Brine bath

Bathing Brine

Cheese is less dense than brine so its buoyant and will float to teh surface. This results in uneavan brineing as the top of the cheese will be air dried resulting in an unevan rind formation. Also try to prevent the cheese from touching teh sides of teh brine tank.

• Avoid by sprinkleing top with salt
• Turn cheese half way through soak
• Brining cheese withdraws the salt from the brine so to be safe, use 5 times the amount of cheese being brined
• Keep temperature constant around 50-60°F/10C-15C TO WARM - enable spoilage and pathogen type microorganisms TO COLD - kills many off the flavour producing organisms and less salt uptake giving a higher moisture content cheese which can make it difficult to develop a hard rind.
• Keep the cheese the same temperature as teh brine
• Brining is dependant on the cheese weight/volume, thickness, and density. For Hard cheses like Parmagiano will require longer than a semi-hard Havarti.

Making Brine

• All salt water brines should be at around 18 % - 23% salt. If the brine is to weak less moisture loss and easy contamination.
• Do not use Iodised salt as it contains iodine.
  
• LESS THAN 18% - Less moisture loss means a higher water contact cheese
• LESS THAN 18%The acidity development will be less retarded which results in higher acidity (lower pH) will favour the growth of spoilage organisms. Aged type cheeses get sticky and create discoloured rind patches, varying from straw to bright orange, red or brown. Also, the surface will be prone to show growths of the black or grey mucor molds (poille de chat).
• ABOVE 23% - Too much moisture will be lost too rapidly from the surface of the cheese resulting in very dehydrated surface layer which may reduce further uptake of salt into the body (depending on cheese type)

When there is a unballance using a fresh brine, exhibit cat ion exchange, the calcium and hydrogen ions in the cheese surface will transfer from the cheese into the brine until they both reach equilibrium. This transfer causes the casein to absorb water and swell resulting in a soft slimy surface layer that in aged cheeses leads to a weak rind.

Always acitidy or neatralise the PH to the same pH as the cheese.

• Using drained whey from teh same cheese
  
• Adding Citric Acid
  
• Adding Acetic Acid (vinegar)
• Add food grade CaCl2 to the brine

Brine Tank

• Be large enough not only for the brine and cheese but enough room for turning

• Salt resistant material, such as plastic or high quality stainless steel. Be aware of aluminium parts

Making saturated Brine

• Boil your water and pour into your tank.
• Add 1 part natural sea salt or kosher salt (non-iodized) to 4 parts boiled water and dissolve into water
  
• Allow brine to cool to 60°F/15.6°C or refridgerate if storing
  
• Add vinegar to reach pH 5 or to equal to the pH of cheese
• Add CaCl2 to reduce cat ion exchange

In brines, % salt is a measure of the weight of salt divided by the weight of brine, i.e. if you dissolve 1 kg of salt in 5 liters of water, the brine will weigh 6 kg and you will have 1/6 = 16.7% salt brine.

Storing saturated Brine

• covered to prevent anything unwanted falling in.
• Store at temperature of -60°F/15.6°C or lower.
• try to avoid smear of slime to develop on the sides of the bath as this is fat that contains bacterial growth

Cleaning Brine

Filtering used brine to remove fine curd particles

• Skim the surface of any bits of cheese after each use
  
• If cloudy, pour the brine through a cheesecloth lined strainer
  
• If in poor shape boil the brine to kill off any microorganisms such as Listeria.

Rebuilding Brine

Salt will decline over time as it is absorbed by the cheeses and thus should be replenished to the % salt required.

• For un-saturated brine, stir in additional salt to bring you back to target
  
• For saturated brine, boil and stir in additional salt until it no longer dissolves
• Note, after using newly made brine, pH and calcium level should normally not need to be adjusted, assuming brine is used reasonably frequently.