I have a terrible time with the pressed cheeses because they come oit like a cheese that is not the one I was trying to make.
My first two attempts at Am Muenster came out like Parmasan and my Parmasan came out like Feta. When I was making Feta, it came out awfully hard, not crumbly like the Parmasan did.
I have a theory that the recipes are how people made the milk they had come out like the original and if you have different milks and starters then everything might change. Could that be the problem?
Thanks for any thoughts!
Hi Annie,
Yes, that would definitely be the problem. The different variables that we don't know or can not control properly will change the acidification which you are trying to master and these uncertainties will change the end result dramatically.
Have a look at my pdf here (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2438.0.html) on acidification (title: Acidity Control - Part 1 and 2 and 3) and I am sure you will solve most of your problems if not all.
Oh, Gurkan, thank you so much! I'm so excited because I found some litmus paper and am really looking forward to learning about the effects :) Boy, would my old science teachers be surprised :lol:
It's really amazing how much I have been learning-- my thermometer is off, and I knew as soon as I felt the curds as I cooked them that they had gotten too hot, and sure enough, that batch came out as dried-out, squashed-together little bits after pressing. (and if this ever happens to anyone else, I looked it up and apparently you can put them into soup, esp after running them through a food processor)