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Chris,
Be patient. You may have picked up some bacteria during the make process but you also may have a cheese that takes a little time to settle down. I have had cheese that I had to throw out but the decision was always made based on smell rather than texture. Way more times than not would the cheese transform into something better rather than something bad. Just give it some time and use your nose.Bob, I have seen a few stainless paddles in commercial operations but way more plastic paddles and utensils. They are just cheaper and easier to use. They have to be a certain quality to be accepted as sanitary but many have that certification. I have a wood paddle and a stainless one. Both are great but the stainless is heavy, the wood is worn and certainly not as sanitary.
PP, give it some time. It may have a little too much rennet but that will not ruin the cheese if all the other factors are close to correct.
Bob, plenty of moulds have no bottoms. They are commonly known as hoops. They are pressed against the bottom of your press, maybe a stack of other hoops, or a host of other applications. Many times these are uses in conjunction with cheese cloth or something similar to hold the cheese wheel together. I have used them with success but after using Kadova moulds I almost never use open moulds unless I am making Camembert or something similar.
I have noticed in some industrial cheese making there are small openings in the water inlet that cut the amount of hot water entering the vat. Mind you that the cats are several hundred gallons and the heating is much slower. I think if you just water that is not quite as hot it will be an easy answer. I would use tap water (I have a well and a very good water heater) and do the same as you and heat it up way too fast. Just cutting back on the heat or just use less hot water each heat cycle. Some Gouda makers boast of dividing the water into three cycles rather than two just to stretch out the process.
Tammy, everything makes a difference in the final cheese. Everything. That does not mean that finishing the heating process early is bad but you may find that that quicker heat cycle doesn’t allow enough acid development or maybe it trap’s just a little more whey in the curd. This may result in a new and interesting cheese. It may eventually lead to bitterness after some aging or a host of other very subtle taste or texture issues. I am always attempting to cut the cheese making time just because I like it and want that great feeling of looking at the finished wheel. What I have found is that so much of what you do, or don’t do, in the vat haunts you week’s an months later. I don’t think one can screw up cheese if you are eating curds and devouring the batch in the first week or two. The bad stuff comes later. Continuing to stir also aggravated me but again without doing that I would get large matted clumps that failed to cook evenly, failed to drain property, didn’t give a smooth finish on the rind, and sometimes actually gave variation in color and texture in the aged wheel after cutting and packaging. Yes. Everything matters.
Ray, I have been at the point of investing in a PH meter but don’t know much about them. I started down the path a couple times but got scared off because of complicated sounding calibration and other things. Do you have a suggestion on what kind and what model?
Chris,
Welcome to cheese making. I have made dozens of wheels of cheese and mozzarella is WAY the most difficult for me. I do know that acid levels are essential to stretch but have never mastered even getting to the stretch point. I recently used the recipe on this site for traditional method but still failed. Please forward any finding and maybe I will make another attempt.Colin,
Not sure if I understand completely but I believe there should have been a period of time when you didn’t stir and let the curd set. From your description you may have omitted that part. Best advice I can give is to find a recipe you like and follow it precisely. From there it is much easier to have some success in making your own cheese. Good luck and keep experimenting.
Alexa,
I have no suggestions because I like your entire program. I like the subjects, the recipes, the forum. I just can’t figure out why there is not much activity. Your site is way easier to use and way more “family like” rather than the other industrial type of website. I am a fan.Eva, never heard of whipped cream cheese. That may be a pasturized, processed cheese and may include cooking, adding emulsifier, and patented processing most of us know little about. I know my mother several times made whipped cream butter by accident when I was a boy. When using farm milk cream she would add vanilla, sugar, and begin whipping with a hand set of mixing beater’s and sometimes the whipping cream turned into a sweetened, vanilla, fluffy butter. It angered her but me and my six siblings loved it.
Ray, Thank You for the referral. There is a very different level of activity and response on that site.
Boo, don’t be confused, I kinda feel the same way. Very few active participants and not a lot of new material.
The key may be in how much whey it holds. If it continues to release whey and doesn’t sour a lot more you may have a new cheese. If it goes into a phase where any coating of slime appears it is sure to be bad. Just as an aside, I had a batch of mozzarella that I let acidify for almost a week and it would not stretch. It was partially in the whey just because I was following the directions from this website. After that week I didn’t know what to do because the cheese was not bad just didn’t have the consistently and taste needed. I put some blue mold culture in it and lit it age as I would a blue. It continued to drain and develop and now it is one of the best blue cheeses I ever made.
