Volcanic Stilton

[Patricia Thornton]

Hi Richerich. Thank you for your wonderful explanation; I'm with you and doubt that home cheese making is an exact science but I'm still only at the guessing stage. You obviously understand the calculations, I'm afraid I don't.

Being the kind of person who (almost) always believes what an expert tells me the first time I try anything completely new and read that I needed to apply pressure of 50lbs on my precious little cheddar, without engaging the brain, I thought weight equalled pressure. Now I know it isn't the same thing at all, in fact I can even remember a time when I could still wear my 5" stiletto heels and a man explained why I could actually go right through his leather shoe when I stood back on his foot on the underground. (I was quite young and thought he shouldn't have been standing so close in the first place)

Anyway, now I realise there is a difference but I still do not understand how to calculate the actual pressure applied by the weight, especially on my little sample of cheese.

All help is greatfully received and appreciated.


.

[saucisson]

see the post I made 2 seconds before yours Patty

Dave

[Richierich]

My understanding is that the press is a lever to give your weight a mechanical advantage. This depends on the distance from the pivot point to the point the pressing arm is attached and the distance from there to where the weight is hung. If the distance from the pivot to the pressing arm is 15cm and the distance from the arm is 45cm you have a 3 fold mechanical advantage so your 49 lbs were effectively 147lbs

15cm............45cm............................................49lbs
o------------------o------------------------------------------o

pivot................pressing arm................................weight

Or I could be completely wrong

Dave

Well put, I think thats what I was trying to say

[this41uk]

Could this be the anser

If so it's definatlry 1 for Santa

http://www.ascott.biz/acatalog/Cheese_Presses.html

Tim

[Patricia Thornton]

Thank you every one for your help on this one; I think even I can work out how to use my Dutch press now, so there is nothing to stop me going into full production of all the different hard cheeses I can find (as soon as my husband can find the new cowman that is).

With all the cheese I expect to be producing doubtless I'll require the use of both my presses, i.e., my Dutch press and the new Bulgarian version.

This second press is made two hardwood chopping boards and four stainless steel rods on which the top board slides up and down. So, my next question is...............

Yes, you've guessed..............

How do I calculate the pressure applied on my cheese from the weights I stack on the top board?

I think we should have a new topic called 'Ask the Experts' where simple people like me can ask stupid questions in the company of others who feel equally dumb!

[BlueCheese]

Looks great, maybe u got some cultures floating around in your "cave"

[this41uk]

I'm with you

Tim

[Richierich]

Thank you every one for your help on this one; I think even I can work out how to use my Dutch press now, so there is nothing to stop me going into full production of all the different hard cheeses I can find (as soon as my husband can find the new cowman that is).

With all the cheese I expect to be producing doubtless I'll require the use of both my presses, i.e., my Dutch press and the new Bulgarian version.

This second press is made two hardwood chopping boards and four stainless steel rods on which the top board slides up and down. So, my next question is...............

Yes, you've guessed..............

How do I calculate the pressure applied on my cheese from the weights I stack on the top board?

I think we should have a new topic called 'Ask the Experts' where simple people like me can ask stupid questions in the company of others who feel equally dumb!

If it is acting straight down, then its a lot simpler, no turning moments, no leverage, if it says 50kN/m2 then work out the area of the cheese in m2 and multiply that by the force, giving you a kN value. To turn weight into force rely on the fact that there are 10N/kg. So a 22kg weight (49lb as you have now) will exert 220N force. I know that sounds like a little number when compared to 50kN (50,000N) but when you compare the cheese to the size of 1m2 thats a very small number, you would need a weight of 5000kg to exert that force on a 1m2 cheese, but thats a big wheel, about 1.2m diameter.

[Patricia Thornton]

As I said, ask the experts! Thanks yet again.

[jenny_haddow]

Although I have made a great many cheeses over the past year or so, as a result of this thread I have just learned how to use my Dutch cheese press correctly! Goodness knows what weight I have been pressing with, I've had two large dumbbells hanging off the arm in a carrier bag.
The cheeses have been good though, which reminds me I must make some more soon.

[this41uk]

Well it's met it's maker.





It's a bit strange once you cut of the crust the outer half inch is like gorgonzola and the inner bit is stilton quite weird but nice.

Tim

[Richierich]

Well it's met it's maker.





It's a bit strange once you cut of the crust the outer half inch is like gorgonzola and the inner bit is stilton quite weird but nice.

Tim

Exactly the same as mine was, don't know why, maybe it had not been left long enough.

[this41uk]

Well it's all gone now. It tasted nice but it was definitely 2 cheeses in 1.

I think my cheese cave (the cellar) may have been a few degrees too warm.

Going to waite till the wheater gets a bit colder and try again.

Tim

[BlueCheese]

me too, hard to compeat with the hot weather.

[jenny_haddow]

I start making cheese about now, when it cools down, and leave off about the end of April. A dedicated cheese fridge is a good idea if you want to make it all year round. I have wound the temperature up in my dairy fridge to about 10 degrees in the past, to mature a cheese, but I worry about the rest of the stuff in there. Saucisson has the right idea.