So you’ve spent hours carefully making your cheese and now is the time to unwrap it and unveil it in all it’s glory.
But you find when you start to peel the cheese cloth away, the curd has stuck to it and no matter how cautiously you try to pull it away, the curd sticks and breaks away from the cheese mass. The cloths a mess, the cheese now has chunks out of it and you wonder what went wrong?
There are two reasons why your cheese curd might have become stuck like this:
- With hard cheeses that are pressed for longer periods, at heavier weights you need to turn and redress your cheese a couple of times during the press time so that it not only forms in a more uniform shape, but also does not mold into the cheese cloth.
- If a cheese has a higher PH at dressing and molding you may find it sticks. Haloumi can be a bit notorious for this and as the curds shrink, lose more whey and form a soft rind they pull the cloth into the curd and meld together.
Answer:
With harder cheeses be sure to turn and redress as often as advised in the recipe. Don’t try and be ‘efficient’ with this part of the make. For the cheese that has a higher PH when molding, soak your cloth in whey before molding.
If in doubt of the PH level, err on the side of caution and soak the cloth anyway.
Do you have any questions or comments about Home Cheese Making? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!