I’m in the process of making another thermophilic farmhouse cheddar. I was going to keep it at 90 deg. F. through the ripening and curd set. However, I wasn’t careful enough and it ended up at 92. I think it may have been a fortuitous mistake, because the curd was fantastic! The best I’ve yet had - really firm. I then cooked it to 102 and held it there for 15 min, drained, added salt, and its in the press now. First press was 22 lbs., second press 45 lbs. and the last press will be 115 lbs. The first two presses with cheesecloth and the last without. I’ll keep y’all posted throughout the whole process, but I’m planning on aging it 3 months, so you’ll have to be patient.
i know exactly what you mean i have a no name cheese aging in the cave it will be interesting to taste in a couple of months thats what makes cheesemaking so interesting you can still eat your stuff ups lol
A new development. I was going to do the final press with no cheesecloth; but it was not possible to do so. When I got 100 lbs on the press, the pressure pushed the mold up, the curd got squeezed out one side at the bottom, and the pusher and the upper plate canted to one side drastically. I was forced to use the cheesecloth after all. I figured I would press with the cloth until I left for work in the AM. Being somewhat reluctant at this point, I only put 100 lbs on the press. Well, when I got up at 3:30 I found the cheesecloth had torn, and the curd squeezed out the bottom anyway. I’ve got it back in the press now - without any cloth; but I don’t know how much pressure it will take without self-destructing. The curd is NOT wet, quite the contrary, its quite firm and dry. Guess I’ll take my chances with about 65 lbs during the day. Don’t know what I’ll find when I get home this afternoon.
My first thought is that using the higher pressing weights with my 6” mold, I’m going to have to add some intermediate steps in the pressing process, so that the wheel compresses more gradually. I’m thinking I should not increase the weight by more than 25 lbs for each step. How do you guys do it?
OK, this morning I couldn’t even get 65 lbs to stay on the press without it coming apart. So I settled for 33 lbs. When I got home, that had also come apart. So, back to the drawing board. I resurrected my old spring type press and used a part of it to secure the mold. I then put that inside my current press and started adding weight. 33 - no problem. 65 - no problem. I’ll let it compress for a while and then jump to 100. Maybe I can resurrect this cheese after all.
Here are the pix of the press problem. Thought you might be interested in seeing what I was talking about. I never had this problem before, even though I had utilized more weight than this. I don’t know why it occurred this time; but with the metal bracket holding it down it should be good for lots of weight.
Something was uneven, water trap maybe. I would put a few small holes in the pipe for drainage. An I would put a plug in thats at least 2 inches so their is little play.
Plug as in the the thing that presses down on the cheese, I know theirs a cheese name for it, dont recall. Like I use (pics posted way back) cut out a circular pice of wood from a 2x12 so it goes down the tube nice and creates a more even pressure when press from the center.
Rich…
Thanks for the photos. I read this post first thing this morning but I really could not envision the problem you were having.
Is it typical for you to have as much curd as you had with this batch?
The reason that I ask is because it looks like your pressing board (what looks like a 4x4) is really long!
It looks to me like the 4x4 was sticking up so far out of the mold that it was hard to keep the weight centered and steady. I don’t know that that was our problem but it’s what I’m seeing in the photos.
One suggestion I would make is to take a piece of 4” Sch40 PVC pipe and make a new pressing piece, (to replace the 4x4 piece).
You could make one that is 4” long….one 6” long….one 8” long and so on a so forth.
As your curd compresses you can simply move up to the next longest piece. This will keep the pressing part as short as possible while still keeping it above the top of your mold (which I assume is a piece of 6” PVC).
I’m simply taking a guess that this is the problem you were having so if Im off base, let me know.
Hope this helps.
Neil, I think its called a follower, and a thicker one might be very helpful.
Dave, I have a 4” blue pvc piece that I had been using. but it was not cut exactly straight and my cheeses were just a wee bit uneven on the top. That’s when I went to the 4X4. After I put the brace across the mold the 4 X 4 would no longer work, so I was using 2 pcs of 2 X 4, one on either side of the bracing bar. If I continue to utilize a brace on the mold, I’m not going to be able to use a 4” anything.
This morning I got the cheese out of the mold, after an additional 9 hours at 100 lbs. I think the earlier unsuccessful pressings were my ruination. The finished cheese is spongy, and when I press on it with my hands I can hear air escaping. I should have had a cheesecloth in it, but both mine got torn from this cheese and I had to go without. This has been one tough nut to crack. Maybe I should call it Mafia Cheddar???
Do you think the sponginess is the result of a poor knit on the internal curds, leading to large air gaps within?
There’s no doubt that this has not been a fun cheese to work on, but I’ll still bet you come out with something edible.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Just a guess, but I’m thinking the sponginess is due to the press fiasco. When it all fell apart, the pressure was reduced on the curd mass - so it just did its own thing. I’m hoping it was NOT fermentation, because that would indicate the presence of yeast. Whatever happened, I’m going to see this one through. But I’m also going to take a break from the development of this cheese and make a few others while this one ages. When I crack it, I’ll see what I get and go from there. It is fun experimenting however, and I don’t expect I’ll stop trying new things.
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