Free Making Artisan Cheese by Tim Smith Page A

to do it right.

Cutting the Curd
    Cutting the curd takes place once the rennet has come to a complete set. The process of cutting is simple: Using your curd knife, cut rows ½" (about 1 cm) apart. Next, turn your pot 90 degrees, and using the same spacing, cut at right angles to your original cuts. The final cut is tricky, because you are trying to break the curd into cubes. The best approach is to use your knife to cut through half of the pot at a 45-degree angle. Turn the pot 90 degrees again, and finish cutting so that you have cheese pieces shaped roughly like cubes. When you start cutting, you will notice a tremendous release of whey. This is syneresis: the contraction of the curd and the release of the whey.
    Remember that the size of the curds will affect the texture of the cheese. Smaller curds will result in a drier, firmer cheese, whereas larger curds will create a cheese with a smoother, softer texture. In the case of Swiss Emmental, ¼" (6 mm) is the standard size to cut the curd, about the size of a piece of long-grain rice. Traditionally, the curds of Camembert are ladled into the molds in large unbroken pieces, and there is no cutting. These two cheeses could not be more dissimilar: Camembert with its smooth velvety texture, and Emmental with its tight, firm texture.



Using Direct-Set Cultures
There are a variety of sources from which you can purchase direct-set cultures. In some cases the suppliers will provide you with a single, prepackaged amount of culture that is ready for use, based on two gallons of milk. All you do is add the starter to the milk and stir. In other instances, suppliers sell bulk amounts that are intended for commercial use. In these instances, you will need to measure the culture using the suggested guidelines:
teaspoon per 1 gallon (3.8 L) milk
¼ teaspoon per 2–5 gallons (7.6–19 L) milk
½ teaspoon per 5–10 gallons (19–37.8 L) milk

Scalding and Stirring Curds
    After renneting, the next step is to remove as much whey from the cheese as required. The whey contains lactic acid, which is the food for the starter culture. If the whey is not removed, the curds will become too acidic to make cheese with. The process for removing the whey involves scalding and stirring.
    Scalding raises the temperature of the cut curds to a target temperature specific to the type of cheese being made. As the temperature rises, the rate of the whey draining from the curds increases. This has an added benefit of depriving the starter culture of nutrients, effectively slowing down its rate of growth. The longer the curds stay at the target temperature, the smaller the curds will become and the drier the cheese will be.
    In conjunction with the scalding is the stirring of the curds. Stirring is done so that the curd particles are kept in suspension in the kettle or pot. Without stirring, the curds would combine and form large clumps, which will hinder the release of the whey and give the cheese an inconsistent texture.



Removing the Whey by Draining
    Draining is the final step in removing the whey from the curds. Typically it is done in a colander lined with cheese cloth or butter muslin. The procedure is simple: Once your curds have reached the desired texture, you simply pour your cut curds into the cheese cloth–lined colander and let gravity do all of the work.
    In some cases you may want to tie the cheese cloth into a ball around the cheese, and hang it from a wooden spoon that rests on the edges of a stock pot.







In other cases, your next step is to remove the curds from the pan and place them directly into a mold for pressing. When making Cheddar or washed-curd cheeses, an additional step is required.

Milling
    Milling is the process of breaking apart the drained curd with your hands into small pieces of a uniform size before preparing it for salting. The size of the pieces will affect the texture and flavor of the cheese as well as the amount of salt that needs to be added.

Salting
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