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Cheese Salting.
by Egon Skovmose on Tuesday, November 11, 2003
CHEESE SALTING:
The salting of cheese can be done in the whey, or the curd - by dry salting or by brine salting. Often a combination of the above is used, but for cheese it's the brine salting, which is important for cheese salt absorption. Salt absorption in the cheese and the salt distribution in the cheese mass have several functions. The salt gives a desired taste and regulates certain bacteriological processes, important for body structure. The salt absorption and acid development are two processes which closely parallel each other and may influence each other, even if they are not directly related. Acid production is finished, when the milk sugar is converted to lactic acid. The salt may take 2 months for complete distribution. Both the salting and fermentation assists in conserving the cheese and them both should be carried out in such away that further development and ripening continues. Too much fermentation and/or salting gives a "dead" cheese, while the opposite will bring about, cheese with less keeping quality, plus the cheese on a whole will loose its shape.
Milk sugars conversion speed is decisive for, acid development in the finished cheese. This conversion speed is influenced by cheese technique, storing temperature before brining and the salting method.
In the variety cheeses (Danbo, Havarti, etc. see cheese recipes www.danlac.com/store ), which pick up the main part of their salt content in the brine, the milk sugar will disappear almost completely in the first 24 hours and therefore, we obtain the lowest pH in the 24 hour old cheese.
There are though, considerable differences in cheeses with weak acid and relatively high moisture content, as, for example, there is available milk sugar beyond the first 24 hours. Milk sugar content should practically be used, before the cheese is put into salt brine, even if the process continues in the brine. For that reason, if we work with a slow acid developed cheese, the brine's temperature should be approximately 14 C (57 F). The salt penetrates fast into the cheese outer parts and gives a high salt concentration, which does not permit fermentation of the last milk sugar. If the cheese is stored dry and cold, later a harmful fermentation under the rind may occur.
When the technique of manufacture is in balance the whey drainage, acid, tempering of cheeses, cheese matters swelling up, etc., the salting in the brine can start the day after that the cheese is produced. The individual technique from cheese type to cheese type and from one manufacturing plant to the next can be different; therefore special consideration must be taken.
The cheese picks up the salt rapidly in the beginning, but how long, and to what degree the salt is absorbed, depends on many conditions.
Salting time for a given cheese is of course dependent on, the desired salt content in the cheese:
1. The cheese shape and weight. Flat cheese absorbs the salt very fast. Edged cheese brines faster then round cheese - more surface area.
2. The cheese moisture content. Cheese with high moisture content absorbs salt faster then relative dryer cheese.
3. Cheese acidity. More acidic cheese absorbs salt faster.
4. Salt brine temperature. The higher the temperature, the faster penetration of salt.
5. Salt brine concentration. The stronger the salt brine, the faster salt absorption, but more difficult for distribution of the salt inside the cheese.
6. Cheese structure. Closed textured cheese with round eyes absorbs and distributes the salt faster then cheese of the stirred types, as the water phase is different, and it is only the water phase that salt travels through. Dipped cheese, however, is higher moisture at salting time then close-textured cheese with round eyes, and therefore the dipped cheese will be salted the quickest.
1. THE CHEESE SALT ABSORPTION:
The right cheese salting has a considerable influence on the whole development, which will happen later,
1) Consistency and taste
2) Influence on rind and colour.
A cheese, which is salted weakly, has in the beginning a taste, which is described as "flat" and the consistency, is very elastic. Later the taste becomes slightly unclean, and the consistency has a tough tendency. A too strongly salted cheese has a "short" consistency with salt bitter taste. Staying in the brine influences the cheese beginning rind formation and the influence is strongly depending on, the salt concentration.
The most suitable strength measured in Beaume degrees for most cheeses is 20 -22. If the brine is very much weaker, it then acts dissolving the rind membrane, and if it is considerably stronger, then the rind becomes hard and low moisture, so that the salt, which is found in the rind film, later, causes trouble in distribution. With very strong salt brine, small cracks in the cheese rind easily develop, which later appear as dark spots on the cheese surface.
As the salt from the rind distributes itself in the cheese, water evaporation maintains rind firmness. Through the right salt concentration the outer cheese is able to give a good protection to the inner cheese.
Salting can take place in circulating brine salt basins or in basins of still standing brine. If the brine is still standing, frequent and complete stirring must be done; as well there should always be un-dissolved salt at the bottom of the basins. If circulation is used, it’s most practical to pump the brine through a salt saturation basin, where the strength is always constant. Tanks or basins should have overflow so the strongest flow appears where the cheese is located. The cheese can also be kept covered with cloth, which acts as a wick moisten the inner cheese. Turning of the cheese should, for example, allow fresh brine coming between the single rind surfaces, or the single cheese can also be kept separated with dividers of some sort.
Salting can also happen by total immersion of cheese in storage basins or trays.
2. MAKING AND TREATMENT OF SALT BRINE:
To make salt brine normal clean potable water can be used. Dissolve 21 to 23% salts, so that the strength becomes 20-22 Beaume degree.
In cold water this amount of salt takes a long time to dissolve while the dissolving process happens quickly at 25 to 30 C (77 – 86 F). It is very important, that the salt brine gets its full strength at once and is maintained. The concentration should always be checked with a density meter. A salt brine fluctuates after some time to the same pH as the cheese, which is salted in it. The salt brines right pH can best be adjusted by dosing with HCl, but it is then necessary at the same time to do pH determination. In addition also add ½ % CaCl2 (calcium chloride), to avoid cracks and brown dis-colouring in the rind.
The brine should be clean and kept clean, which in the first place will mean, that we must not find appreciable amounts of nitrate (max. 5mg. No2 per lt.) Accumulation of nitrates can quickly make the brine unsuitable. This may be counteracted by always keeping a suitable high temperature in the brine, so that the biological conversions are not stopped. As mentioned earlier, a suitable temperature seems to be 11-14 C. (52 – 57 F). All cheese curds should daily be skimmed off the brine, as they will otherwise go to the bottom of the basin. The sludge layer greatly reduces the brine concentration.
Sludge formation can hardly be avoided, but the small amount, which forms can easily be removed by fishing it up, once a day. Brine requires a regular daily service and maintenance. Brine, which is looked after carefully, kept clean and has a proper temperature and strength, has a nearly unlimited lifetime. (should not need pasteurization)
3. CHEESE CURDS SWELLING:
When the acidification is completed and the salt is absorbed and begins to distribute. At the end of the process, the "loose" whey, inside the cheese is absorbed - the cheese curds swell. The cheese process begins by hardening the cheese curds, which can expel the whey. This ability is determined by outside conditions, such as the cheese can develop an ability to absorb whey, when the chemical - physical conditions are right.
A trayer plug from a fresh cheese before salting must be moist of whey and on the plug may be seen small cracks, where the whey comes from. The cheese mass is therefore not homogenous and the cheese curds still release whey, because the acidification is incomplete. When the cheese is cooled, the casein ability to swell is however, stimulated and with salting this ability is further increased. Some of the calcium, pure caseins calcium, is exchanged with sodium from the brine, resulting in a cheese with a considerably stronger water binding ability prior to salting.
When the salting is completed, the swelling should also be completed; the trayer plug should feel dry. If this is not the case, something is wrong with the acidification, or the cheese has maybe been sub cooled in the brine. Such cheese will continue to give off considerable amounts of whey, in storage with a tendency to a slimy formation. In addition, there is a possibility for early gas production; a tendency of small cracks and many small hole structure or rind formations.
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