I made a Gouda today and pressed it in the whey for a few hours, the knitting isn't great, I was wondering if that should determine whether to wax or try and develop a natural rind? What I have noticed with other cheeses that are not waxed is as I wipe them to clear them of mold with a salt water and vinegar solution they almost get like a paste and I'm able to smear it around a bit to keep the outer edge pretty smooth. Is this treatment OK, and can it be done with all cheeses that have slight surface imperfections? Thanks for your advice as always,
Andy
Hi Andy, for poor knitting of curds while pressing I believe that some have laced the pressed cheese in hot water to dry and soften the surface and get a smoother surface. Try searching the STANDARD METHODS - Forming Cheese Board for word knit.
Even if you go down that road, depending on how many/deep are the surface imperfections ripening stage will be a problem, natural rind can get mold in cracks, waxing may not seal properly resulting in mold under the wax. My vote is, after air drying phase, for oiling the rind and ripening in a medium humidity environment and trying to keep the mold at bay.
On your previous pressed cheeses where you get a paste when you clean the rind of mold, it sounds like your ripening environment is too humid and thus you haven't got a tight dehydrated dry rind, which also helps keep surface molds at bay. Salt water and vinegar rubs are standard to remove surface mold, you can't do it with all cheeses (ie soft or white mold), but should be good for most pressed cheeses.
Picture would help :)!
The humidity is around 80% and 55 degrees F. I won't be able to control the humidity to much, that's my hygrometer reading without water in the fridge, I was amazed it was that high thought it was perfect. I do have parts of the cheese that are drying nicely and mold free, but other areas obviously still have moisture and get mold. When a cheese is drying does it dry all at once or does it dry in sections?. I would think it would dry in sections.
Andy
It dries by losing moisture from it's surface, this by nature is uneven as some surfaces may be more dehydrated and thus less permeable, and some surface may be blocked like bottom of cheese on board or mat.
Also, if it is dried too quickly then moisture content cannot equalize quickly across the cheese and the outside which dries faster will shrink faster than the inside resulting in split surfaces due the resultant uneven stress within the cheese. There's a few pictures of this in the form, also see Wiki: Surface Defects, Cracks (https://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-cheese-surface-defects-cracks/).
The knitting on my cheese just isn't completely smooth, it's do to inexperience of the entire process. I plan on trying muslin instead of cheese cloth or just pressing naked all together. I don't really have cracks, just slight ridging and so forth. I'll add a photo of the Gouda and my Colby when I get the chance. I don't know what I would do without this site, I appreciate this site very much and for those of you that have the experience in cheese making.
Andy
Andy, do as I suggested and as I detailed in the tomme thread:
- Press under whey or in some warm area to achieve a great internal knit
- When you take the follower, put a piece of cloth so it is flat and even and press on that top heavily with your hands. Or if you have a press, put it on the highest weight you can. You're trying to smush the outer surface and embed the cloth in it. Then lift up the cloth, flip, repeat. The surface will be an even, single plane. Curd must be warm, environment must be warm. You can pour warm (110F) water or whey on top of the follower to help.
I pressed in the whey and tried to keep the whey temperature at around 100 degrees for the first 20 minutes or so, whey probably was at room temperature the last hour of pressing. Here are the photos of these cheeses. Like I said before experience is a big issue and I feel I'm getting better and better with each cheese.
Andy
Linuxboy - I have a similar problem in that I put the butter muslin in the mold and then find that when I fold the top of it over the top of the cheese, it tends to bunch up and make an uneven top.
Can one cut out a piece of muslin for the bottom of the mold, another one for the top, and simply press between those two? I am sure I will get the nubbings where the mold holes are, but at least there will be a flat top and bottom. Will that work?
Absolutely, that is a great way of doing it. I have never really understood the approach of lining a mold with cloth for a hard cheese, because those curds should already be cooked and hopefully semi-fused together from settling. If you're using cloth to create an even surface, well then use the right approach for an even surface with no creases. *shrug*
Most moulds require cloth only for surface smoothing. It's not there to capture curd from pouring out the whey holes. You don't need to fold the cloth down under the follower, just let it sit out of the top of the mould, the top will become the bottom when you flip it and vice versa. Cooked curd rinds usually require lots of patience, hot whey and pressure to get them smooth. Practice makes perfect.