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Can I taste the curd to see if the chevre is ready?

Started by narnia, November 08, 2015, 10:29:36 PM

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narnia

Is it OK to taste the curd to see if it is ready?  Would it mess up the process?  I am having difficulty knowing when it is ready, since this is my first time making any kind of cheese of cultured dairy product.

Gregore

Are you wanting to taste the fully formed salted cheese
Or are you wanting to taste as you are making it to know when to salt?

You can taste the curd at any time for any cheese . 

The only issue is that you should try to as little damage to the rind as possible, so if you can pull out a core taste the inside then replace the rest of the core .  Smooth down the seam with the paste .

usually chèvre is ready to eat any time after salting , though it can be aged out

Stinky

You can taste the curds, but unless you go along with a pH meter over many batches to train your tongue it's not going to be super helpful.



narnia

Quote from: Stinky on November 12, 2015, 08:31:28 PM
Quote from: narnia on November 12, 2015, 07:17:05 PM
What ph should it be?

4.6, I believe.

That is pretty acidic.  Do I need a special type ph paper to test the cheese?

Does it stay at that ph even after removing from the whey and adding salt to it as well?  If so, I would think that cheese is quite acidifying to the body, which is not healthy.  We need to be eating alkalizing foods for best health. 

Stinky

Quote from: narnia on November 14, 2015, 08:16:09 PM
Quote from: Stinky on November 12, 2015, 08:31:28 PM
Quote from: narnia on November 12, 2015, 07:17:05 PM
What ph should it be?

4.6, I believe.

That is pretty acidic.  Do I need a special type ph paper to test the cheese?

Does it stay at that ph even after removing from the whey and adding salt to it as well?  If so, I would think that cheese is quite acidifying to the body, which is not healthy.  We need to be eating alkalizing foods for best health.

A pH meter is best, paper strips are not super accurate. If it's worth it to you, a good fairly inexpensive reliable meter is the Extech Ph100, which is about 80$. I work without one, which is not ideal, but works for aged cheeses.

The main and most simple reason to add salt into the cheese is that it stops the cheese from acidifying. Take an alpine style, like Emmental. You'd cook the curds and stir them before molding. You press until you reach the target pH of 5.4. After this, the cheese would go into the brine, which does several things, including stopping acidification of your curds and concentrating at the rind, forming a defensive barrier against any microflora that grow on the surface, so they don't go straight to the inside of the cheese. Some, like stinky and bloomy-rind cheeses, are treated so as to encourage certain organisms to grow, and then those raise the pH above 6 or 7. This does, however, make the cheeses slightly more risky, as part of the deal with cheese and why it doesn't just get covered with all the mold and organisms and things is that you use salt and lactic acid to make it a hostile environment for many types of things. If the acid is higher, more chance that you might have something dangerous in there. Still not particularly high, just more reason to be careful.

It's not quite fair to say that one should just eat alkalizing foods. If we stayed away from all acidic things, most tap water, for example, would be undrinkable. But the science. One's blood is a bit over 7. The alkaline diet is supposed to help your blood stay around there. Thing is, diet will make little difference on this, as the body is pretty good at keeping your blood the way it's supposed to be. Urine, for example, has rather variable pH as its job is to get rid of the excess waste, and acid, that your body produces. The reason the alkali diet works, though, is because healthy things often have a pH of over 7. Fruits, vegetables and the like. The stereotypical American diet is more acidic. Lots of meat and protein, bread, cheese, and not much else. If you do not have vegetables or fruit very often, of course you're going to be less healthy than if you do. So while it can make you healthier, it isn't exactly because of the pH per se. Make sure to have a good, varied diet and don't worry about that. Cheese is not bad for you just because it's acidic.

Again, an article on the science of that if you want it.

narnia

Thanks for the article!  My personal experience has been that when I feel really tired and sleepy during the day, I can test my saliva and it is always acid.

So, when I take some barley green powder or eat a banana, I perk up, as it changes my body ph.  Also, whenever I have a headache, I am acidic.  Eating something alkaline, such as the powder, a salad, or a banana eases the headache.

I do not eat the SAD.  I am Amerasian, so a lot of Asian cooking .  I eat a very healthy diet with organic meats and  lots of vegetables. 

Stinky

Quote from: narnia on November 15, 2015, 12:42:12 AM
Thanks for the article!  My personal experience has been that when I feel really tired and sleepy during the day, I can test my saliva and it is always acid.

So, when I take some barley green powder or eat a banana, I perk up, as it changes my body ph.  Also, whenever I have a headache, I am acidic.  Eating something alkaline, such as the powder, a salad, or a banana eases the headache.

I do not eat the SAD.  I am Amerasian, so a lot of Asian cooking .  I eat a very healthy diet with organic meats and  lots of vegetables.

It's interesting that your body reacts that strongly. Kind of cool, in a way. :)

Then you're probably pretty healthy, compared to the Standard American Person.  :D


Gregore

our blood is always slightly above 7 ph becuase the air we breath is always buffering it back to a stable base , nothing we eat will change that.

I learned this keeping  salt water fish , nothing they eat effects their blood ph only my ability to keep water with a healthy ph does that .
And we are just humans swimming around in air that buffers our blood with every breath .


That is not to say we can not change the ph of our digestive system.  But that is a whole different story .

narnia

Well...all I can say is what my experience has been.  If I eat too much pineapple, my teeth get really sensitive and my stomach feels acidic.  I also worked with a practitioner in CA who had supplements to make my body more or less alkaline.  Really worked wonderfully to keep my body in balance and I felt wonderful when I was taking those according to my saliva and urine ph.

narnia

#11
Quote from: Stinky on November 15, 2015, 04:33:06 AM
Quote from: narnia on November 15, 2015, 12:42:12 AM
Thanks for the article!  My personal experience has been that when I feel really tired and sleepy during the day, I can test my saliva and it is always acid.

So, when I take some barley green powder or eat a banana, I perk up, as it changes my body ph.  Also, whenever I have a headache, I am acidic.  Eating something alkaline, such as the powder, a salad, or a banana eases the headache.

I do not eat the SAD.  I am Amerasian, so a lot of Asian cooking .  I eat a very healthy diet with organic meats and  lots of vegetables.

It's interesting that your body reacts that strongly. Kind of cool, in a way. :)

Then you're probably pretty healthy, compared to the Standard American Person.  :D

I am pretty sensitive to my body.  When I got chiropractic adjustments, although the Dr. told me that everything was properly aligned, I could tell when a specific area was still out of alignment.  He would adjust me again, and sure enough, I have been right every time.

I have been on the "Eat Right 4 Your Type" way of eating for the past 5 years.  It has been life-changing!!  I poo-poo-ed the diet at first, but when I saw that the foods to avoid were the same foods that an allergy Dr. told me that I had moderate allergies to, I was convinced!

Although I cooked everything from scratch and used mostly organic and whole grains, I used to ache all the time and feel really lousy!  Once I gave up my avoids, I felt like a new person!!  I have had a hacking cough and stuffy sinuses all of my life, but they both went away when I stopped eating my avoids!!  It was nothing short of a miracle!!!  My mind cleared up tremendously, too!!!  When I eat the avoids now, I can really feel it!

As an O, I had to give up wheat, potatoes, corn, cow milk, among many other foods.  So, although I was eating "healthy" it was making me sicker by the day, due to eating foods that were not good for my body.  But, in place of the avoids, I have new foods added to my repertoire that I really do enjoy, so I do not feel deprived.  I did bemoan the loss of my favorite dessert...ice-cream, but after many cheating sessions and the resulting fallout in my health, I finally gave up the ghost and feel so much the better for it!! 

Now, I raise my own vegetables and herbs...foods that I enjoy and the home-grown foods are so much more flavorful that I feel like I am feasting every day!!  Do not miss ice-cream at all!!   ;D

narnia

Quote from: narnia on November 15, 2015, 05:13:35 PM
Quote from: Stinky on November 15, 2015, 04:33:06 AM
Quote from: narnia on November 15, 2015, 12:42:12 AM
Thanks for the article!  My personal experience has been that when I feel really tired and sleepy during the day, I can test my saliva and it is always acid.

So, when I take some barley green powder or eat a banana, I perk up, as it changes my body ph.  Also, whenever I have a headache, I am acidic.  Eating something alkaline, such as the powder, a salad, or a banana eases the headache.

I do not eat the SAD.  I am Amerasian, so a lot of Asian cooking .  I eat a very healthy diet with organic meats and  lots of vegetables.

It's interesting that your body reacts that strongly. Kind of cool, in a way. :)

Then you're probably pretty healthy, compared to the Standard American Person.  :D

I am pretty sensitive to my body.  When I got chiropractic adjustments, although the Dr. told me that everything was properly aligned, I could tell when a specific area was still out of alignment.  He would adjust me again, and sure enough, I have been right every time.

I have been on the "Eat Right 4 Your Type" way of eating for the past 5 years.  It has been life-changing!!  I poo-poo-ed the diet at first, but when I saw that the foods to avoid were the same foods that an allergy Dr. told me that I had moderate allergies to, I was convinced!

Although I cooked everything from scratch and used mostly organic and whole grains, drank only water and avoided sugar and all sweets, I used to ache all the time and feel really lousy!  Once I gave up my avoids, I felt like a new person!!  I had a hacking cough and stuffy sinuses all of my life, but they both went away when I stopped eating my avoids!!  It was nothing short of a miracle!!!  My mind cleared up tremendously, too!!!  When I eat the avoids now, I can really feel it!

As an O, I had to give up wheat, potatoes, corn, cow milk, among many other foods.  So, although I was eating "healthy" it was making me sicker by the day, due to eating foods that were not good for my body.  But, in place of the avoids, I have new foods added to my repertoire that I really do enjoy, so I do not feel deprived.  I did bemoan the loss of my favorite dessert...ice-cream, but after many cheating sessions and the resulting fallout on my health, I finally gave up the ghost and feel so much the better for it!! 

Now, I raise my own vegetables and herbs...foods that I enjoy and the home-grown foods are so much more flavorful that I feel like I am feasting every day!!  Do not miss ice-cream at all!!   ;D

Gregore

Don't get me wrong I do agree with you that eating correctly will make huge differences in how you will feel .

It should as that is all,we are made of anyways.

Even with all the produce we grow and eat I would still miss ice cream if it left my life.

You can eat cheese but not ice cream? Is it the sugar or the lactose?

narnia

Actually both sugar and lactose.  I am not lactose intolerant, but any kind of sugar...even honey, does not do well for me.  I can get away with eating a tiny amount once in a blue moon, but if I ate it for more than once a couple of months, it has an effect on me.

As a non-secretor O, none of the sugars are allowed, which has been verified by my body.  Stevia is allowed, but I don't have a sweet tooth anyway, so it doesn't bother me.