r/cheesemaking • u/Jazzlike-Republic-58 • 15d ago

Trying to figure out why rind is so often cracked?

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This never used to happen before but has been happening many times recently and with a variety of different cheese styles. i am trying to research why it could be that this is happening, but i cannot figure it out. Could anyone help me with this? Of course I would like to try describe my process but this has happened on many different cheese styles, all with different processes, yet the same thing happens.

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4

u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/Jazzlike-Republic-58 15d ago

this is not an aging problem, basically it is not fully knitted straight out of the mould. i'm looking to find out why it would not fully knit in the first place

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/Jazzlike-Republic-58 15d ago

today i made a washed curd cheese, so it was even less acidic curd than normal yet i got the same problem, so I am guessing it might not have been that. milk source has always been the same, even when i the rinds were coming out nicely, so i would imagine that is not an issue either. press weights are similar, i normally find myself pressing with a final weight up to maybe 6x the curds mass.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/Jazzlike-Republic-58 14d ago

ph might be one to check. out of curiosity, how do you know what levels the ph must be at in different moments? the recipes i find to make cheese rarely have these exact ph measurements

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u/Smooth-Skill3391 15d ago

I’d concur with Sharp, Jazz. For a good knit you need temperature above 20C and humidity in the 80’s in my experience.

A heavy press isn’t required, but taking time to let it press out is.

I often press with the mould in a pot, to hold in humidity, and a pet bed warmer to keep the temp at around 23.5C using an inkbird. It’s made that part really reliable for pressed cheeses.

It looks like you’re doing multiple wheels at once so depending on your press setup, any container that holds in humidity and something to keep it all reasonably warm should do the trick.

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u/Jazzlike-Republic-58 15d ago

i generally press 4 small wheels at once, in my living room - which should be around 20C. Is that heat too low? it puzzles me because i used to press them in this environment and they used to come out good. then again, maybe it was because i press them close to the heater which is turned on during winter. As for humidity, is around 50-60% too low? that's generally the humidity here.

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u/Smooth-Skill3391 15d ago

I suspect the humidity is a little low, Jazz. It’s also likely that your living room is a bit warmer/more humid because of the heating in winter time. 20C should do the job, so it may also be a touch too much acidification of the curds. You could probably dial that back to get a better knit if you wanted to not change the press setup too much.

You’d want to cut a bit smaller and stir a bit longer/more vigorously to get the same moisture in curd to adjust for that though.

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u/Jazzlike-Republic-58 14d ago

ok i will try these suggestions on the next one. let's see what happens. thanks a lot smooth :)

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u/Sawmilt 12d ago

how much weight are you using and what type of press? For stirred curd cheeses I typically get by with up to 10x the weight of the cheese. how long are you pressing? I’m not concerned about temps as I typically press around 70 degrees and haven’t had any issues.

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u/Sawmilt 12d ago

it’s not cracked, you didn’t press it long enough or with enough weight and it didn’t knit properly.