MOULD FILLING

The art of filling the cheese mould

The mould filling equipment is primarily designed to deliver a certain amount of curd to a mould and hence to produce cheeses, after pressing, of roughly the same weight. Such equipment could be incorporated either as a part of the curd handling system or in a position dependent on the variety of cheese produced.

The traditional wheel shaped cheese – The Emmental

The entire curd content from each vat is delivered to a mould after e-wheying , and the cheese maker has to alter the volume of the milk used in order to overcome the effect of seasonal variation on yield. Thus producing the cheese of roughly the same weight.

Cheddar and related varieties

The sequence of filling the salted, curd chips in to moulds is given below

• Tare of weight of mould
• First stage filling – up to 70% or more of the final weight of the cheese is delivered in to the mould
• Pre press the curd
• Second stage filling of the mould to the desired weight e.g. 20 kg and
• Transfer cheese moulds to the press

Two stage filing ensures that the pressed cheeses are uniform in weight. A different approach to the filling of cheddar cheese mould is the Press-n-fill Mk v, which is volumetric hoop filler. The salted curd is pre pressed in to a small, rectangular chamber of similar dimension to a 20 kg block shaped hoop.

While the discharged door is in the closed position, a horizontal guillotine cuts the curd and an ejector-ram pushes out the block and gives the curd a second pre press in the hoop. During the mould filling stroke, the mould liners are held in position by a clamp frame which also prevents the spillage of curd. The rate of filling is 3 x 20 Kg moulds per minute and the mould filing can be arranged either from the right hand or left hand side.

Milling, Salting and Filling

Milling, salting / brining and / or Mould filling

The methods available to handle the curd at this stage of production depend on the type of cheese produced, but the handling of the curd can be classified as detailed below.

Mould filling / Pressing / Brining - Parmesan, Grana, Gouda / Edam

Milling / Salting / Mould Filling / Pressing - Cheddar and related British territorial

It is evident, however, that the above division is also applicable to the method of salting the cheese curd, i.e. salting for Cheddar and related varieties and brining for Swiss, Italian and Dutch cheeses. In some of the Italian and Swiss, the surface of the pressed curd is rubbed with dry salt in order to produce a harder rind to protect the cheese during the maturation period.

Milling equipment:

Most of the mechanized equipment employed for the manufacture of cheddar cheese includes automated milling and / or salting and mellowing facilities. The matted curd is cut in to curd chips of roughly 1.25 – 1.85 cm square section and 17.5 – 20.0 cm in length. However, the length of the curd chip is influenced by depth of the matted curd, space between the rotating blades, speed of the rotating cutters and design of the mill.

An alternative type of mill, which could be employed during the manufacture of most British varieties, is the peg type. However a different type of peg mill is used for milling Cheshire cheese curd to give granular pieces, which help the finished cheese to attain the crumbly texture characteristics.