Why is curd cut when making cheese

Press lightly on the surface of the curd until it breaks, or make a small slice in the surface. Scoop your finger or tool upwards and examine the whey that rushes in to fill the cut. If it is clear and yellow, you have achieved a clean break.

If it is whitish, cloudy, or milky, wait a bit longer and check again. Recipes for softer cheeses may advise using a ladle or a spoon to cut slices out of the curd and scoop them straight into a colander for draining.

Check for a Clean Break Before cutting the curds, check for a clean break , indicating that coagulation is complete. Making Cuts Begin making vertical, uniform cuts from the top of the curd clear to the bottom of the pot and all the way across the surface of the curds. Turn the pot 90 degrees and repeat the process, making a checked pattern on the top. That solidification process is known as coagulation. From there, the curd mass is cut, moisture is lost, protein and fat are concentrated to form the cheese body.

Freshly cut Mozzarella curds leaking whey Cutting the coagulated curd mass also called the coagulum initiates the moisture loss from the soon-to-be cheese. This moisture loss is known as whey expulsion and is an example of syneresis. A way to think about this is like cutting through a sponge. The amount of moisture that will be lost from the cut surface is a function of the surface area of the newly formed curd particles. Cutting is done to encourage moisture to leave the curd "sponge" Top Cut Size All else being equal, cutting smaller curds will lead to more moisture loss, and larger curds lead to less moisture loss.

This is due to smaller pieces having a greater surface area-to-volume ratio. Simply put, cutting the curd into smaller pieces will lead to drier cheeses.

For example, Grana-style cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano start off with small rice-sized curd particles. Higher moisture cheeses like Brie will be on the other end of the spectrum with larger curd particle size. Some cheese such as Cream Cheese are ladled directly from the coagulum in the vat into the cheese cloth or molds without being cut or stirred. Some cheeses such as Cottage Cheese are cut with wire knives similar to rennet coagulated cheeses.

Ideally every curd particle is of the same size to: Create a uniform cheese, large range in cut curd sizes will result in areas of high and low moisture content in the cheese. High moisture can result in sour or fermented areas. Create uniform temperature among the cut curds, especially if cooking the curds. Different sized cut curds will heat at different rates resulting in different internal temperatures which will cause differing whey expulsion and acid production rates.

Method: Cubed Cutting Rennet coagulated cow's milk, starting to cut curd with bread knife Curd Cutter. For them, a common workaround is to use a long thin food grade object as a Curd Knife and: First, slice the curd vertically into parallel even thickness sheets.

Second, slice the curd again vertically but perpendicular, at 90 degrees to the first row, resulting in vertical square rods of curd. Fourth, a row of cuts at 90 degrees to the previous 45 degree row and with knife still tilted at 45 degrees, to fully and reasonably evenly form the cut curds. Fifth, circle the knife around the edge of vat to detach cut curd from vat. Method: Rice Cutting Rennet coagulated cow's milk rested 10 minutes after cutting into diamonds.