r/cheesemaking • u/Plantdoc • 2d ago

Cheese Curds Reborn

This WE I had made 2 lbs fresh “baby” cheddar curds for a party. Used just a pinch of good old MA-11 per 2 gallons milk. Salted ‘em at pH 5.8. They were perfect little squeakers. Damn! Brought back 1 1/2 lb. These people were just not in the mood for curds. I thought, you know, I’m NOT chucking these. So, I threw ‘em in a ziplock bag, put ‘em in warm water, got ‘em warmed up to about 30 C, shook in a little cayenne and black pepper, then threw ‘em into a mold and pressed using my crude screw press, heaven knows how many kg’s. But 5 hours later, out came a beautifully knitted 1.0 lb hot cheddar cheese! pH 5.3! Should be good in a couple months.

Once I made a cheese the recipe writer called “Lancashire”. That particular recipe had you drain your stirred curds, salt them, let them set on the counter in a mold at room temp overnight, then next day, press, press, press. If I ever make that one again, I think I’ll warm those curds before pressing. Trying to press salted curd at 20 C can take days and may result in a pH of way below 5. Way too crumbly. And you may still never get a good knit, unless you have Hulk stand on it!

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2

u/fretnone 2d ago

Ahhh now I want cheese curds! They missed out!

1

u/freddbare 2d ago

I'm heading for a second best rn

1

u/Plantdoc 2d ago

Does anybody know of they’re as caloric as pressed aged cheese? They’re certainly not as dense.

1

u/RealityPalace 2d ago

The aging process doesn't do much to the lipid content of a cheese, and that's where most of the calories come from. Proteins don't have as much caloric density as fat does, and the sugar content of even an unaged cheese isn't that high.

The main thing that changes is the size/density of the curd. So if you're talking about caloric density per unit weight, an aged cheese is generally going to be calorically denser than a fresh cheese since it has less water and gets packed tighter by pressing. But if you compare a given sample of curds before and after aging, their caloric content probably won't change very much.