Calcium Chloride

[saucisson]

A good thought bluecheese, I may have to go and buy another piece

I think I drained the curds a bit early, quite a lot of solid matter went straight through my collander. When I looked in the bin with the whey in it this morning there was a "cheese" floating in it It was very fragile and broke up as I lifted it out but it was several pounds in weight that had coagulated and come together in the whey overnight. I should have taken a photo. The bits are now on top of the rest of the curds and weigh in at hefty 5kg all told. Obviously a fair bit of that is still water! I'm going to salt it and redistribute the curds into a mould later on.

Dave

[jenny_haddow]

Dave

Did you find the addition of calcium chloride made a difference? How much milk did you use?


Jen

[saucisson]

Yes Jen, much better curds than my last attempt, but I was a bit too hasty as it was 1:00 in the morning . It was 3 gallons of milk + 1 litre.

This is an experiment . pound coin for size:

The box is lined with greaseproof paper, which is wrapped over the cheese. The sides were then cut down to the cheese and folded over and taped down so the cheese can be turned. As the cheese exudes water it will soak into the cardboard which should (please) hold its shape long enough for the cheese to firm up, but keep the cheese humid. When ready the damp cardboard can be peeled off leaving the paper wrapped cheese behind. At least that's the theory

Dave

[BlueCheese]

LOL, it christmas, lots of sales on containers. Bought yesterday while shopping a plastic tupperware 6.8L cap container ment for cakes for 3.50$ and 4 bamboo placemats for 5$ that make good cheese drainers.
Scavenging is fun Hope your container holds.

[saucisson]

I can get a container anywhere

I'm trying to set up a micro cave



sagging slightly, but the brie mould is already growing on the cardboard

It's in the house at 21 deg C, the cheese is at 17 due to evaporation cooling it down. I'd be tempted to take it out now and treat it more normally, but I'm going to leave it alone and see how it gets on.

Dave

[jenny_haddow]

Can't wait to see what is coming out of the box!

[Divey]

I am brand new to the cheese making scene. Have not made any yet but doing a lot of research. I will no doubt be asking you guys a heap of questions in the future.

Two days ago I purchased a Super cheesemaking kit from the ONLY place avaliable here in oz to be this type of gear. Have a look,

http://www.cheeselinks.com.au/cheesemak ... making_Kit

After I did the deal over the telephone I noticed that the kit did not contain Calcium Chloride so I rang the suppliers up and asked them the question why he CC was not included. The young girl then asked me what milk I was going to use, I told her I would be using the el cheapo homogonised milk from our local grocery store to which she replied, "If you're using homogonised milk you must use the Calcium Chloride. If you're using fresh unhomogonised milk you don't need it". I thought you folks might find this comment interesting.

My cheese making gear has not arrived and when I watched the news on Tele last night I saw a B Double Transport truck and driven into a massive creek on it's way from Melbourne to Sydney. It's a very common freight company's name that was plastered all over the truck, so I reckon my goodies could be here later rather than sooner.

Divey.

[saucisson]

Interesting, I'd have thought the milk itself was more important than whether it was homogenised or not.

Dave

[Divey]

Dave,

I'm not too sure what you're meaning here!
Are you referring to the quality of the milk?
I immediately thought that if any milk, be it cows, goat, sheep or any thing else, if it is homogenised you need Calcium Chloride to assist with the clotting of the curds.
Am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Lindsay.

[BlueCheese]

I thingk because all milk (store) is pasturized, u need the CaCl, the homo milk is just an extra challange.

[Divey]

Maybe I'm lucky here as I can buy unhomogenised milk and aslo homogenised milk. I can also buy goats milk but can'get unhomogenised.

Lindsay.

[andrewqld]

Hi Lindsay, I have made 3 batches of stilton using store bought milk, I have not used calcium chloride in any of them and have not had any problem getting a clean break, it could possibly have been better using the Calcium chloride but all of my cheeses have turned out well.

Getting ingredients and equipement here in Aust. is difficult and I only know of the one supplier, the one you linked to.
Junket tablets are unavailable in Australia now but there is a supplier of Junket powder in South Australia who will send vials of rennet via post, let me know if you want their contact details, however they only sell Junket and nothing else.

Happy cheesemaking and Brewing

Andrew

[Divey]

Isn't that amazing that we find ourselves on another Forum on the other side of the world.
We will be able to talk like what cheese with what beer. Also making snags!!
Just love it.
I have ordered 500 mls of rennet which should keep me going for a hundred years.

Lindsay.

[Spuddy]

500mls... wow that WILL last a while.
Don't forget though that rennet has a limited shelf life.

[BlueCheese]

is it that dif for u guys in Ozz to mail order stuff from abroad? looking on the map it should be cheaper from US or Canada. The cutures u can keep in the freezer, CaCl will last for years, do an order once a year and fedx it.