Calcium Chloride

[pkeeler]

Well, I've done beer, wine, mead, cider...why not cheese.

Between beer and wine, I seem to have most of the chemicals needed. I plan to only use raw milk, where I guess you don't need CaCl2. But, you never know and it is hard to find unpasteurized goat milk. So, with a big pouch of CaCl in my brew box, seems dumb to buy a vial from cheesemaking.com. As far as I can tell, it is just a 30% solution. So, 3 mg of CaCl in 10 ml of water. Or is there more chemistry involved?

 

[Yooper]

Nah, you got the chemistry just fine! I use my cacl2 solution interchangeably with my CaCl2 solid, just mixing it accordingly.

 

[pkeeler]

Because the other way to go would be to put 3 mg of CaCl in a container, then add water to get to 10 mg. But, since most books just say so many tsps, whatever I'm off is probably ok.

From a beer perspective, I'd like to see more science. Like the effect of pitching more culture, using more CaCl or none, the effect of pH on texture, etc. Cheese seems way behind even wine in the science department.

 

[malvado78]

From a beer perspective, I'd like to see more science. Like the effect of pitching more culture, using more CaCl or none, the effect of pH on texture, etc. Cheese seems way behind even wine in the science department.

I agree very much with this. I guess I have gotten spoiled with having such a great forum like HBT for beer making. I assumed I would be able to find and equal forum for cheese yogurt making to give me the science behind it.

But mostly it is just recipe and instruction very little WHY!

That has been the most frustrating part for me in cheese making.

Example: I made my first cheddar a couple months ago. They said to salt the curd. So I salted it. No the instructions did say use non-iodized salt. But I was not able to find a why. Well I used the table salt I had on hand knowing it wasn't ideal but figured it would still be fine. RDWHAHB right?

Well apparently the Iodine stop the proteolysis and lipolysis in the aging period. So my cheddar never got sharp.

I still don't have a great explanation other than Iodine stops the enzymes...

 

[pkeeler]

Yes, cheese making books are in the cookbook section and that is what they are. Recipes that should generally work for the average cheese maker. What is annoying is that many books touch on pH but leave it there. Just figuring out whether to take the pH of the curd or whey is a task. I'm finding sites with pH targets now; but no explanation of which pH (curd or whey) or what to do if you are high or low.

I've never seen anything about what happens if you use too much CaCl. The fact they sell 4 oz of CaCl solution at all cheese sites for the cost of 8 oz of CaCl at a LHBS or canning store is atrocious. The fact no book points this out is nuts. One book I have says to not add CaCl in powdered form because it will react with the milk and get "too hot"! Now, I've added spoonfuls of CaCl to mashes and mash water, and never noticed anything but a slight fizzing. Hard to believe a pinch (which is what these recipes want), could make any noticeable difference in the temp. of 1-4 gal. of milk.

Maybe there is an opening in the market for us Malvado

 

[malvado78]

Yes, cheese making books are in the cookbook section and that is what they are. Recipes that should generally work for the average cheese maker. What is annoying is that many books touch on pH but leave it there. Just figuring out whether to take the pH of the curd or whey is a task. I'm finding sites with pH targets now; but no explanation of which pH (curd or whey) or what to do if you are high or low.

I've never seen anything about what happens if you use too much CaCl. The fact they sell 4 oz of CaCl solution at all cheese sites for the cost of 8 oz of CaCl at a LHBS or canning store is atrocious. The fact no book points this out is nuts. One book I have says to not add CaCl in powdered form because it will react with the milk and get "too hot"! Now, I've added spoonfuls of CaCl to mashes and mash water, and never noticed anything but a slight fizzing. Hard to believe a pinch (which is what these recipes want), could make any noticeable difference in the temp. of 1-4 gal. of milk.

Maybe there is an opening in the market for us Malvado

Can we be called the Cheesy Scientists? (Sorry cheesy I know)