🔄 Pressing

Pressing means squeezing whey out of the cheese curd. After the milk curdles and the curd is cut, you get cheese grains floating in whey. The whey is drained: the first draining removes 30–50% of the volume. The grains are put into moulds, and pressing begins.

The moulds let liquid through, and under pressure the grains knit together into one wheel. The pressure is raised gradually, in 3–10 steps. The pressure on the cheese surface ranges from 50 to 450 grams per square centimetre, depending on the type of cheese. The harder the pressing, the firmer the cheese. Some soft cheeses are not pressed at all: they are simply left to drain, salted and packed.

After pressing, the cheese is salted — with dry salt or in brine. Salt draws out a bit more moisture, makes the cheese firmer and helps it keep. Cheese usually has 0.5–2% salt, and brined cheeses like feta have 3–7%. Then the wheels go off to ripen. Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack, for example, count as pressed cheeses.