Aiiyee. I’ve made three Farmhouse Cheddars (from Carroll’s book) so far, trying to master the process of heating the curds evenly. But it looks like I’ve made a mistake I didn’t suspect—I’ve been loading a 2# cheese (that is, the product of 2 gallons) into a 6” mold and pressing as specified (10 min @ 10#, 10 min @ 20#, 12 hrs @ 50#) and now I see that perhaps those weights would have been appropriate for a 4” mold?
I tried to find the correct discussions—the search terms I was using kept bringing up -references- to the discussions. If someone can point me in the right direction, I’d be obliged! I’m planning another Farmhouse Cheddar on Saturday and I’d surely like to get this one right, if I’ve been getting the others wrong! I haven’t tasted any of them yet, so this is crazy-making! :D
Valeree, if you can figure the sq in of the mold’s diameter then its easy to calculate the proper weight. Take the radius (3”) squared (9) times pi (3.1428) and you come up with 28.285 sq in. Now, the number of pounds in the recipe divided by the sq in = the lbs/sq in of pressure. For your Farmhouse cheddar your weights should be as follows: 10 lbs becomes 22.5; 20 lbs becomes 45; and 50 lbs becomes 112. I was using water for my pressing weight and these weights were unmanageable for that amount of weight. Dave suggested concrete blocks, and that works rather well. The 8 X 16” hollow blocks weigh 22 lbs, and the 4 X 16” solid blocks weigh 33 lbs. They stack solidly and there’s little chance of them slipping and crashing to the floor. Hope this helps.
Valeree, if you can figure the sq in of the mold’s diameter then its easy to calculate the proper weight. Take the radius (3”) squared (9) times pi (3.1428) and you come up with 28.285 sq in. Now, the number of pounds in the recipe divided by the sq in = the lbs/sq in of pressure. For your Farmhouse cheddar your weights should be as follows: 10 lbs becomes 22.5; 20 lbs becomes 45; and 50 lbs becomes 112. I was using water for my pressing weight and these weights were unmanageable for that amount of weight. Dave suggested concrete blocks, and that works rather well. The 8 X 16” hollow blocks weigh 22 lbs, and the 4 X 16” solid blocks weigh 33 lbs. They stack solidly and there’s little chance of them slipping and crashing to the floor. Hope this helps.
Oops, I have to correct myself. Calculate pressure per sq in using the 4” recipe mold size, not your 6” mold size. Then you take the pounds/sq in times the number of sq in in your 6” mold to get the pressing weight. The weights above are correct. I took them from my book. After I calculated the sq in of my mold, I corrected all the weights in my recipe book.
Okay, still stupid here. :D Let me go through the steps and see if I’m doing this right.
So the Carroll book assumes a 2# cheese will be pressed in a 4” mold, is that correct? So if I used a 4” mold, I’d use the pounds specified in the recipe. So that for a 4” mold, that 10 pounds of pressure is actually 10/(r (2”) squared (4”) times pi (3.1416))= 10/12.56 = .796 psi.
So if I go to a 6” mold, I’m actually going to 28.25 square inches, so that in order to get to .796 psi, I need to put 28.25 x .796 = 22.49 pounds.
Okay, wow. I had thought I was supposed to use a 6” mold—isn’t that dumb? I knew it was called a “5-pound mold” and just didn’t even THINK about the physics implications of using a 2# cheese recipe in it. Stupid stupid stupid! I’ve made three Farmhouse Cheddars, and every one of them was pressed at less than half what it required. Yeesh.
Thank you SO MUCH. I am so glad I came here before I made any more! Well, it’ll be interesting to compare these first few cheeses with later ones. I wonder what the differences will be? I suppose it’s possible I’ll even like them, eh? :D
and they say they’re pressing their colby at 40 psi! Can this be correct?
Now I’m totally confused. If I’m pressing a 4” cheese at 10/20/50 pounds, then I’m pressing it at .796/1.59/3.98 psi. So is a 40 psi pressing what commercial cheesemakers are using? Like ten times what a home cheesemaker is using?
OTOH, if they’re pressing what looks like a 10"x12”=120 square inch container at 40 POUNDS (rather than 40psi) then they’re getting something like .333 psi. Which is less than 1/10th of the pressure the Carroll recipe is calling for on the final pressing.
and they say they’re pressing their colby at 40 psi! Can this be correct?
I will be interested in your findings, I don’t believe you’ll notice a difference.
If you look in the background of the photo you’ll see the moulds are horizontal, also a number of them. This effectively makes the overall ‘depth’ of the pressing deeper, needing high pressure.
Now visualize a vertical press, which we use, now increase the depth of the pressing, more pressure is needed, but not if you increase the diameter.
I have been convinced for some time that we have been ‘conned’ by an ‘old wives tale’ that pressure is paramount in producing a good wheel. When I went from a 4” to a 6” wheel I did not increase the pressure,and didn’t notice any difference. But when I increased the depth, then I had to increase the pressure.
I believe curd preparation is more important than pressing. For example. Parmesan is rarely pressed, but moulded hot straight from the whey, same with Cheddar, When reading recipes there is little noted on keeping the curds warm!
Please keep us posted on your outcome.
David boxing cheese:
After draining whey and salting the cheese curds go into boxes. The boxes are lined with cheesecloth and kept overnight at a pressure of 40 pounds per square inch.
Green Cheese Maker - 02 February 2009 10:01 PM
I think that maybe you misread the website you referenced. They said the cheese was “compressed into 40 lb. blocks,” not at 40 psi.
Well now I’m confused. Unless they had a misprint I come up with the following: Looks like a 12 X 18” box he’s handling. At 40 psi, he pressed with a weight of 8,640 lbs. I’d like to see his press!
Rich, exactly. That was why I was wondering about it.
Green Cheese Maker - 02 February 2009 11:07 PM
Well now I’m confused. Unless they had a misprint I come up with the following: Looks like a 12 X 18” box he’s handling. At 40 psi, he pressed with a weight of 8,640 lbs. I’d like to see his press!
Rich, exactly. That was why I was wondering about it.
Green Cheese Maker - 02 February 2009 11:07 PM
Well now I’m confused. Unless they had a misprint I come up with the following: Looks like a 12 X 18” box he’s handling. At 40 psi, he pressed with a weight of 8,640 lbs. I’d like to see his press!
I would suggest that you keep in mind that the web page in question is really a PR (public relations) piece and not a technical process instruction for cheese making. It is not uncommon for non-technical people to be confused about the difference between weight(force) and pressure(force per unit area). I would venture to guess that the first pressing of their cheese is done with a 40 lb weight (force), and that they didn’t elaborate and get into the further flippings and pressings that follow it.
Valereee….
First of all, I am not an expert on this subject but I have done quite a lot of personal research.
When I first moved up to an 8” mold I had a lot of problems with my curds not knitting together properly.
Whereas I had never had a single problem before, now all of a sudden my cheeses looked very rough textured.
I asked a question about this to some fellow cheesemakers and several assured me that I was not pressing with enough weight. After giving this process a try, I’ve never had a single problem with my wheels not forming as they should.
Tom (FineWino) has posted a pressing chart on this forum in Excel format that is fantastic. I use it exclusively for all of my presses now.
Since I now use a pneumatic press I added the “air line” pressures needed to his spreadsheet and the results have been perfect.
I think both Rich (Green Cheese Maker) and I would agree that Tom’s spreadsheet is a great resource. I highy recommend you take a look at it.
Somwhere in this thread you will see a post by FineWino that has a file attachment called:
cheese pressing weight table.xls
I have this file saved to my desktop and use it ALL the time. It is one of the best resources I’ve seen for home cheese making.
There has been a lot of discussion on the topic of required pressing weights (both for and against).
Even though some people have been skeptical, (including myself), once it was tried, nearly everyone agrees that it turns out a much better final product.
I didn’t see that big of a difference between 4” and 6” molds but from 6” to 8”, the difference was HUGE.
