I’m new around here and new to cheesemaking, so I want to make sure I’m doing things correctly. I just made my first hard cheese following the Farmhouse Cheddar recipe from Ricki Carroll’s book. When I took the cheese out of the mold after the last pressing, the cheese was quite spongy. In other words, it was very elastic, rubbery, squishy. After a day on the cheese board, the cheese round had barreled out quite a bit, several cracks had formed with whey dripping from them, and the round was still very elastic.
So, I’m concerned that not enough whey was expelled during pressing. Is a hard cheese normally not this hard early in its life? I suppose it’s possible that there is excess friction in my homemade cheese press such that less pressure was applied than expected. If this is the case, will the batch turn out all right? Is there anything I can do to dry it out?
A rind has begun to form on the non-cracked surfaces, and following the recipe, I would wax the cheese in the next day or two. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
1- Cheddar should not drip a lot whey while pressing, because it has been processed in long process of draining.
so here i guess u need to check the wheel, take a piece and try to melt it, is it meltable ?
2- The surface has been cracked because the cheese has dried out so quickly in ur room, next time put it in a pot, with lid partially open to maintain the humidity, to let the wheel dry slowly and form good smooth rind.
Thanks for your help. If I understand correctly, most of the whey should have come out during the pre-pressing processes. Do the elastic nature and exuding of whey mean that not enough whey was expelled before pressing? What are the consequences of having too much whey at this stage? Are most cheddars nonelastic at this point?
I tried melting a piece of the cheese (rind and interior) with no success. I’m not sure what this should tell me. Is there anything I can do to salvage this wheel? Should I just wax over the cracks, or is there some mending I can try? I appreciate your point about the cracking resulting from drying too fast, and will try the pot next time.
Welcome IHansen !!!
What it can also be is the excess acid and its crumbling. I would salt the outside (rub it) then press it till no whey come out, flip it regularly and when the surface dries then wax it and shelv it for 2 months. Then check it out and if it hasent changed then use it like fetta cheese or lasagna.
Lars, on your first pressing at 10#, how much whey did you get? And how well did the curds hold together for you after that pressing? For me with that recipe, that’s the only pressing that gives me much whey at all, and when I take the pressed curds out of the mold after that pressing they are well-formed into a pretty stable cheese shape—I wouldn’t want to drop it, but I can (gingerly) hold it with one hand and use the other hand to respread the cheesecloth, then drop the cheese back into the press without the curds falling apart.
The 20# pressing, I’ll get a tiny amount of the whey running off the drip pan and the 50#, just a little whey puddles in the drip pan. By far most of the whey comes off when I’m draining/hanging it.
So my pressing experience sounds exactly like the one described above. Most of the whey was expelled during the hanging, and the wheel was handleable after the first pressing. Is your farmhouse cheddar fairly elastic after pressing? There is already a fairly good rind developed, and I intend to wax it today. Is there anything I should do to the cracks, or should I just wax over them?
Lars and Valeree - welcome to the Forum; we’re glad to have you. Here are some thoughts for you to consider: First, it is possible that you may not have cooked your curd to a warm enough temp in order to expel the proper amount of whey prior to hanging and pressing. It would be difficult to get it out in any way if that were the case. It sounds like you should definitely press it longer and probably with more weight than before. What is the diameter of your mold? If its more than 4”, then you were not using enough weight. I’d put it back in the press with 100 lbs pressure for about 10 hours and see what happens.
By the way, Valeree, the bandaging idea is a good one. I’ve been trying that with a few cheeses lately and I like it a lot.
Rich, I’ve been trying to find good instructions for bandaging, and I’m having a hard time. Maybe I’m just not searching well! I’m planning on bandaging my next cheddar. Do you know where I can find some good and complete instructions?
New England Cheese Supply has a pictorial on their website. Their instructions call for pressing during the bandaging process to get the cloth to adhere tightly. When I bandaged, I didn’t press. I use a good thick layer of vegatable shortening first. Then I cover the top and bottom with cloth just slightly larger than the diameter of the wheel so that it folds over the sides. Last a bandage around the circumference which overlaps the top and bottom edges. I then cover with another layer of shortening, and I wrap a second time. Then, another layer of shortening over the entire surface. I have to admit that I couldn’t find real helpful instructions either. I ran across NECS after I had done mine. So far I’m real happy with it. I haven’t opened one of the 3 bandaged cheeses in my cave, but they have held their shape quite well with no sagging. Oh, I also set them on something instead of directly on the cave shelf to avoid the gooey mess. I cut 6” diameter circles of 3/4” plywood (cuz that’s what I had on hand) for a base; and then put the plywood into plastic bags and the bandaged cheese on top of that. I was told to expect a lot of mold buildup on the surface - and that’s exactly what I got - but that the mold would peel off with the bandage when it was opened. Also, you’ll want to turn more frequently - I turned twice a day for at least the first 2 weeks. All in all, its a bit more time consuming to bandage than to wax; but it was fun and seems to be doing very well.
Rich, you mean at cheesemaking.com? I’m not finding a pictorial—no reference to bandage or bandaging at all when I search their site?
Yes, I’d seen instructions to bandage and press, too—I =though= I’d seen something else somewhere that had indicated you could bandage without having used a layer of bandaging for the final pressing. I’d like to bandage this cheddar I’ve got drying right now, so maybe I’ll try your method, thanks! Then for the next cheese, I’ll try using the first layer of bandage for the final pressing, see how the two differ.
