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We have made two Edams now, using the common recipes where after the initial pressing at 15 lbs. for 30 minutes you cook the boule in whey heated to 122*F for 20 minutes.... then return it to the mould for 2 hrs. at 30 lbs. and then overnight at 60 lbs.... We used the recommended MM 100 culture.... In both cases, during the first month of aging at 55*F and 80% humidity, they split, including a large crack or cracks in the wax.... We were using an Edam mold, which is close to spherical in shape, only slightly flattened....



Is the splitting because the rind looses pliability from cooking it in 122*F whey?.... or does it have something to do with the shape of the mold?.... We have not experienced this with Gouda or Havarti, both of which use the same culture and are waxed, but use a more flattened mold (with rounded sides) and no cooking of the boule.... My gut tells me it is the 20 minutes in hot whey changing the rind, and there are Edam recipes that don't call for that.... Should I try one of those, or try using my Gouda mold?....

Bob

That's an interesting thing .    Your cheese, which looks delicious by the way, seems to have more holes in it then I would expect an edam to have.  Could the cause of the holes also be the cause for the cracking?  Or did the cracking cause the holes?

The larger holes in the middle were likely from pressing too hard initially (that was our first Edam, we haven't opened the second one yet).... The holes weren't very big, actually, and it wasn't even a little bit sour from excess acidity, so I think mostly they were from CO2 from the MM 100 culture.... The Gouda and Havartis we have made with the same culture had the same small holes.... Here is a pic of our first Gouda....



There were few holes near the outside edge (typical), so I think zero chance of them coming from the cracking, but the other way around would be very likely, because that culture causes significant CO2 production and lots of small holes.... The cheeses using it expand quite a bit during the first 4-6 weeks of aging.... however it is only the Edams that crack, none of the others.... 

Bob

Well, you could always make a gouda and use that mold.  :-). Maybe it has to do with not having the cheese pressed perfect the same all the way around. That is, it is a not a sphere of constant density.   It would seem to me that it would be easier to achieve constant density through out a cheese when you are pressing a cylinder but it seems this would be more difficult for a home cheese maker to do to a sphere.

I don't know.. I could be totally off of course... but I can think of no other reason the shape would matter.

One thing you might try is pasteurising the water you are using for washing the curds.  I've noticed that Gavin Webber has a problem where he gets eyes every single time he does a washed curd.  I suspect it's the water.  You may be having the same problem.  The large crack is consistent with "late blowing", which may be bacteria from the water supply.  Hard to say, though...

Pressure is evenly distributed throughout a liquid, regardless of the shape, so I would think that would apply to a cheese in it's "plastic" form, before it knits and expels the whey.... I haven't observed any difference in density in the paste regardless of the shape of the mold, except for cracking from pressing too hard too soon, of course....

Our water is sterilized by passing through a UV filter, I would have thought that would be good enough.... but I guess anything is possible.... How hot would I need to heat the water to "pasteurize" it?.... I thought the whole point of using MM 100 was to get small eyes from the CO2 production?....

Bob

I use bottled purified water when washing curds. I am absolutely sure it is sterile. Sterilize your water by boiling it for a few minutes and let it cool before using to be absolutely sure. Pasteurizing water seems to be not good enough imo. It seems your Edam has too much holes. I don't remember eating an Edam cheese with that many holes, iirc it has very few holes and one brand don't have any. The holes might also be caused by coliform or just mechanical openings. Do you use raw milk?

But cheese curds are not 100% liquid.  I dont know how an edam mold works actually.  Regular molds we place weight on top pressing the cheese in vertically, and normal force pushes back equally. The sides of the molds keep it together, so I would think pressure is evenly distributed and so is density.  With an edam mold Is there no weight applied?  How is the cheese pressed? 

An Edam mold is curved on the bottom and the follower is likewise curved, and you add weight (force) to the top of the follower in the conventional manner to create the PRESSURE required to knit the curds.... Solids and liquids are incompressible, so as long as there are no air spaces inside the cheese the pressure will be evenly distributed.... and therefore so should be the density.... I have not seen any difference in density due to the shape of the mold, and I use wheels with square corners, rounded corners, spherical, and rectangular.... The only thing I do see is mechanical holes (not rounded eyes) and cracks caused by late acidification as a result of pressing too hard too soon and trapping whey.... Mikechar gave me some excellent advice about that, and by following it diligently I am now having that happen much less frequently or drastically.... The first Edam (shown) was made before I understood that (as was that Gouda).... and were simply cranked up to the recommended weight for the first pressing right away, instead of slowly....

I'm sure that commercial cheeses are pressed with such high pressures (up to 50 psi) to insure consistently perfect knit and no holes, but that is something just not possible for me.... My press tops out at 3.5 psi with one pair of springs, and double that with two pairs.... I have only used all 4 springs once, on my Cantal.... Sailor never uses more than 3.5 psi for his Cheddars, but a bit more for a Cantal, and he sells hundreds (thousands?) of cheeses (I think he makes 60 varieties?) every year....

I will give some thought to sterilizing the wash water, or using bottled water instead.... Thanks for the suggestions.... Does anyone have an opinion of the cooking of the Boule in hot whey?.... Do you do that?....

Bob

Yeah, if I understand correctly, these kinds of cracks are never caused by lack of pressing.  There are 2 main causes.  You may have pressed too much, closing the outside of the rind and stopping the whey from draining.  It pools in the center of the cheese and because the whey contains a lot of lactose *and* it takes time for the salt to get into the center of the cheese, it over acidifies.  Often you will get gas production (early blowing), or just a really different texture in the center.  The outside of the cheese is the correct pH and the correct moisture level, while the center is neither.  Just that difference in texture manifests in a crack.

The other main cause is late blowing.  This happens because you have organisms in the milk/whey that produce gas late in the process.  I don't really understand why it produces a crack rather than eyes, though.  Possible for similar reasons (the organisms produce acid which acidifies the curd in the center, causing a texture difference. With a little bit of gas production, it manifests itself as a crack).

This concerns cheddar but it might apply here. https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/cheese-quality/67-causes-of-early-gas-production-in-cheddar-cheese.html

We opened the Edam today, and it had a rather large crack in the middle.... However, it was perfect in taste, mild and pliable, and a true Edam....

Next time I will probably not use the hot whey soak after the first pressing.... and I will press under the whey initially, and then very carefully once removed from it....

Bob