Making cheese

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I have. It depends on what you want to make and what you have available. You need a temperature and humidity controlled environment to do it properly. Other than that, you probably already have a large enough SS brew kettle to hold enough milk. Buy good Rennet and cultures and that is pretty much all there is to it. Making good cheese is easy, making exceptional cheese requires skill, knowledge and experience.

It takes time as well. One good thing I got from it was perspective. I realized why good cheese costs so much...it is simply that there is so much effort and time in it to create the end product.

One nice advantage is that you can make raw milk cheeses, which are not legal in the US when aged less than 60 days. So as close as you'll ever get to a true Camembert for instance will be done in the home (aside from a flight to Europe hehe).
 
I've made ricotta, by boiling lemon juice in milk. This causes the milk to curdle it is then strained though cheese cloth and a strainer. Got the idea from Gourmet magazine.
 
Short Drive said:
I've made ricotta, by boiling lemon juice in milk. This causes the milk to curdle it is then strained though cheese cloth and a strainer. Got the idea from Gourmet magazine.

My wife made and Indian dish that required this process as well. I don't think it was actually "ricotta" cheese, but it was good. Interesting as well, but not worth the effort, except maybe, once in a while.

I can see making cheese in large quantities as being worth it, but really, unless you will be sharing with a lot of people (or it keeps for a long time), who eats that much cheese? I'm guessing it's not made in 5 or 10 gallon batches like we make beer?
 
I was actually interested in this after watching the website where the cheese ages. www.cheddarvision.tv

Making cheese seems alot like homebrewing. Buy alot of expensive equipment, a dedicated refrigerator, and wait for it to age and get better (except from what I read, some cheeses take a long time)
 
I've made cheese a couple of times now, and I'm still working on the process. It is a lot like homebrewing in that you can spend a lot of money on equipment, or be really creative and build your own.
My setup was pretty simple:
To control the temperature of my milk and rennet I placed a pot into a sink with water, and added hot water to the sink periodically to maintain or increase the temperature.
To press the cheese at the end, I made a cheese press using some PVC piping and some scrap lumber.
One question for zoebisch01 or anyone else whose made cheese - I've haven't been impressed with the consistancy with my cheese. It's quite gummy. Around my house, it's really hard to find unhomogenized milk, and I think this plays a big role in the consistancy because the fat isn't binding together. Has anyone had this problem? My only other option is Organic Whole Milk which costs $10 a gallon...
I think is either the milk or the press isn't getting the pressure I think it is.
 
iBeer said:
One question for zoebisch01 or anyone else whose made cheese - I've haven't been impressed with the consistancy with my cheese. It's quite gummy. Around my house, it's really hard to find unhomogenized milk, and I think this plays a big role in the consistancy because the fat isn't binding together. Has anyone had this problem? My only other option is Organic Whole Milk which costs $10 a gallon...
I think is either the milk or the press isn't getting the pressure I think it is.

If you are making a hard cheese (or any cheese for that matter) make sure you are getting your curd right (usually smaller and more well cooked). Cooking time is one of the biggest factors behind this, and pH also plays a critical role. I have made fairly good cheese with homogenized milk, but it is fresh that day from a local farm. I am eventually going to get some goats, so until then I have kind of suspended the process (too many other projects going on). But the gumminess I would look to my curd first.

Aside from that though, It is all about the milk! It is near impossible to make stellar cheese from poor milk. Personally, I'd try to do some digging and (depending on your location) try to find a farmer within reasonable driving distance that will sell you fresh milk.
 
desiderata said:
My wife made and Indian dish that required this process as well. I don't think it was actually "ricotta" cheese, but it was good. Interesting as well, but not worth the effort, except maybe, once in a while.

I can see making cheese in large quantities as being worth it, but really, unless you will be sharing with a lot of people (or it keeps for a long time), who eats that much cheese? I'm guessing it's not made in 5 or 10 gallon batches like we make beer?

Sounds like she made Paneer. It is really good cooked with Spinach in one of their traditional dishes.

You roughly get iirc 1 lb of cheese per gallon of milk and batches at home are usually 5 gallons. 5 lbs of cheese is a bit, but especially if you are making an aged cheese it is not a problem to use up. Plus the whey material which can be used to make Ricotta if you are frugal. T

wo reasons to make cheese. The first is if you actually have animals that produce a surplus of milk (most likely one of the original reasons for cheese) and need to use it. The second is (imho) if you want to get into the artistic part of it. There are plenty of rather bland cheeses you can make easily, but getting into the challenge of making a fresh Brie or Camembert would be the cat's meow imo. I haven't made either yet, but aim to do so this year hopefully.
 
My wife and I made cheese from goat's milk. As someone said earlier, is really is all about the milk. We have an old nanny goat that we were milking daily. We'd get a margerine tub full of milk from her twice daily. When we had a couple of gallons, we'd make one cheese. Two gallons will yield a cheese that weighs approximately one pound, give or take.
We'd dry the cheese for several days, and then dip it in beeswax to seal it. We let it cure for anywhere from three to six months in the fridge.
I'm not a goat milk fan, but I do enjoy goat cheese. It has a kinda strong, funky taste like a sharp cheddar ( really sharp). From experience, I can advise you not to eat several ounces of it and wash it down with too much Stout. You won't be able to sleep for all the noise your stomach will make.

Hoegger's Supply probably has a website. They carry some really good supplies at reasonable prices, and they have great instructions on cheesemaking in their catalog.
 
Speaking of Cheese...

Some 'must tries' in my book (I haven't really thought long and hard about pairing though so no recommendations there):

Humboldt Fog
Taleggio (cave aged)
Brillat-Savarin
 
Catfish said:
I miss cheese.

I'd imagine that is a problem o'er yonder. Hey but in the meanwhile you can gorge on Sashimi, Soba, dried Squid snacks and prolly a gazillion other things that are hard to come by here. :)
 
Good bread around here (other parts of the country aren't so lucky). I can buy a selection of good cheeses... really a select few. Whenever I get to the states I head straight for a cheese counter and olive bar.
Sadly Japans humidity is too extreme for aged homemade cheeses.
 
One of my good friends felt left out when my buds and I started brewing beer. She doesn't like beer but loved the idea of making something from scratch that is better than what you can buy in the stores.

"Dammit, I want to make something from scratch too!"

So she took off with the cheese making.

Here are links to her cheese blog complete with recipes.
http://wiki.sackheads.org/index.php/Sandra%27s_Cheese_Log

She is pretty hard core and what I've tasted has been pretty amazing.

Casey
 
zoebisch01 said:
Sounds like she made Paneer. It is really good cooked with Spinach in one of their traditional dishes.

Palak Paneer! I love that stuff! Anyway, yeah the same process is done pretty much all over the world, Ricotta, Paneer, Farmer's chese, Topfen... it's all pretty much the same thing.... I know an Austrian Konditermeister that makes own topfen for his pasteries, great stuff!
 
So for those who have made cheese...

I love cheese, almost as much as beer. I love cooking, brewing, making things, etc

Can I make decent cheese, of any quantity with investing very little?
 
98EXL said:
So for those who have made cheese...

I love cheese, almost as much as beer. I love cooking, brewing, making things, etc

Can I make decent cheese, of any quantity with investing very little?

Well, you need a large ss pot, a temperature and humidity controlled fridge are the big items really. The best quality ingredients, time, patience and the ability to miss the mark until you get it right.

The hardest thing to making consistent cheese is getting your humidity right. I do this make-shift and as a result I get make-shift results. I need to invest in a humidity controller and a humidifier that will work properly which is a couple hundred bucks at least. You can make good cheese without one but it is really hard, especially if you want to make consistent soft ripened cheese, etc.

'Course you can stick to fresh cheeses like some of the non-aged Chevre's (goat milk), paneer, ricotta, mozarella and a few others that escape memory atm. Those are much easier to start out with for sure. But being the nut that I am, I want to do the Reblochon, Camembert, etc which are quite a bit more involved. Oh that reminds me, a good tool (some would say essential but that is debateable) is a way to accurately measure pH.

The good news is a lot of the equipment can be double-dipped with homebrewing and some other hobbies (with proper sanitization of course).
 
98EXL said:
I was kinda hoping it would be easy

Well the basic process is! Heat the milk, set the milk with Rennet, cut the curd, cook the curd, form or press the cheese, age and serve. The devil is in the details. Don't let me stop you. Here is a good (and easy) route to get your feet wet:

queso blanco

I guess what I was getting at was it is easy to dream about all those great cheeses you can make, but getting from here to there is a process. Sort of like any craft. :mug:
 
So how difficult is it to make something like cheddar? I have been thinking about picking up the cheesemaking kit from AHS to try that. I think I have all the equipment I need from homebrewing...
 
zoebisch01 said:
Well the basic process is! Heat the milk, set the milk with Rennet, cut the curd, cook the curd, form or press the cheese, age and serve. The devil is in the details. Don't let me stop you. Here is a good (and easy) route to get your feet wet:

queso blanco

I guess what I was getting at was it is easy to dream about all those great cheeses you can make, but getting from here to there is a process. Sort of like any craft. :mug:


I'm not looking to make anything fancy. Something like cheddar or american that I can shred to use in cooking...
 
ryser2k said:
So how difficult is it to make something like cheddar? I have been thinking about picking up the cheesemaking kit from AHS to try that. I think I have all the equipment I need from homebrewing...

Not terribly much harder to make one than any other hard cheese. You have to "cheddar" it which is where you stack and drain the curd. You'll need a press, but that can be something as simple as a cylinder, with a follower and a weight.
 
man, this sounds like it could be fun

SWMBO already virtually rolled her eyes at me over an email today when I told her I'd like to make cheese
 
What about the really hard cheeses like Parmesan, romano, etc? Are these the same process, they just take longer to age? Or do they require any different ingredients?
 
98EXL said:
I'm not looking to make anything fancy. Something like cheddar or american that I can shred to use in cooking...

Cheddar is good, maybe look into something like a farmer's cheese. Fwiw, American is a processed cheese food, not actually a true cheese in the sense of process.
 
DaveyBoy said:
What about the really hard cheeses like Parmesan, romano, etc? Are these the same process, they just take longer to age? Or do they require any different ingredients?

Same basic process, but they use different starter bacteria cultures. It turns out that many of the steps get varied somewhat to make different cheeses. In general, the harder the cheese, the longer you cook the curd and the longer you age it. How the curd is handled (from cooking to cutting to draining...etc) makes a big difference in the outcome.
 
interesting. You my friend are very insightful on this. I was surprised to already find a thread about it today when the idea popped into my head!
 
Hi, I have been making cheese. The last couple of batches have been cheddar. I have made ricotta from the whey of that, it is best from hard cheese whey. Parmesan. Farmers. Blue Cheese. You need different cultures for different cheeses. Or different molds. There are different ways of finishing them too.

Here in S.C. it is hard to get the 55 degree aging temperature.

I have my own cow so my batches are around 8 gallons. It takes about 9 hours from start up to clean up. A lot of babysitting because of the strict temperature ranges. I have but have not yet employed a ph meter. That is next.

Petunia
 
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