Following has been responded to by a dear friend Dave Burley who has some helpful hints.


Questions as follows:

Several of us are having the same problem and was wondering if u can help.

1) sometimes when hard cheese are made they do not melt, why?


2) When making Swiss cheese, it starts to break up after a few hours in brine, nice and pliable before hand.

we do not use meters so cant tell u the acid/PH.

Helpful hints from Dave Burley:

These problems relate to the total titrable acidity in the cheese and pH.
Not stopping the fermentation soon enough will cause these problems, as can adding too much starter or having too high or low ( depending on the
starter) a cook temperature. What is happening is the cheese will not fuse because the pH is too low. This sort of cheese will be hard in the mouth and crumbly to the bite, like the grana cheeses of Italy. In my experience, this is the most common fault of amateur and small dairy cheeses. It is tricky to get this fusibility condition consistently without using pH evaluations, as that is the condition which controls the calcium levels and the state of the various caseins, esp the beta and gamma caseins.

In the old days before things like titration and pH meters, a technique of the hot iron test was used to see if a melting cheese was ready to have the fermentation stopped. The test was simple. A piece of iron, like a large uncoated ( no zinc or chrome around food) nail, was heated to red heat and stuck on a cheese curd surface and pulled, The length of the pull ( say 6-8 inches for cheddar, as I recall) was an indication of the meltability of the cheese. Making Mozzarella and stretching it is likewise controlled by the pH and temperature. A pH of not lower than 5.1 is desirable. Taking a sample of curd and squeezing it in the palm of your hand is another crude way ( used even today) to evaluate curd fusability. Remember the various starters have various proportions of mesophilic and thermophilic lactobacillus and will respond to temperature differently. Raising the temperature of the cook will slow down mesophilic ( cheddar type) bacteria and speed up the
thermophilic ( swiss and mozz ) bacteria up to a point. Many modern
starters have both types, so you need to do trials.

In the case of the cheddar, salting of the curd basically halts the pH drop and the placing of the <> curd in the mold and holding it warm for a few hours during pressing will guarantee curd fusion and a good toasted cheese sandwich. Likewise with Swiss varieties it is important to sweep the finely grained cheese curd from the kettle and pack it into the press immediately and to keep it warm so it will have the opportunity to fuse.
Note in this case the fermentation will continue, so presss early. These, when cooler in a few hours, can be brined safely. Brining too soon before curd fusion or when the pH of the curd is too low to fuse will cause the cheese to disintegrate in the brine. Make sure your brine pH and salinity are correct. I suggest 18% -20% salinity - and egg will just float - and pH to being of 5.0 adjusted with hydrochloric or preferably lactic acid from sterilized whey allowed to ferment a few hours. Reuse your brine as it will improve with use, but guard against bactgerial contamination, esp Salmonella. Skim the brine after each use and periodically sterilize it by heating it to 180F. Adjust the salinity before each use, as the salt content will drop with use. Brine cheeses cool at 50-60F. Check in your library for a copy of Adnan Tamime's new book "Brined Cheeses". pH at various points in the process will be dependent on the milk source which depends on the time of year as to buffer capacity, so you will have to vary your techniques throughout the year, as the old timers did when using a single herd source.

Try this, reduce your starter concentration by a factor of two. Reduce your cook time by say 10 minutes. Reduce or increase your cook temperature by 5-10 degrees. Do these separately on different batches to get into the ballpark and then modify your procedures. If you do not have access to a pH meter or reagents to titrate the cheese, get some narrow range pH paper in the 4 to 6 range and use them to judge when to begin pressing. Keep your presses warm. There is a reason for all those press cloths and wrapped presses in the older cheese technology and for the size of the cheeses.
Helping to keep the temperature up during curd fusion. If you make small cheeses, temperature control is highly problematic. Make good use of your oven or an insulated box with a hot light to keep the temperature up. Be sure to use a ceramic base for the bulb if it is on for long periods and unattended.

I highly recommend you forego the pH papers ( although they are a useful aide to double check and don't break when you drop them) and get a pH meter which can be inexpensive. See http://www.omega.com/green/ph.html as a supplier and for technical advice.Explain carefully what you want to do to get what you need. Get a pH meter which is temperature compensated so you will not be bothered by different temperatures affecting the response. These inexpensive ones will last about a year if you take care of them and keep them hydrated in the proper electrode buffer solution from Omega. Some come with a replacable electrode. Be sure to get the pH buffers to standardize the meter and an enzyme ( typically pepsin) solution to clean the electrodes. Use distilled water from your supermarket to rinse and clean.
It really is very easy and there is no excuse not to do so. If you choose to not use it in the future, at least you can use this way as a training method to recognize how a curd should behave and to optimize your conditions.
Never dip your pH electrode directly in your curd. Remove a sample, measure and discard the sample.

Lastly, please let us know of your successes and failures. Good Luck!

Dave Burley