Culture War

Once again I am talking about cheddar, this time I am making cheddar with 5 different cultures. As a new cheese maker I was always puzzled over the different mesophilic cultures. Why is this one better than that? Why can’t you just tell me what to make and what culture to use? I will say that I don’t have the answers I was looking for yet. Trial and error, we are here to get the answers.

After several successful years of cheddar making with MM100 and MA4002 I am branching out and doing some real testing. If you don’t want to wait for the results, grab some MM100 and make cheese! With any luck by March 14 I will taste them all. Its a little unfair as the MM100 will have almost 100 days of aging while the Kefir will get 60, but we all know life isn’t fair! On my list of things that aren’t fair, this recipe for Cheddar takes 8 hours! At times I have squeezed it down a bit but don’t try it if you don’t have the time.

Cultures Tested: MM100-11-29-20, MA4002-1-3-21, RA22-1-10-21, Kazu-12-27-20, and Kefir-1-17-21

Process: Stirred curd recipe focused on the timing and pH right through the process.

PH Indicators:
Initial milk 6.70-7.0 pH
Milk @ temp: 6.66-6.8 pH
Addition of Culture: 6.49-6.65 pH
Addition of Rennet: 6.5-.6.6 pH
Flocculation: 6.4-6.6 pH
Cutting: 6.4-6.6 pH
Stirring/Cooking: 6.1-6.6
Stop Cooking: 6.2-6.38 (Ideal to be done with cook at 6.2)
Drain/Initial Forming: 6.0-5.8 pH (I often find curd pH @ 5.8-5.9 once I get the curds formed under a plate)
Flipping/Pressing w/o mold: 5.9-5.2 (keep flipping and pressing pH will come down 1-3 hours) Important to Keep Curd Warm!
Mill the curd: Goal pH to stop pressing and will the curd is 5.4 pH
Salt the Curd: 5.45-5.2 (This stops the pH from further dropping)

Ideal Timing: In a perfect world 180 minutes after adding culture we should be draining and by minute 300 we are adding salt. That happened exactly, nearly to the second when using MA4002.

Rookie Mistake: I am new to Kefir and although it was recommended that I use 1/4 cup per gallon it might have been a bit much. I am assuming that because by minute 160 the pH was 5.36 and I was beginning to salt. It pressed nicely and dried as expected so fingers crossed.

Over the last 2 months I have made five rounds of cheddar and pressed nice 1 and 2 pound wheels, air dried for several days and vacuum sealed. This is also the heart of winter in Colorado and it has been a little tough to get the curd to close in the mold. Keeping the curd warm through the process is not critical, but can really lengthen the make time as you try to re-warm the curd(water bath, in front of the fireplace or over a warm oven) and get the curd to close.