Hi, I’m new to this forum. I’ve just recently gotten into cheese making, and have made some mozzarella and basic fresh cheese. This was my first attempt at a hard cheese. It’s a two-gallon recipe of farmhouse cheddar from Ricki Carrol’s home cheese making, using the bandaging technique for aging (coat with shortening, and bandage with cheesecloth). Today was the one-month mark, and I unbandaged it. Lots of mold developed on the outside, but the book says that that is normal, and keeps moisture inside. When I took of the bandage, most of it came off, and then I wiped it with vinegar. However, when i cut into it, I found that there were gaps (bubbles?) in the cheese. It tasted fine, maybe a little sour, but still good. I wanted to know what could have caused this. Also, the cheese’s weight was reduced by almost one third after one month. My theories are:
- The curds were contaminated by yeast or another bacteria
- I broke up the curds too small before pressing.
- Since both the recipe and the bandaging method are meant to make a drier cheddar, the curds were not pressed together hard enough, and as they dried out, they pulled away from each other.
Does anyone have any ideas why this could have happened? I have included some pictures below:

The mold that developed on the outside of the cheese after 1 month:

A wedge of the cheese:

The inside of the cheese wheel (one side has been broken):

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

It actually looks real good. The sour taste is usually when theirs too much acid, check to see if it melts, if it melts good then its from something else. A cheese drying out is common in the fact that when one makes small batches theirs not much buffer room and it turns into a hockey puck, thats why bigger wheels are preferred so they have a hard rind. i would recommend coating with olive oil before wrapping and give it a good regular coating on the outside. The bubbles are maybe from trapped liquid when pressing, maybe not enough pressure,  or some kind of fermentation. Hard to say when not know all the details of the process u carried out.
Welcome to the forum !!!

The texture looks just about right.  I does need additional pressure to close the gaps more; but you will always have some.  The mold is also normal.  The dryness is inherent in this type of cheese; one of the reasons I don’t do very many of the farmhouse cheddars.  Although the weight loss you recorded does seem a bit extreme.  I’m wondering if you single or double wrapped your wheel?  A thicker coating should help with the moisture loss.  As to the sour taste, I get that every time to some degree.  I haven’t yet figured out if its normal or a problem with my processing; but I’m working on ideas.  I’ll let everyone know if I get it right.

And I’m glad to see that you’ve joined the group.  Happy cheese making - and eating!

Green Cheese Maker - 09 March 2009 08:21 AM

The texture looks just about right.  I does need additional pressure to close the gaps more; but you will always have some.  The mold is also normal.  The dryness is inherent in this type of cheese; one of the reasons I don’t do very many of the farmhouse cheddars. 
And I’m glad to see that you’ve joined the group.  Happy cheese making - and eating!

Welcome Rainy City, I can assume you’re from Seattle?

I cannot agree that the texture is correct for a Traditional Cheddar, more like a Wensleydale or Caerphilly, crumbly and open. A good cheddar should cut a thin slice that you could almost read through, and stay together, not fall apart.

When I last raised this subject I was told to ‘wait till you cut it’. Well now I’ve cut one and it was superb, smooth, creamy and an excellent texture and taste.

I firmly believe we go by ‘The Book’ with little to no thought about what we’re doing, if ‘The Book’ says we do this, then we do it, without question. Perhaps I could get someone else to take up this matter and confirm my findings as I don’t believe ‘High pressure’ is the total answer to a good meld.

The matter of ‘draining’ small batch cheese that we make is basically flawed! If you stop for a moment and think about it, it really is un-necessary. But what it does do is to cool the curds to below the cooking temperature, and cold curds do not meld together. So cut out the drain period, keep the curds at cooking temp and straight into the mould.

I also have drastically reduced the initial press times. The first press might only have 5 minutes, a quick flip before the curds cool, and repress for the same amount, and every time a coconut!  I am now making the most attractive cheese ever.

Come on folks, give it a whizz, think outside the box.

I agree in that pressing temp is very important, if its soft and pliable then it should not take much pressure. If the curds are hard then its harder to extract the moisture from the cracks.
The cheese pics still look real good and yummy, yup stared too long, going to have to have some cheese on warm bread.
  Later!

Thanks for the advice! I tried melting it using both a microwave and a pan on the stove. In the microwave, it sort of puffed up (wierd), but on the stove, it melted, but it took a little longer and was not as liquid as store-bought cheddar.

p.s. Actually, Major Contributor, I’m from Vancouver, Canada.

Rainy City Cheese - 09 March 2009 10:04 PM

tried melting it using both a microwave and a pan on the stove. In the microwave, it sort of puffed up (wierd), but on the stove, it melted.

LOL, poor cheese its been threw the wringer. I would not recommend using a microwave unless making mozzarella (even then I wouldn’t) it will kill the enzymes in the cheese, so youl end up with a dead cheese, like store bought stuff. Thats my opinion Not a microwave advocate.

Rainy City Cheese - 09 March 2009 10:04 PM

Thanks for the advice! I tried melting it using both a microwave and a pan on the stove. In the microwave, it sort of puffed up (wierd), but on the stove, it melted, but it took a little longer and was not as liquid as store-bought cheddar.
p.s. Actually, Major Contributor, I’m from Vancouver, Canada.

I’m also from Canada, just the other side.

Using the microwave will heat from the centre out, which explains why it ‘puffed up’. Hope this will fix it for you.

Hi Rainy City…..
Welcome aboard.
Well actually, the cheese doesn’t look bad at all. If that’s one of your first attempts you’re well on your way to making fantastic cheese!
The texture issue appears to me to be openings created by trapped whey. I’ve had my fair share of exactly that type of texture.
This usually happens by putting too much weight on the curd, too quickly. That’s why most recipes call for starting out with a very light weight and then progressively increasing the weight, the longer you press. This expels the whey completely which gives a much more “closed” texture to the cheese.
I don’t want to start another discussion on pressing weights here, but I for one am an advocate of the need for higher weights if using anything larger than a 4” mold. I agree that a nice warm curd is VERY important to getting a closed texture but after several years of making cheese I’ve found that it’s paying attention to a lot of little details that make a quality cheese.
Again, your cheese looks quite good to me.
Great work and I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of your results.

Dave

The reason for the texture was probably due to the fact that the curds were quite cool/cold when I pressed them. Since it was my first hard cheese, I tried to stick really closely to the recipe, and I left the curds to drain in a bag for at least an hour. I also had doubts about this step, since the curds had stopped dripping, but I didn’t want to screw up. I’ll keep this in mind next time.

those opening called “mechanical openings” not caused by gas, and it is healthy, as the guys said above , it is due to cold curds or/and insufficient press force  

regarding the taste, one month cheese old is very young and it can not be compared to store brought cheddar

The cheddar recipe I use calls for reheating the drained curds to about 100 F and holding them there for an hour, then putting them straight into the mold.  The resulting cheese can be dryish but is not usually crumbly or highly mold-prone.