that I can track the yield I'm getting. I just usually don't think about it once I remove the cheese from the press.
Thanks for the reminder on doing this. I'll make a note at the bottom of my form to weigh the wheels in the future.
I hope you've been enjoying all of the old posts. I know there have been several that have helped me out greatly.
Again, welcome to the forum.
Dave
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your very detailed post. I'm about to embark on my first pressed cheese adventure and it'll likely be a stirred curd cheddar (maybe a gouda next time). If it's alright, can I ask a few questions (sorry for how many ...I'm a newb)?
1. Was milk brought to room temp, say 70 F, prior to starting the 1 hour rest?
2. What should the pH be at time of adding rennet?
3. When you say "drain the curd completely", are you transferring to a cheese cloth lined colander and then back to the vat, or what? I worry about too much handling resulting in too much fat loss.
4. When you mix the salt in 'gently', are you sprinkling it over all the curds and then just lifting fingers through the curds and letting them tumble back, or what?
5. Can you post actual PSIs for each of your pressings? I don't know enough about it to know if 'line pressure' is equal to the PSI on the cheese or not.
6. In the initial drying phase, are you drying at room temperature (70 F)? How often do you flip? Is twice a day enough (I work for a living!)
7. During the cave aging prior to vacuum packing, are you flipping the cheese? How often? Are you washing the cheese? How often and with what?
I just got a new pH meter and a cave is on the way, and I'm building a simple press this week ...I'm hoping to actually produce a good (enough) cheese on the first try, hence all the questions!
Thanks!
Brian
Brian, for what it's worth - the issues I posted in the thread below all happened to me with stirred-curd cheddars (and a couple of Goudas, actually). I don't think the over-acidification was ever my problem, but could be an issue for you.
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,6401.0.html (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,6401.0.html)
Thanks, George. As a matter of fact, I already read the thread you point to! O0 Issues like this are one of the reasons that I bought the pH meter, an Extech PH110 (...oh, that reminds me ...need to order some cal solutions from eBay). Plus, I'm an engineer, so analytical details are interesting to me and not having them makes me nervous. Or maybe that's why I'm an engineer not the other way 'round? :-\ ...In any case, I tend to study things to death before I go and fail at them ;D. I think I'll follow Dave's procedure above, but need to answer those last questions first. I might do it next weekend, or wait until the weekend after. I still need to set up a cave for aging (in progress) and build a simple dutch press to get started with...
Brian
Brian,
Please see below for at least some of the answers to your questions. I haven't made a stirred cheddar for a long time so my memory is pretty foggy on the process.
Thanks for sending the email along with your post or I probably would not have caught it. On the few occasions that I've had a chance to check the forum I mainly just check out the Gouda section since that is the cheese that I've become most interested in.
I hope this information helps and I wish you the best in your cheese making.
Quote from: tananaBrian on February 28, 2011, 12:02:05 AM
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your very detailed post. I'm about to embark on my first pressed cheese adventure and it'll likely be a stirred curd cheddar (maybe a gouda next time). If it's alright, can I ask a few questions (sorry for how many ...I'm a newb)?
1. Was milk brought to room temp, say 70 F, prior to starting the 1 hour rest?
No, I simply let the milk set for one hour and then poured it into the vat. I've since decided that this step is unnecessary and simply begin to warm the milk on the stove top.
2. What should the pH be at time of adding rennet?
I'll have to let someone else answer the correct answer to this question. I've decided that this recipe is not nearly as complete as I'd like for it to be and I have not made a stirred cheddar in well over a year. On the few occasions that I've found time to make cheese I have stuck pretty much exclusively with Gouda and Parmesan.
3. When you say "drain the curd completely", are you transferring to a cheese cloth lined colander and then back to the vat, or what? I worry about too much handling resulting in too much fat loss.
Yes, I transfer to a cheesecloth lined collander and then back into the vat. It seems to work really well, especially if you sort of lift up on the corners of the cheese cloth to facilitate draining.
4. When you mix the salt in 'gently', are you sprinkling it over all the curds and then just lifting fingers through the curds and letting them tumble back, or what?
Exactly the procedure that I use. I try to handle the curds as gently as possible during this step.
Also, the amount of salt that I used was way too much. I only found this out after aging the cheese for a year only to find that it still had not aged much (sharpness). The next time I try this cheese I will cut back the amount of salt significantly.
5. Can you post actual PSIs for each of your pressings? I don't know enough about it to know if 'line pressure' is equal to the PSI on the cheese or not.
Line pressure is not equal to PSI but I'm not able to answer your question at this point. The computer that I had my conversion tables stored on decided to give up the ghost and I haven't taken the time to work up new ones. Hopefully someone else will pop on here and tell you the proper PSI to use for this particular cheese. I'm sorry that I can't be more helpful.
6. In the initial drying phase, are you drying at room temperature (70 F)? How often do you flip? Is twice a day enough (I work for a living!)
Yes, I dry all of my cheese at room temp (approx. 72 degrees) for a couple of days. I'll then put the cheese into a 50 degree fridge for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks and then vacuum bag. It seems to work well for me but I might try Sailor and Linuxboy's advice and age for a month or so before vacuuming my next cheese.
Twice a day is plenty in my humble opinion. Sometimes I'll only flip once a day and I haven't noticed anything bad results from doing so.
7. During the cave aging prior to vacuum packing, are you flipping the cheese? How often? Are you washing the cheese? How often and with what?
Yes, I continue to flip during the cave aging. I always try to flip the cheese at least once a day for the first couple of weeks and then much less after that. At times I'll go for a few weeks without flipping and it does not seem to cause a problem. I do not wash the cheese.
I just got a new pH meter and a cave is on the way, and I'm building a simple press this week ...I'm hoping to actually produce a good (enough) cheese on the first try, hence all the questions!
I'd say that with your attention to detail you have a very good chance at turning out a good cheese on your first attempt. There are a LOT of variables when it comes to cheese making but it's also a lot of fun even if you do make some mistakes.
I will say this.......
A cheddar is a very hard cheese to make, in fact I've found it to be one of the hardest to make properly. If you are not dead set on making a cheddar as your first hard cheese I would suggest trying a Gouda instead.
The reason that I make this suggestion is because a Gouda is relatively easy as long as you have the proper equipment (mainly a ph meter). I've posted a Gouda recipe in one of the forums that others seem to have had good luck with.
It has become my favorite cheese to make and I've also experimented with adding peppers to make a very passable pepper jack style of cheese.
After having worked on the ph markers (which are listed in that recipe) I have not failed to make a very good cheese that everyone seems to love.
If you have any other questions I will do my best to answer them as soon as possible.
For the past couple of years I've been dealing with some family issues that have taken up most of my time, so my cheese making has become very limited.
I hope to get back into it full force as soon as possible since it is one of my favorite hobbies and something that I miss a lot. At this point though my family is my main focus as I feel that it should be.
Again, I'm sorry that I was not able to answer some of your questions but I'm sure that others will come along with the answers that I didn't know.
Good luck with your cheese making and welcome to the forum!
Dave
Thanks!
Brian
Quote from: tananaBrian on February 28, 2011, 07:32:55 PM
Plus, I'm an engineer, so analytical details are interesting to me and not having them makes me nervous. Or maybe that's why I'm an engineer not the other way 'round? :-\ ...In any case, I tend to study things to death before I go and fail at them ;D.
Ah - takes an engineer! I, on the other hand, wing almost everything at first - which is probably why it took me a year to figure out what I was doing wrong. On the other hand, I got to fail much more quickly than you do! >:D
Dave ... I think I'll take your advice and forego making the cheddar for awhile and will make gouda. My first cheese ever was 30 minute moz and it took quite a few tries to learn the things that I had to learn and to get it to work. I've been making fresh cheeses since and while I didn't expect to, I did learn a lot from those experiences as well. I'm convinced, finally (hard-headedness problem here...), that starting easy and repeating the 'easy' recipes is really a good idea before advancing to more challenging cheeses. I will make gouda a few times! My wife voted for gouda as well... and brought home a chunk the other night (can't remember brand) that was advertised as being aged, but didn't say how long. It was stronger flavored and had a wonderful creamy texture that we both loved. I think I will make a good gouda my challenge for awhile...
Brian
PS: I'll search for your gouda recipe...