I made a lot of cheddar in January and February. I thought that it would be ready by now.
I previously had a 9 month old cheddar come out of my cave that was wonderful, but my 9 month old cheddar that I have now is not ready. It tastes young.
I did change cultures before I made it. I used to buy a generic mesophilic culture, and then I bought some MA11 and started using it. The culture is not out of date, because I made this back in January and February right after I bought it. The culture does expire in November I think.
I also started using raw milk.
Any ideas as to why my cheese is taking longer to age?
Can’t say difinitively; but here are some questions: Is your cave at the right temp? Too cold will slow down aging. Did you use more salt than usual in the make? That will also slow down aging. What did you sanitize your equipment with, and did you rinse it well before mixing?
I think it’s the culture. I was buying culture in little packets and the recipe said to use 2 gallons of milk and 1 packet of culture, so when I used 4 gallons of milk I used 2 packets of culture. When I bought the MA11 in the large package, it said on the outside of the package to use 1/4 tsp for 2 to 5 gallons.
So when I was using the packets I was using more culture.
My cave has been 54 degrees since I bought it. I sanitize my stuff with Star San and I do rinse it out before using it. Except for my spoon that I stir with. I put it in a pitcher of water on the counter with a little sanitizer in it. After I use it I put it back in the pitcher. Maybe I should leave the sanitizer out of my water also.
I have no experience with the Choozit cultures (hard to get here) but my German supplier of the cultures I’m using advises to use half the amount of culture for raw milk.
My thoughts exactly. And use more culture next time. When I was making that cheese I had a hard time getting the PH level down to 6.1 so that I could drain it. It didn’t occur to me that I hadn’t used enough culture. I looked back at Rikki Carrol’s website about the culture and she has one of those statements that says we recommend this much, but you have to figure it out yourself.
Okay, considering this I’ve got a question to you all: When you use raw milk, do you use half the amount of culture than you would use with pasteurized milk? I never see this difference made in recipes, but my German supplier for cultures recommends this. But it seems that using half the (normal?) amount of culture is giving me a much longer coagulation time…
I didn’t mean to, but I did and it didn’t work out well. I have read that thing about less culture too, but I didn’t do it on purpose. I asked on this forum somewhere too, and some one answered that they did not. Not enough culture also causes the PH level to drop slower, so when making cheddar I ended up cooking it longer than the recipe said. The cheese is dry right now, and I don’t see that improving with age.
Thanks Tammy, I think I’ll stick to the normal amounts in the recipes, although until now the cheeses turned out fine. It’s only the floc time that’s considerably longer…
Here’s my 2 cents worth: I’ve been using raw milk for over 2 years, and I’ve always used the same amount of culture - with good results. Tammy, I notice that you bring your pH down to 6.1 for your cheddar. I’ve always gone with 5.95. Not much of a difference; but I was wondering if you’ve always used 6.1, or if you’ve used a lower pH at some point; and if so, have you noticed much of a difference?
