Recently, I’ve had two problems that I’m trying to resolve.
First, I really have a difficult time getting the curds to set up as “firm” as they are supposed to. They do not create a “clean break” after the proper amount of time. Instead, a knife inserted into the curd comes out coated with curd. I think this is because the acidity is not high enough. So, I’ve tried adding some calcium chloride to the milk as I begin to heat it, and, I’m going to start adding a small additional amount of rennet over what the recipe calls for. I’ve also got some PH strips and plan to start tracking the PH of the milk.
Second, when I do get decent curds, in the press they don’t meld together properly. I get a cheese round that has cracks in it. Ususally the cracks are there after the pressing, but sometimes they form shortly afterwards. My references say this is because the curd is “too dry”, but I find this hard to believe because it tends to happen in the same cheeses that exhibit the problem described above.
Anyway, the source of milk could be an issue…temperatures at over 5000 feet…
I’m going to start always treating the milk with calcium chloride and adding about 25% additional rennet…I’ll let you know how it goes. (I hate throwing away 2 gallons of milk at over $3.00 a gallon…)
