The recipe always says how fast to heat the curds. I had a hard time with this to begin with, and it was taking me too long to do it. I make my cheese in the kitchen sink by adding hot water to the sink to heat up the curd in the pot. I was not going as fast as I was supposed to but I did not note at what point I figured out how to get that right.

I know I figured it but I don’t remember when I figured it out. I have notes from end of December where I was trying to get it right, and I only made cheese in January this year, until now.

So if the recipe says to heat it from 90 degrees to 110 degrees in 30 minutes, which is about 3 degrees every 5 minutes, and it took me an hour to do it, what does that do to the curd? I am wondering if it makes the curd expel too much whey and therefore it make my cheeses slightly dry.

I’ve had some nice creamy delicious cheeses, and I’ve some that were dry and crumbly, and I’ve some that were slightly dry.

I understand the ph thing a little better now, and I want to understand the other points in the procedure as well.

I found extended “cooking” will dry out the cheese but as u said, its hard to get the temp consistent since we dont use steam heated cauldrons. I ended up doing it faster then stated as I used the stove to speed things up.

Luckily I have an electric pan and I about know how long to switch it on to raise the temp with 1 degree. And it’s pretty good in keeping the temperature when it’s switched off, so no problems there for me. But I can imagine extended cooking will dry out the curd.

I made the pepper jack again yesterday and I hit the 2 degrees every 5 minute mark perfectly. I checked the ph levels and I drained it an put it in the press at 6.0 and then I checked the final cheese product by stuffing a piece in the end of the meter and it was 5.81. I’m hoping that is rubbery and moist enough this time. It feels good, but lets wait 5 or 6 months to decide.

OK, the discussion here is about what happens if you cook too slowly.  I know that we are cautioned not to cook too fast by all the “experts.”  Has anyone ever done any experimenting to see what the “optimum” rate of temp increase is?  Or is that where the 2 degrees in five minutes comes from?  I’m wondering if that’s just been handed down, or if it really is the best?  I know that I’ve always been careful to cook slowly so that I don’t raise the temp too quickly; so I don’t know what happens if the cooking is faster - say, 3 or even 4 degrees every 5 minutes.  And another thing:  does this imply F. or C. degrees???  Or even Kelvin degrees for that matter!  That in itself would make a tremendous difference.

I happen to have a copy of Tim Smith’s book that is translated in Dutch AND a pdf of the original English version, first is in C.  and I suppose the second is in F. I’ll compare both of them to see if there is a difference. When I was less experienced with the behavior of my “milk vat” I was too fast sometimes (I think it was on my Cotswold). I can’t say I noticed a big difference, we have always variety in the amounts of culture, rennet, how we cut the curd etc. etc. So if you have to raise a temp in 30 minutes and you reach it in 25 minutes, will that result in a failure? I doubt it….

The 2 degrees in 5 minutes was listed in the recipe. Every recipe I have says how fast to heat the curd. Like “raise the temperature to 110 degrees over a 45 minute period. This should be about 3 degrees every 5 minutes”.  They are all different.

I think if I am doubling the time to get to the proper degree then I am over cooking it. Besides that it takes me a long time to make the cheese when I screw it up like that.

The next thing about the cooking is that while my recipe will say to cook the curds for however long it says, if I have a ph marker to reach I always end up cooking it a longer. I have tried to find recipes with ph markers for all of my cheeses, and now that I understand what the ph level does I think that I will eventually figure out how to control the finished product better.

I love this hobby! We ate my slightly dry pepper jack last night. I made hamburgers and stuffed the cheese inside of the patties and cooked them. It was really good, and the cheese melted too!

One day I will have all of my recipes down perfect with the ph markers that made the cheese the texture that I wanted it to be listed in my recipe. I’m enjoying the process of getting there.

That’s the spirit Tammy! Meanwhile I’m saving money for a decent PH-meter. Anybody any suggestions?

Back to the cooking question, here’s another thought:  It may not be the length of time the curd is cooked that is the essential element.  Rather, it may be the speed at which the temperature is raised.  That is, as I’ve heard, raising the temp too quickly tends to affect the curd in such a way as to prevent the proper expulsion of whey.  Holding the curd at temp, as we do when waiting for a pH mark, does not have this effect, so it is not an “overcooking.”  If this is all true, then raising the temp more slowly should not have an adverse affect.

Yes,  I’m looking for a PH-Meter too.  What is everyone using?  Also if you are willing to share recipes with the ph markers that would be awesome!  I do know that Dave has a Gouda recipe with ph markers ( correct?)

Until now I did not see too much use for a PH-meter, also because the milk I use has a pretty stable quality, only during winter I’ve a better yield because there are more solids in the milk. But now I want to start with more difficult cheeses like Epoisses I’m thinking about buying one…

I started with a Hanna Checker.  It’s a very low end meter, and it never lasted very long.  I went through two or three of them.  Since then I have gone to an Omega PHH-7X.  It looks exactly the same as the Hanna model, just a wee bit more pricey but still quite on the low end of the scale.  I am planning on upgrading in the future; but I haven’t decided which model to go with just yet.

http://www.omega.com/pptst/PHH7X.html

Thanks guys, but it seems it’s not available at this side of the world. I have an other one in mind but can’t find the specs right away. If I got them again, I’ll ask if you know this one, I think it was an Extech.

Ha ha Herman,  I’ll have to buy you your Extech meter here on this side of the water and send it to you in Holland,  then you can send me back the value in drop!  Good idea?