the milk (fresh raw) is about 6.8 or so, after u cook, @ pressing u should not go under 6.3-6.2. if u go down more, u will end up with not swiss. over all Propioni bacterium shermanii will notbe active at low pH. so u will end up with flat cheese

cheers

Will see how mine works out. I did add the rennet while the culture was at early stage and left for a couple hours, so im looking forward to how this will turn out. PH should be high but thats only a guess.

i will shoot some picture for my baby swiss, two day from now and it’s been in room temp two weeks, it ‘s smell fantastic swiss, and swelling more and more very slowly…
the color is light yellow , i am so happy with it, i hope it will forms good eyes ...

Pictures are worth a thousand words

why we never can wax a swiss cheese ????  i am thinking to wax my swiss, because maintaining humidity is a pain in the a** 

I would recommend waxing because of the size we make, it will dry out too fast. The huge 50-100lb wheels develop a nice rind that protects it, with the size we generally make the whole cheese will be a rind.

good advice Neil, thanks

i will post you pictures soon, i am planning to cut this wheel very soon

Hello to all,

I always make my cheeses only from raw milk. I think I am lucky I’ve found a farmer to buy from. I use only buttermilk and yogurt as culters. I pasteurize the milk for every kind of cheese at a temperature of 72 deg C.
My last cheese is a swiss one, a really micro-miniature one, made from 5 liters of milk. On Thursday it’s going to be aged in the refrigerator at 5 deg C, after 6 weeks at room temperature and regular washing with brine.
Finally I have a question: Nabil or anyone, I didn’t add propionic, should I expect any eyes in spite of pasteurizing the milk?

Alex

Great to hear u can use RAW milk, no mater how small I dont thing it will, Propionibacterium is a unique to swiss cheese.
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Swiss_Cheese/Swiss_Cheese.html

Hi Sandor.
You might be lucky. My information is that propionic is naturally available in Raw milk. This is why the Swiss get eyes in their cheeses. But at this time of year we’re feeding silage which will cause ‘bloating’ problems.
Will be interesting to hear what you find out when you open it.

Don’t know where you are, but around here the dairies don’t make ensilage any more.  They feed alfalfa hay supplemented with grain.  The only change in diet is in summer when there is fresh pasture.  Even then, there is some hay added.  Perhaps this would make a more consistent milk quality?

Green Cheese Maker - 23 February 2009 11:06 PM

Don’t know where you are, but around here the dairies don’t make ensilage any more.  They feed alfalfa hay supplemented with grain.  The only change in diet is in summer when there is fresh pasture.  Even then, there is some hay added.  Perhaps this would make a more consistent milk quality?

Grain feed. My source tells me that is dangerous if not carefully controlled.
Don’t know where you are but when the snow comes all the cows are ‘barned’ then the silage gets fed until the snow has all gone.

Sandor - 23 February 2009 05:11 PM

Hello to all,

I always make my cheeses only from raw milk. I think I am lucky I’ve found a farmer to buy from. I use only buttermilk and yogurt as culters. I pasteurize the milk for every kind of cheese at a temperature of 72 deg C.
My last cheese is a swiss one, a really micro-miniature one, made from 5 liters of milk. On Thursday it’s going to be aged in the refrigerator at 5 deg C, after 6 weeks at room temperature and regular washing with brine.
Finally I have a question: Nabil or anyone, I didn’t add propionic, should I expect any eyes in spite of pasteurizing the milk?

Alex

Dear Alex;

Yes propionic is there in the raw milk, think how swiss cheese is made 200 years ago?? or before? they did not have a pure propionic freezed fancy powder to be added.

but here there is very critical factor, propionic growth (even if it is from powder or raw) at maximum when pH is 6 and stopped when pH is 5
for this reason, the swiss cheese day one pH should not be fall beyond 5.2.

if cheese pH is 6 propionic will work so much and explode the cheese, if pH 5 propionic will not work, so in the ideal case swiss pH 5.2 -5.4 is a moderate and this will enable swiss to form eyes slowly.

By the way propionic job is not to produce eyes only (co2) the gas is only a left over , the other components which influence the flavor…

one another factor, one big eye is a result of merging of very very small eyes then it merged to each others to form one big every few centimeters, SO if u ever drain the whey and the pH is bellow 6.3 then the texture (lose of calcium phosphate) will leave ur cheese not flexible enough to allow this to happen and u will end up with very tiny and lots of small eyes.

conclusion, swiss cheese is easy and hard to do, u need to follow some critical pH steps and end up with final pH correctly, of course this is a result of how much lactose (whey) is removed during cooking….. think again

Thanks Nabil,

I’ve never used a pH meter (I still do not have one), considering your remarks I think I’ll have to buy one shortly.

Alex