First attempt at Cheese

[Zuljin]

According to my wife's reading, if cheese gets little spots of surface mold on it under the wax, that usually means it wasn't dry enough before being waxed. The internet says either let it dry longer it dry it in a drier place.

 

[Dan]

I got it made! The cheese press. Life? Hmm, maybe not.

Anyway, here it is. I need to do some cosmetic stuff to it, stain on the raw edges, maybe stick those round dohickies on the the top and round out some corners. Plus I need to calibrate it. I used my grain scale to get an idea of what 10 pounds of pressure would take, not much, depending on where I pushed on the fulcrum lever.

I'm happy with it because it is the look I was going for and I had the wood on hand. This litttle (it's not that little unfortunately) cost me $7.83 for a bottle of Elmer's wood glue and some hardware. Okay, maybe I"m bragging there. This thing just worked out very affordable for me.

 

[passedpawn]

I got it made! The cheese press.

Dang Dan, that's pretty freaking impressive. So, are you making cheese yet? I"m a bit jealous, been putting that off for a while. Let us know how that goes.

(btw got rid of the dbl post for ya)

 

[Dan]

Thank you for doing that Pappy.

I'm just getting into this cheese making thing. We're homebrewers who make their own beer. I think we are all in some sort of naturalist state of mind. What goes along with letting bugs work on things we love. Cheese! It's natural!

Cheers Pappy!

 

[snccoulter]

Looking good Dan. I am glad I could inspire you... Now get to work on a hard cheese. When I get back from Seattle I will scan some of the book's recipes and e-mail them to you..

 

[Dan]

Thanks Steve! I look forward to putting this thing into action. The mozzarella turned out pretty good and was so simple to make. I used the microwave method but want to learn the hot water batch method, seems more ligit. It was great on pizza. The homemade crust turned out decently but I'm a bit out of practice making bread. I'm think I'm going to get another sourdough starter going. I tried it once before but it never really flourished here in the valley. Maybe it has something to do with all the spraying in this valley. I had one for three years in Hawaii, sourdough loves Hawaii, the desert too. I'll give it another try.

 

[snccoulter]

I am willing to bet it is the water unless you use distilled water the valley uses lots of chemicals in the water..

 

[Dan]

Steve. Sorry if this isn't exactly a cheese making video. I came across this gal's YouTube videos looking for cheese. I'll post that at the end. This gal is something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ow9Ws8S8e8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpXg-HRA_A4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=_EqiXOKcY5c

 

[Zuljin]

I got it made! The cheese press. Life? Hmm, maybe not.

Anyway, here it is. I need to do some cosmetic stuff to it, stain on the raw edges, maybe stick those round dohickies on the the top and round out some corners. Plus I need to calibrate it. I used my grain scale to get an idea of what 10 pounds of pressure would take, not much, depending on where I pushed on the fulcrum lever.

I'm happy with it because it is the look I was going for and I had the wood on hand. This litttle (it's not that little unfortunately) cost me $7.83 for a bottle of Elmer's wood glue and some hardware. Okay, maybe I"m bragging there. This thing just worked out very affordable for me.

Looks sturdy and adjustable.

Do you have a pet squirrel or something?

 

[Dan]

Yep it's pretty sturdy.

Pet squirrel? :fro: Nope, no squirrels two cats and a small dog. The cats will sometimes stand at the outside door and wait to be let in. My dog will only use the doggy door. He loves the freedom.

 

[snccoulter]

So the retard known as Steve AKA me was not paying attention and grabbed a half table spoon instead of a half teaspoon and used a tablespoon and a half instead of a teaspoon and a half of citric acid the milk imminently curdled and I could do nothing with it. oh well I will make another batch today and my jack cheese also so when I put all the way into one container it will dilute the citric acid enough then I will make some ricotta for a three cheese shells with meat sauce.

 

[Dan]

It happens Just like in homebrewing gotta make a mistake once in awhile to keep us on our toes.

I read through chapter 3 the last few days. Going print it out at work and go over a few times and then order some culture and cheese wax. Still have to get this press calibrated somehow.

 

[snccoulter]

Well I have the Jack in the press and the mozzarella in the fridge. the Ricotta is draining . Finally just some cleanup and 5 gallons of milk processed. I was a good day even if the kids have been sick.

 

[PeteNMA]

Hi folks

Great to see some folks getting in to cheese making, it's a great side hobby along with brewing.

WRT presses, the lever type is a better design overall as the pressure exerted onto the cheese stays constant as the head of the press drops. As the cheese is pressed in a sprung press, the pressure drops as the cheese presses so you need to adjust constantly otherwise the cheese dries unevenly.

The other thing to note is that you should calculate the pressure applied to the whole surface of the cheese being pressed. A rough rule of thumb is to press at about 50 psi, so if you have a 10square inch press head, you need to apply a total of 500lbs pressure to the cheese.

 

[Fizzycist]

Except most instructions I see don't specify a pressure, but a weight. Not only that but using a slightly different size of mold would change the pressure delivered by the same weight. So should we be aiming for a weight that's scaled by recipes or a pressure that's constant for a certain type of cheese?

 

[PeteNMA]

Indeed. But by just specifying a weight, you aren't really controlling the process as different sized cheeses will end up with different pressing forces, so will come out drier or wetter than intended. By specifying pressure you can maintain a parameter which ultimately will lead to better cheese as you experiment.

My general approximation of 50psi tends to work pretty well for harder cheese styles. Think a real farmhouse cheddar consistency more than brie. Its a good compromise between getting plenty of water out and not running it off so fast that the cheese goes chalky from being dried too fast.

If you want a harder cheese, press longer rather than harder. If you want to press a softer cheese, press shorter first, then experiment with less pressure. If you don't press hard enough you won't expel enough water and it won't set up properly (OTOH you might find you quite like a cheese which is hard on the outside and softer in the middle.

Also worth noting that you should turn the cheese in the press every day for the first few days, this stops it drying more at the top than the bottom.