Technical: brine bath

INTRODUCTION

Cheese needs salt. It is the indispensable ingredient that makes cheese firmer, tastier, longer-lasting, and microbiologically safe. Cheese is salted by placing freshly formed cheeses in a salt bath (brine bath) or by adding salt directly to the curd or sprinkling it over fresh cheeses. This is done for the following important reasons:

Flavour development
Salt enhances the flavour of cheese and gives it its characteristic savoury, full aroma. Without brine, cheese would taste much blander.

Shelf life and food safety
Salt inhibits the growth of undesirable bacteria and moulds. By salting the exterior of the cheese, an environment is created in which spoilage microorganisms develop much more slowly.

Structure and rind formation
Salting helps form the rind. Salt draws moisture from the outside of the cheese, making it firmer and giving it a protective layer.

Regulation of ripening
Salt influences the activity of enzymes and bacteria that are important for the ripening process. This ensures that the cheese matures in a controlled manner, resulting in the right texture and flavour development.

Balancing moisture content
Salt draws moisture from the curd. This helps determine the final firmness of the cheese. Harder cheeses, for example, are brined longer than softer ones.

In short: salting cheese ensures flavour, preservation, structure, and controlled ripening. In this technical sheet, we will limit ourselves to wet brine, the brine bath. Essential for Gouda and hard cheeses, but also suitable for salting semi-hard and soft cheeses. The claim that you must use non-iodised salt for salting—and therefore for your brine bath—is a myth. It is not true. You may use the cheapest table salt from the supermarket.

Depending on the type of cheese, you need a stronger or weaker brine. Trust your recipe. A standard brine for Gouda cheese, for example, contains around 220 g of salt per litre of water. This results in a 20% solution or 18° Baumé. Salt concentration is expressed in Baumé degrees (°Bé). Special floating brine hydrometers exist that allow you to measure your brine precisely. A commonly used ratio of brine to time is: 1 hour of brining per 100 g of cheese in an 18° Bé brine.

After brining, do not discard your brine bath — the brine only improves with reuse. Initially, your brine is fairly aggressive to the cheese, especially if it consists solely of salt and water with no additives. The brine not only gives salt to the cheese, it also withdraws water, lactic acid, bacteria, and minerals from it. Over time, your brine will come into balance, and the acidity and mineral content of the bath will stabilise in harmony with the cheeses you place in it. The only thing to watch is that the salt concentration remains constant. If the salt level is too low, simply add more salt until the desired concentration is reached.

Lactic acid bacteria and other microbial life will also enter your brine bath. Over time, these will become part of the “terroir” of your cheesemaking environment—the unique character that distinguishes your cheeses from those of your colleagues.

PREPARING YOUR OWN BRINE BATH

If you want to make a new brine bath and have a balanced brine right away, you can use the following recipe (example for 10 litres at 18° Bé):

For the home cheesemaker:
• 10 litres of water
• 2200 g of salt
• 1 tablespoon CaCl (calcium chloride)

• 4 tsp vinegar
If you have a brine hydrometer, it will read around 18.

For the professional cheesemaker:
• 90 litres of water
• Dissolve 20 kg of table salt (food-grade) in the water while stirring regularly
• Check the strength with a brine hydrometer
• Add salt until you reach 18–20° Baumé
• Now add 1.5 litres of dissolved calcium chloride per 100 litres of brine (the same 30% solution used in cheesemaking)
• Adjust the pH of your brine to (5.15–5.30): this can be done with white vinegar, a 10% hydrochloric acid solution, citric acid, or lactic acid

MAINTAINING YOUR BRINE BATH

It is best to store brine at a temperature of around 12–14°C — the temperature of your cheese cave. The brine should preferably have this temperature during brining as well.

If the brine becomes contaminated with herbs or small pieces of curd, you can simply strain it. If you unexpectedly need to make new brine, mix in some of the old brine. You can then omit the vinegar and CaCl. If you are unsure about the microbiological safety of your brine, you can briefly heat it to 72°C and let it cool again.

The only thing to keep an eye on is the salt concentration. If the concentration is too low, simply add more salt until you achieve the desired level. This is measured with a brine hydrometer, a kind of floating device that you place in the brine bath.

With each brining session, your brine loses salt. You can partially compensate for this by sprinkling salt on the top side of the cheeses during brining—the part that sits above the brine. If you turn the cheeses halfway through the brining time, you can also sprinkle the newly exposed side with salt. Sooner or later, you may need to drain some brine, since the bath gradually fills with the water extracted from the cheeses.

HOW TO USE A BRINE HYDROMETER

• A brine hydrometer is a densimeter used to accurately determine the amount of salt in a solution. It is used in meat processing for injection brines and in cheesemaking for salting cheese.
• The professional hydrometer sold by Milk&Magic has two measurement scales:
   - the first: in Baumé degrees (0–30°)
   - the second: in g/ml (1.000–1.250 g/ml)
• The principle of use is simple: pour your liquid (already mixed) into a test tube (or a long, narrow container) and slowly immerse the densimeter into the liquid below the waterline.
• Wait until the hydrometer stabilises and any air bubbles have disappeared.
• Observe the point where the “waterline” cuts the densimeter — that is where you read the measurement.