Dear Forum,
I recently purchased some Kadova K4040 1 kg molds with liner from the Dairy Connection planning to use them to make a style of goat's milk cheddar utilizing Mary Jane Toth's cheddar recipe from Goat's Produce Too!
I have successfully made this recipe hundreds of times and have pressed the resulting cheese in this press (http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/48-Cheese-Press-with-5-FREE-Cultures-C1-C101-C2-C201-C21-.html (http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/48-Cheese-Press-with-5-FREE-Cultures-C1-C101-C2-C201-C21-.html)) from New England Cheesemaking Supply.
With my creamery being near completion and having a a larger vat (JayBee Precision 30 gallon) to make cheese, I am anticipating making more cheddars rounds in a batch than the single press obviously can handle. I am still shopping for a press that can stack multiple molds for pressing but based on research in this forum thought the Kadova molds would be the best choice to stack with some sort of large dutch press.
So I purchased four Kadova molds to test out and was very unhappy with the result and need guidance please.
Currently, I am using about eight gallons of goat's milk and ending with two beautiful rounds of cheddar in two New England Cheesemaking Supply presses. The stainless steel mold gets filled to the top and by the end of pressing has halved in size.
When I tried the Kadova molds, I wasn't able to get as much curd into the molds and they reduced during the pressing lopsided and were not able to press as tightly because of the rounded edges of this particular mold (the curd reduced below the smallest point of pressing in the mold). I stacked two molds in each New England Cheesemaking Supply press. When I flipped and saw the curds were not knitting as well at the prescribed pressing amounts, I increased the pressing amounts.
Maybe I should have stuffed the molds more?
Maybe this is the wrong recipe for this type of molds?
Maybe I need to practice more?
Many thanks,
Talitha
Edgwick Farm
Cornwall, NY
For cheddar, kadovas are not optimal. You really need stainless for cheddar, so if you had to achieve a good knit, you could crank the PSI up to 20, 30, and even 40. Kadovas will do OK up to 10-15 PSI or so.
Kadovas are meant for gouda and tomme styles. Meaning cheese that is prepressed in blocks, cut, put into the mold, then pressed under 3-6 PSI. You have preknit under whey, and then you form the shape, flip a few times, and done. When you use a totally different technology, such as milled curd cheddar, you can't use them as is.
Given that, there are a few things you can do:
- Heat curds to 98-100F post salting to ensure good fuse. Pack quickly and crank up the PSI right away to try and get the curds to fuse
- press kadovas with heat applied, by pressing in whey, or putting some heat on it, such as through a lamp or seed warmer.
- Flip repeatedly to even out the shape and make sure final cheese comes out even.
That's about it. You can make it work with cheddar, but it's harder. You have to fuss with the molds more. Usually, for cheddar, a poly liner and stainless mold are used under high PSI (30-50)
Pav,
Thank you for that answer. Guess I'll have to learn to make tommes eventually! Or sell the Kadovas. Oh well lesson learned.
Talitha
For goat milk, I do think tomme > cheddar. PM me if you want to try and figure it out. If you can age out tommes naturally with an ambient flora rind, you can have a really special cheese.
I wouldn't sell them just yet, kadovas come in handy, just have to match them up right to the appropriate style of cheese.
Talitha, you might be able to swap those molds with someone in this forum for a press that would give you that 30-50 psi. Cartierusm makes some pneumatic presses that would probably give you all the pressure you needed on four molds at once.
Yeah but his problem is not the press but the accual plastic molds.
You should contract a local SS fabricator to make you the SS mould according to the wight of wheel required.
A sort of spacer will allow to stack moulds for pressing of multiply cheddars.
Quote from: Tomer1 on September 28, 2011, 08:55:01 PM
Yeah but his problem is not the press but the accual plastic molds.
Her. ;)
-Boofer-
Talitha does not immediately yield a gender unless you are familiar with aramaic. Talitha means "little girl" and I am female and little too. And very proud to be a cheesemaker. :)
Someone posted this link a few days ago. http://www.ullmers-dairyequipment.com/cheesemolds.htm (http://www.ullmers-dairyequipment.com/cheesemolds.htm)
The person who posted it bought some stainless molds at a very reasonable price as I recall.
Quote from: Edgwick Farm on September 28, 2011, 10:26:37 PM
Talitha does not immediately yield a gender unless you are familiar with aramaic. Talitha means "little girl" and I am female and little too. And very proud to be a cheesemaker. :)
And glad you're here as well....
Quote from: Cloversmilker on September 29, 2011, 01:58:31 AM
Someone posted this link a few days ago. http://www.ullmers-dairyequipment.com/cheesemolds.htm (http://www.ullmers-dairyequipment.com/cheesemolds.htm)
The person who posted it bought some stainless molds at a very reasonable price as I recall.
I've bought molds from Ullmers previously. Good molds, good prices, good people.
-Boofer-
Best thing you can do with a kadova is bring it out back into a paddock and drop kick it as far as you can.
They are designed to be cleaned with hot caustic and acid, they are very far from ideal for home and small scale use.
Quote from: FRANCOIS on October 02, 2011, 03:42:33 AM
Best thing you can do with a kadova is bring it out back into a paddock and drop kick it as far as you can.
They are designed to be cleaned with hot caustic and acid, they are very far from ideal for home and small scale use.
Thumbs up for that, Francois. I use them every other day! What's the old adage? Cheesemakeing is 90% cleaning. But I have to love them at the same time.