I relised last week that out of all the cheese testing i'm doing now i'm still guessing how long to leave the culture after adding.
I'm using Ma11 or butter milk and at the moment its a case of add a bit and leave an hour.
What is the best way of knowing when the culture has done it's stuff? Should i be looking for a pH change?
Different cheeses differ in the amount of time the culture is allowed to ripen in the milk, so it can vary greatly according to what kind of cheese you are making.
PH would be one method, and could arguably be the best in certain circumstances.
Simple timing would be another; just let it ripen for the time recommended in whatever recipe/procedure you are following. Certainly it is the easiest, but it makes the assumption that all milk is the same, which is not the case.
If you're pretty new to cheesemaking, and you don't have, or don't want to use a pH meter, just follow a reliable recipe and you should be ok.
for cheddar I add the rennet 10 mins after the culture is added then let it set (~16-18 mins).
I'll second what Mark said. I had initial success with the 30-minute mozzarella, but if I've tried something different -- this week, raw milk -- I got a different result, and I'd like to know why. I'll be making more cheese, so I will be investing in a Ph meter soon.
The difference between using raw and pasteurized milk is significant in Mozzarella-making, especially with the 30 minute recipe. I don't use PH meters, but I'm certain someone else will chime in here with the explanation. I teach cheese-making classes using the Ricki Carroll kit, and have had to adjust the recipe (using pasturized milk) for every class I've taught so that it works.
Every milk and every starter is different. You don't know the fat and bacteria levels in milk and you don't know the concentration of your starter culture to.
I aggree with Mark and pH meter comes handy especially when dealing with raw milk. Milk changes from season to season.
As a benchmark, I look for a 0.1 change in pH after an hour or 45 minute of adding the starter. This tells me that the starter is active and working (hat tip from Linuxboy)
If I am doing a new recipe, I search the forum first and see if anyone stated the pH when adding the rennet. And if possible other pH readings at various stages.
Thanks guys. That's about what i thought.
I have a pH meter and use it throughout the making apart fron the starter stage.