Curious on your takes on this. Most of the cheese presses on the market either use springs with a gauge, options for weights (think flat top or dutch style), or none and use a screw press. I have used the flat top before but I sold all my weightlifting plates and never really liked it anyways. I can source a dutch one used for a good deal here with molds and all, but I was looking at the Ultimate Cheese Press online and theirs is tight fit to a hoop with a single screw plate, similar to a low level wine press. The concept explained to me by them and in a way it makes sense, is that curds will release whey when they say so. So 20 lbs is great but that can cause uneven pressures and let out milky whey rather than clear whey. I used to work at a creamery and we used commercial pneumatic presses so it was always even no matter what. Recipes of course call for X lbs for X minutes or hours. Maybe in truth the pressures don't matter much and as long as it's tight it's good, not sure. I do like their press as it comes with a hefty hoop as your mold, so I wouldn't need to buy cheese molds. This is similar to what we used in the creamery, just a long stainless hoop to make a giant log that we sliced down.
I could just throw a kitchen scale under a drip tray to get an idea of what I want i guess. It's less compact than the dutch one too
what do you think? I plan on making everything from cheddar to parmesan so I need to be able to press pretty good.
I could just throw a kitchen scale under a drip tray to get an idea of what I want i guess. It's less compact than the dutch one too
what do you think? I plan on making everything from cheddar to parmesan so I need to be able to press pretty good.
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