I'm trying to decide what recipe I want to make for my first pressed cheese. I've read many of the threads here in the forums regarding pressing weights, psi, etc., but I haven't seen this mentioned elsewhere yet.
In the wiki instructions on pressing various cheeses, it doesn't clarify whether the weight given is psi or simple weight. For example, in the Gouda recipe:
"Press the cheese lightly for 15 minutes at ~2 pounds per US gallon or 0.5 kg per liter of milk used.
[...]press again at ~5 pounds per 1 US gallon / 1 kg per 1 liter of milk for ~1 hour.
[...] press again at ~12 pounds per 1 US gallon / 1.5 kg per 1 liter of milk for final ~8-16 hours (i.e. overnight)."
Should I assume this is simply 2, 5 and 12 lbs of weight, or is this actually psi?
The cheddar recipe calls for 50 lbs. If it's psi, that's around 1400 lbs of weight on a 6" hoop; whereas if it's 50lbs of weight, that only comes out to around 1.5 psi, which seems kind of low.
No ,its wight not pressure. If your not a complete novice ignore the directions.
Some cheeses (semi hard) dont require much pressure and some variation wont really influence the final outcome- many recipes take into consideration that they will be used by amaturs who perhaps dont have a proper press so they give approximations on the ligher side which will likely still work with "stack on" wights on top of the mold.
"X pounds per 1 US gallon " it really doesnt matter how much milk you used,whats important is the size of your mold.
Cheddared cheeses really require everything you've got in terms of pressure.
NW Fromager, good question, I wrote part of those directions (https://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-gouda-cheese-making-recipe/) for what I assumed were average sized hoops for most people for Gouda cheese which is a "light or medium"pressed cheese.
I've corrected that Wiki Article to say for that, not sure why conversation changed to cheddar which is a very heavily pressed cheese.
Thanks for the replies.
John, I only mentioned these two cheeses as examples of the way weights were described. I just needed to find out if the weights directed were "X lbs of weight" or "X psi".
Cheers!
Oops, just reread, sorry I just saw Gouda, thanks, sorry for my comment above, will update Cheddar also.