Hi folks,

I’m new to the forum and have been enjoying poking around for info.  I’ve just gotten back into cheesemaking after a hiatus - I grew too frustrated last time so I gave it up for awhile. 

Now I’m back and more well-equipped; I’ve got a mini-fridge that I can keep at 50 degrees, a pH meter, a homemade press that seems to work well, etc.

My question this morning has to do with cheese flavor.  Last night I attempted to make a batch of fresh curds using Choozit MM100 culture.  I followed, generally speaking, the procedures outlined here.  I cut everything in half as I was making a 1-gallon batch, and I did not have any S. Thermophilus culture, so I used a tablespoon of yogurt which, according to the package, contains S. Thermophilus as one of the cultures.

I think I overshot my acidity a little - although I’m returning my PH meter for a new one today because I can’t seem to get the thing to stay calibrated more than 2 seconds at a time, so I’m not 100% sure on that.  According to the meter the pH at drain was around 5.8, but again I don’t know how accurate that is with this meter.

Anyway, the main question I have has to do with flavor.  Originally I thought it was because I was using buttermilk cultures in the past, but I’ve switched to the Choozit cultures - I’ve tried both MA19 and MM100 - and the result is always the same.

The cheese tastes…..  like almost nothing.  Salting improves the flavor a bit, but it’s still very bland and not all that “cheesy.”  It really doesn’t taste like much of anything at all.

Is this normal?  I’ve tried numerous brands of milk (store bought, raw is not an option for me here at least not right now), including some fancy-shmancy organic “Gently pasteurized” stuff that was almost $5 a gallon. The milk tasted better than most milk when I tasted it, but the cheese still tastes the same as when I used $2/gallon grocery store milk—which is to say it barely has a flavor.  I know that the aging process will develop a lot of the flavor and “sharpness” so I shouldn’t expect too much from fresh curds; but I do at least expect them to taste LIKE CHEESE!  I thought maybe it was because I wasn’t using raw milk, but I’ve had fresh curds from a local cheesery here in Colorado that says on the package they use pasteurized milk to make their cheese, and their fresh curds taste way more “like cheese” than mine do.  It’s like you can almost detect a “cottage cheese” type flavor, but you have to look for it; there’s not much “cheddary” about the flavor at all.

Any thoughts?

Welcome !!

The culture adds allot of flavor and does determine the type of development. Milk also will add allot of flavor however unfortunately most of us rely on store bought and its been processed allot, so frequently the taste is generally a yogurt type planeness. Aging is the trick, it allows for the transformation and the explosion of flavors.
Maybe try Goat milk, if u want to eat young cheese then maybe look for the organic/artisan milk.

The PH prob must always be moist or it wont work right, so keep it wet, if it dries out then soak for 8 hours, I use the ph solutions to soak in. The probes also have a shelf life, 12 months on average ive read. It also depends on how well the probe is looked after.

Thanks for the tips.  I may just have to keep experimenting with milk.  Unfortunately in order to get Raw Milk (which I would prefer) you have to join a Cow Share here in Colorado and I’m just not sure I am ready to commit to a gallon a week.  

I did soak the pH probe and I’ve tried calibrating it but it seems like it won’t stay true.  I stick it into 7.01 buffer solution and calibrate it to 7.01 - no problem - I leave it in there for several minutes and it stays right at 7.01.  I then rinse it off with filtered water and then take a sample of my whey or whatever - say the pH is like 6.45—so then I rinse the probe off with filtered water again and then I stick it back into the 7.01 solution, and stir it around to dislodge any bubbles/etc…  Now it reads 6.89 or 7.21 all of a sudden, so now I question whether the 6.45 was accurate to begin with!  I would expect that if it had stayed calibrated, it would read 7.01 again when I put it in the 7.01 solution.

Anyway I shall continue to experiment.  I am very interested in the fresh cheeses (especially cheddar curd) but I will age a few to see how they come out as well.

update:  I just went to Whole Foods and got some milk that’s produced by a local dairy.  It cost me about $8/gallon but $3 of that was a bottle deposit for the glass bottle.   Will report back how it does, I plan on making more curds this weekend.

A thought on the cow share you mentioned above.  If a gallon a week to too much for you, you could seek some friends to share a gallong once in a while. Or, with the warm weather upon us, you might make some ice cream.  If you’re like me, a gallon of ice cream doesn’t last all that long in the Summer.