this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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[QUESTION] Cheese smeels and tastes weird before aging (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/cooking
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Hi, i'm looking for a cheesemaking expertise

I started making fresh cheese not a long ago, and all of them turned good

But lately I'm trying to beat the Cheddar, and it's not really working

I failed my first try because of not enough weight + not small enough curd cubes + high humidity during drying (at the end the cheese got mold all over and inside without drying)

My second try went better, although the curd was a bit spongy and hard to press

(15cm cheese) I did 8kg 12h, 18kg 24h, and around 100kg for 12h more

During this time I noticed that the cheese cloth started smelling weird, like alcohol/yeast, kinda buttery and woody

Now I'm done drying, and i'm tasting the cheese, and it's really not pleasant to eat, it's bitter and sourl, tastes just like spoiled milk

Should I continue and age it, or discard, or something?

Thank you

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is a guess, but maybe butyric acid produced by anerobic bacteria? Butyric acid is 'buttery and unpleasant' vs Diacetyl which is a lot of the smell in good butter, and should be in Cheddar (and many other cheeses).

As far as safety, I don't know.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Thank you for your reply

About smell being unpleasant, içm not really sure, because i'm not sure how cheese really should smell. For fresh cheeses they just smell like milk, but how should hard cheese smell when drying, after drying, etc

Also, in any case, if it's that bacteria, and it smells weird, tastes bitter, should I discard it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hopefully someone with more cheesemaking experience will reply. I don't know enough about it to say. I would not eat anymore of it without knowing more about the cause.

There are cheeses that are very strong and 'bad tasting' to many people, Casu Marzu and Époisses for example, but the smell and flavor is more of Ammonia, not at all what you are describing.

Good luck on your journey.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thank you. It's seems like I have many and many many tries ahead before it will start working

Right now I'm making cheese twice a week, one soft and one hard

And today I did Cheddar better than before, but there's still pressing, drying, and aging ahead, let's see

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

As a general rule, I would discard any product where an unpleseant and/or bitter aroma is not exlicitly expected. Our senses of tase and smell are very good at distinguishing "good", that is energy dense and clean, food from " bad", that is mostly rotten or contaminated, food. I have little experience with cheese making but if any doughs or yoghurts I make start to smell or taste bitter or otherwise off, it is usually because the microfauna got out of hamd and malign bacteria started overproducing.