Cheese 2: End of First Week, and Waxing

Cheese 2 is the younger brother of Cheese 1

How was I to know that I hadn't squeezed the cheese enough. Pictures show the consequences.

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The Plan Goes Wrong



I had intended to make minimal changes between cheeses 1 & 2 so as to glean a few semi-scientific nuggets from the differences between one and another. 

Unfortunately, when compared the process of cheese 1, to cheese 2, a few small changes crept in, and accumulated to eventually produce a quite different cheese by the end of the first week.



So anyway, here is how it looked while it was all wrapped up in my fridge:

The main difference to its sibling was that it lived its first three days in a G-Clamp press made form pasta pots. I suspect that this press had a less pressure, and less space for the whey to escape. 
At the end of the third day, when I stopped turning it and increasing the pressure with the g clamp, it was still about the 50% larger (heavier, at around 200g) than the first cheese. But for the sake of experimentation, I thought I should go with it. 

So after 3 days in its press, it spent another 3 wrapped in muslin and absorbent paper:

When I unwrapped it prior to waxing, it turned out that its center had shrunk, leaving quite a depression. - Don’t know what that means?

Undaunted, I decided to wax it anyway, and see what happens. 

Tada!


The next step is going to be consumption, Have to determine how long to leave it though.

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Consequences

• Was is the lack of squeezing that resulted in the larger cheese?
• Was it a temperature difference in the fridge?
• Was it the rennet being mixed with water before mixing?

 I don't know the answers, but a few more cheese iterations should start to uncover the truth.