Cheese Making Kits?

I've seen a few of these, I know Austin Homebrew Supply used to have one but I didn't see it today. Which is the best, or which would you recommend for a cheese making beginner(I've not made any)? I'm mostly looking to start with Mozz and ricotta for now. I'll eventually want to do things like Mexican Queso Fresco and maybe some dry cheeses. Thanks ya'll.

The 'kits' available from Austin or direct from cheesemaking.com contain a thermometer, butter muslin and the citric acid and vegetable rennet tablets; as such, go with the cheapest delivered price.

If you have a decent gourmet store near you, you may be able to find the rennet there. Citric acid is readily available at your LHBS.

Hope to pick up a kit from Leeners this weekend. They seem to have one of the best sites for cheese makers, in addition to a decent beer and wine store. Lucky for me I live within a short drive.

I have been reading the recipes they have on line in preparation for starting this new hobby.

Craig

I got one from some "cheese lady" on the web, basically it was a cheesecloth bag, some tabs and stuff, and some retarded plastic "press".

If I were to do it all over again, I'd have just bought the ingredients individually.

jezter6 said:

I got one from some "cheese lady" on the web, basically it was a cheesecloth bag, some tabs and stuff, and some retarded plastic "press".

If I were to do it all over again, I'd have just bought the ingredients individually.

Click to expand...

Yeah, me too. But I saw that AHS had the "30 minute mozzerella" for about $14.95 or so. For that prize, I'd get it. It had the cheese salt, butter muslin, citric acid, and the instructions, and maybe a few other things. I can't remember it all right now.

I ended up buying other items in bits and pieces- a bamboo drying mat, a waxing brush, cheese wax, more salt, calcium chloride, lipase, more culture, etc. I've purchased from Leener's, from Austinhomebrew.com and from Rikki Carroll's site. Rikki Carroll's site has a phone number, and you can call for a catalogue. It's like a newspaper, and has all of their items listed.

It might be helpful to look at Leener's site closely. They have about 3-5 pages of nothing but recipes complete with pictures. Then you can see what you already have, and what you need. I've been using my stainless brewing pots, my no-rinse sanitizer, my mash themometer, etc, and didn't need to buy those items.

what's the deal with the cheese wax? I understand that iodized salt is bad, but the kosher salt I use is not iodized. So is that fine to use? I don't think spending $4/lb of salt is necessary. Anyway, thanks for the help guys, I'll check out those sites and see what I have and don't have. I guess really the main stuff is the rennet, muslin, and citric acid... right? Thanks!

The wax contains the internal moisture, after the initial drying phase, to survive extended aging.

Any coarse salt without iodine may be used, but IIRC, flaked is best.

The main stuff is calcium chloride, non iodine salt, rennet, lipase, and of course, cultures.
As with say, a brewing or kegging kit, yeah, they give you the basics, but study a bit and then just buy the things you will need as separate items, and you will have a greater quantity of an item, meaning cheaper costs per use, and perhaps better quality equipment.

Like Yooper said, do the reading, take an inventory of what you currently have from brewing or in the kitchen already then order what you know you'll need. I was never a 'kitter'.

The biggest Cheese Forum is cheeseforum.org, there are many others. The cheesemaking vendors have a lot of info on their sites, also.