Nabil, you’ve really opened a can of worms now! LOL
You said in one of your posts in this string that you should have a ph of 5.25 after 12 hours of pressing. Well, if it isn’t at 5.25 then it’s kind of late to do anything about it.
So I’m going to assume that after you’ve cut the curd and are doing the stirring, you should be replacing the whey with warm water in order to get the correct ph, which by the chart appears to be 6.45, the steam on step?
This chart also assumes one is using pasteurized milk, no ph given, which I do not. I use raw milk (cow) with a starting ph of 6.8. Notice I said 6.8, as my meter is only one decimal place and not two, which is probably the case for any home ph meter.
In the case of adding the starter, I’d be looking for a 6.6ph and rennet addition I’d round up the 6.55 to 6.6 on my meter. Since the ph point for both starter and rennet would work out the same, how much time would you really put between the two?
So it seems that the only point of control is at the whey replacement with warm water. After that, the draining, packing, milling, salting and pressing stages are what they are.
What adjustments can be done at these points to try and get the ph stated in the chart?
So as I’m heating along, I’m also checking the ph. The first milestone I come to is for a 6.6ph, at which point I then add the starter. Stir that in and then add the rennet?
The second milestone is the cut curd whey ph of 6.45 (rounded up to 6.5). This is an awful tight measurement, only .1 between adding rennet and cutting curd?
One final question, there is a 2 hour period from the cutting to draining. At what point during this period do you decide to start replacing the whey with warm water? Because if during this 2 hour period the ph continues to drop due to the heat, and if you start replacing whey with water too soon, you might end up with a ph lower than the suggested 6.2 at draining?
I’m not so sure about doing cheddar, it sounds like a real hit or miss cheese to make.