Hi,
This question has probably been discussed earlier, but I can not find it.
I have no problem to calculate the surface : pressure ratio, or any desired pressure : piston diameter : cheese surface.....
My problem are the recipes that call for milk volume and pressure in pounds, without mentioning the diameter of the mold? For example, a gallon of milk...........( cheese making ).................... to be pressed with 5 lb,.... 10 lbs ..... and so on
This is the case with most recipes online!
My only guess is: 1 gallons = a pound of of cheese and probable mold diameter 10 cm ( 4")
Is there a table : pressure to diameter ratio for different (hard)cheeses ?
Tar, as a rough guide agree that 1 US gallon of whole milk results in 1 pound of pressed cheese. There's a Wiki: Milk Yield (https://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki/) article that discusses cheese yields for different cheese types.
Molds or hoops come in all sorts of shapes and sizes as all sorts of cheese types, some cylinders, some wheels like Gouda, some thin flat disks like Brie, so a 1 pound cheese can have many diameters, if 10 cm/4 in diameter then from memory it will be ~ 7 cm/3 in tall, roughly.
On a table, sorry but I haven't seen one for diameter vs final pressing weight vs cheese type. That said it is not critical, as long as you are in the right range. While pressing initially expells whey, the main purpose is to build a rind and knit the cut and cooked curds, see Wiki: Pressing Cheeses for more info, also there are several threads on size vs weight (pressure). Personally most people have way more variables in cutting and cooking their curds and the pH level that impact the final cheese physically than does pressing weight.
Hope helps.
You are right. Many recipes list only the weight, and not the pressure required for a pressing.
I wrote about this in the past, but I think i remember that most authors assume a 6in mould. I will review my posts, but i think it was a 6in assumption in many recipes.
Thank you both!
Quote from: Wayne Harris on February 06, 2011, 03:24:37 AM
Many recipes list only the weight, and not the pressure required for a pressing.
As Wayne noted the problem is interpretation of the recipe!
This is a problem because the same weight of cheese can have 3 or 6 "diameter?
I am primarily interested in hard cheeses such as Italian, Swiss, Greek.
Cheese barely floats in brine. Brine is heavier than water. It can be assumed that the specific weight of cheese is cca 1 , 1cm³=1gr.
So if cheese diameter is 6" one pound cheese would be just over 1"( 2.57 cm) high . It would be like a mini brie?
If cheese diameter is 4", it would be 2.27" ( 5.78cm ) high. More like hard cheese !?