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Wooden Ring Mold - Large
Item #:M43 |
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10-11.5"Wide x 3"High, hand crafted wooden cheese mold. This is a wonderful high quality mold that will be a great addition to any cheese makers treasure trove. This mold is used when making cheeses between 11 and 12 pounds. Limited quantity available while supplies last. QUANTITY: One RETURN INFORMATION: We are sorry but we cannot accept returns of used equipment. For our full return policy, please click here.
Molds ... What they are and which ones do I choose for my cheese.
The final step for for the curds in cheese making is the draining and forming a good shape and proper rind for the final aging steps. The most practical shape for these molds or forms (hence the word Formagio) is a cylinder. One of the most practical shapes short of being a sphere and most suited to sit on a flat shelf for aging. There will be many other considerations such as, height, width, number of holes (and spacing) as well as bottom less or not. These will all be determined by final size, moisture, and surface preparations (waxed, rubbed, washed, etc)
We get many questions on which molds should be used for which cheese.
The molds used for cheese have all evolved from regional uses over the past several hundred years.
There are two primary considerations in choosing the molds:
- How large is the cheese you would like to make and will the mold hold all of the curd for this cheese? Do remember that high moisture curd cheeses (for earlier ripening) will press lower in the molds when the weight is applied than will drier curd cheeses.
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Large Hard Cheese Mold
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Small Hard Cheese Mold |
M2
5-7 gallons of milk |
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M3
 with no bottom
needs lighter press weight
2-3 gallons of milk |
2. What is the height to diameter proportion for this cheese?
this is important for the types of cheese you intend to make:
- Pressed and aged cheese need a closer ratio of the height to width of the finished cheese. This will be most efficient at keeping the cheese from excess moisture loss
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Large Hard Cheese Mold |
Small Hard Cheese Mold |
Tomme (Large) |
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M3
with no bottom needs lighter press weight |
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5-7 gallons of milk
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2-3 gallons of milk
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3-4 gallons of milk
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They are designed to accommodate more pressure for a longer aging cheese
These molds work well for classic aged cheese such as Cheddar, Gouda, Montasio and other recipes for aged cheese found in Ricki's book |
- Surface ripened cheese (red and white molds and yeast) such as Camembert/Brie Munster and some of the moister Tomme styles, etc will need a lower format where the height is much less than the diameter. These are all higher moisture cheese and the primary reason for this is that the surface growth produces enzymes that need to move to the center of the cheese for ripening results. The shorter the height the more efficient this can be done.
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Tomme (Large) |
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Tomme (Small) |
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3-4 Gallons of milk
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For Larger Tomme style cheese such as
Tomme De Savoie
and small Alpine style Cheese |
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1 Gallon of milk
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For smaller washed and surface
ripened cheeses such as
Reblochon and Munster |
Our Basket molds can be used for fresh cheese and smaller blues since little to no weight is applied on these.
Basic Basket Mold
M222
2-3 Gallons of milk |
Small Basket Mold
M232
1-2 Gallons of milk |
Both of these can be used for making Ricotta or any small cheeses requiring little weight such as an early ripening (high moisture) Cheddar/Gouda or a blue which needs no weight
For Goat Cheese and other fresh cheeses any of our smaller molds will work
These molds are traditionally used in the Alpine regions of the central European mountains to form large cheeses such as Gruyere, Comte, Abondance, Beaufort, and the Bitto or Montasio cheeses of Italy. A similar form is even used for Parma cheese. These forms were also used here in the US for the Swiss style cheese of Wisconsin.
They are comprised simply of a flexible wooden hoop with a chord that can be tightened for the cheese shape. There is no follower used for these forms. Two boards each larger than the hoop diameter are used as pressing surfaces above and below the hooped cheese.
How to use them:
The curd is first gathered in a large cloth from the cheese vat, allowed to drain briefly and then placed into the form resting on the bottom press board. The curd mass is then pressed moderately by hand (sometimes I do see them applying their full body weight here) to eliminate the initial free whey.
The cloth is then folded neatly over the surface of the cheese and the chord around the band is tightened with a couple of good raps on the floating block that pulls the hoop tighter. The key here is to have 1-2 fingers of space between the press boards and the hoop edges. The press weight is then applied to the top board. As the curds consolidate the goal is to have the boards barely resting on the hoop edges when final pressing is finished. Often I find that there is a bit of curd that sneaks over the edge of the hoop. This is then cut away with a knife as the final pressing step before the cheese goes to drying.
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The Cheese Queen is in Food and Wine and Barbara Kingsolver's
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Thanks for joining our cheese making family, keep those stories & photos coming. We love to hear from you!
In Peace,
Ricki, the cheese queen | |