Parmesan cheese swetting/weeping.
Posted: 18 February 2009 08:27 PM   [ Ignore ]
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After reading the beginning of the following I said yeah count me in.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2319040_make-parmesan-cheese.html

I ended up with a very hard looking/feeling cheese that I dried and salted for weeks in 68-70f, wiped and smothered, but then after many untold nights of thinking I finally ended up waxing, mostly due to it’s small 4” size. Ok, so now it has begun weeping and so I’m I. March with me, where do we go & what do we do?

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Posted: 18 February 2009 08:58 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]
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if its getting moist make sure its salted so that it does not get mold, if its only 4”, make sure it does not dry out into a hokey puck. So u have it waxed? its got water pockets? how is it weeping?

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Posted: 19 February 2009 07:49 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]
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sgbrix - 19 February 2009 02:27 AM

After reading the beginning of the following I said yeah count me in.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2319040_make-parmesan-cheese.html
I ended up with a very hard looking/feeling cheese that I dried and salted for weeks in 68-70f, wiped and smothered, but then after many untold nights of thinking I finally ended up waxing, mostly due to it’s small 4” size. Ok, so now it has begun weeping and so I’m I. March with me, where do we go & what do we do?

Have read the recipe, and apart from the first ‘about’ in the timing it’s looks OK.
So it must be something in your method. The first thing I spot is the ripening temp. In my view it’s too high. The ‘cave’ should be 55F or very close. The humidity can be lower than the 80% we are advised is the optimum, as you want the cheese to be on the dry side.
The other possibility is the cooking temp, as that would hold too much water in the curds leading to weeping during ripening.
Without knowing where the error was made, it’s difficult to advise a cure.
If it’s still weeping? Are they tears of sadness or tears of frustration. cheese

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Posted: 22 February 2009 12:14 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 3 ]
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I did step #6 for @ 30h at “room” temp. Being that we had a Florida “cold” spell down in the 40f I think we had indoor temps of @ 66-70F. I dipped the cheese 3 times and it seem to weep from 3 different points. Feels “fatty” smells like cheese but no sign of mold yet. I did not refrigerate this cheese but stuck it into my wine cellar where I keep my cheeses at @ 55f.

I made 3 cheese from the same curd that day and the other two seem fine. This my #1 had the strongest pressure on the curd and had that “hockey puck” feeling after drying. The other two with less pressure have more of a give to them.

Just wait and see? Remove a piece of wax and let it dry some more? Other options?

I’ll try to upload a pix.

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Posted: 22 February 2009 12:36 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 4 ]
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That’s a cool label you made for yourself.  I like it.

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Rich

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Posted: 22 February 2009 01:07 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 5 ]
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Nice cheese !!
been thinking about this weeping thing allot of us sometimes has had and it just hit me, well yesterday., the hard cheeses dry out because of the high acid content, so it would make sense that the moisture content is leaving somehow so we get an excess of weeping, other wise the moisture should be suspended in the matrix.Instead we have the acid breaking down the structure and expelling the moisture.
My 2cents on the subject.

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