Help a noob out

[Blackdirt_cowboy]

I’d like to dabble with making cheese, but I have no idea where to start. I would prefer not to buy a bunch of specialized equipment. Can it be done with standard kitchen items? If not, what equipment is needed? What’s the lowest cost way to start making cheese? I really want to make hard cheese like cheddar, Gouda, etc, if that makes any difference.

 

[bernardsmith]

Here's my take - for what it's worth - the only piece of equipment you need to buy (or make) is a cheese press. To make hard cheese you need to be able to apply a great deal of pressure and the easiest way to do that is to build a rig that will support the cheese at the bottom and from the top and which allows you to apply perhaps up to 50 lbs of weight to the cheese. (many cheeses don't need that amount of pressure but some do). You can do that quite simply by taking two thin cutting boards and drilling 4 holes towards the corners and inserting threaded rods (about 12 inches high) through those holes. Fix the rods with washers and nuts but allow the top board to complete freedom to ride up and down those rods. It might cost you $20 to make a press. It'll cost you about $200 to buy one. A gallon of water is about 8 lbs and concrete pavers are about 20 lbs.
The other things you will need are a thermometer. I prefer digital thermometers that will signal me at set temperatures; a double boiler (two kettles: one that can fit inside the other; and something to use as a mold for the cheese (this means a container full of holes to allow the whey to drain, a follower to allow you to add pressure to the top of the mold and cheese cloth (butter muslin). You will also need a long knife (for cutting curds) and slotted spoon (for stirring curds) and a set of measuring spoons.

 

[Staestc]

You can always start with fresh cheeses like Mascarpone, Paneer, and Queso Blanco. You don't need much of anything to make those and they are fast so you get to taste your results in 1-3 days instead of months. You also don't need a 55 degree cheese cave for those. You might check out Gavin Webber's video of Bel Paese too. He does not press that one and it ages at regular refrigerator temperature. Hard pressed cheeses of course require some method of pressing and you have to be able to mature them in a controlled temperature and humidity environment, but if you search around you can find a huge number of very clever methods people have come up with to create their own molds, press cheeses, and age them.

 

[bernardsmith]

Excellent point about a "cheese cave" (55 F being an optimal temperature for aging cheese) but I wonder if we cannot assume that if blackdirt Cowboy is posting to a cheese section in a beer making forum that he likely has a way to control temperature for beer and wine making. But truth be told a cool basement while not necessarily a perfect "cave" can work effectively. What you do not really want is a fridge at normal cool temperatures. It is just too cold to allow the cultures to thrive and grow.
Humidity is really far less of a problem. Simple Tupperware-type containers can be used to control humidity.

 

[Staestc]

Good point about him likely having something that will work as a cave. I plan on using my fermentation cooler that I built until I build something just for cheese, or build/get something new for cigars, lol. Actually wine cooler used for cigars is just about perfect with both temp and humidity controlled, but now way is cheese going in there with cigars!!

 

[Blackdirt_cowboy]

I do have good temp control. I just don’t want to spend a ton of money up front. Could I just get some sort of plastic tube and drill holes in it for a mold and build a follower to fit it. Then just put weights on top of the follower? Do I have to have the frame around everything?

 

[bernardsmith]

the thing about a frame is that it is not always the case that the cheese presses in such a way that the weights do not shift and it takes only a small difference in how the cheese is compacting to shift the angle of the weights. And it takes that small shift to allow the weight to slide off. Having a set-up that sorta kinda holds the weights in place and which allows the weight to be spread over a larger area (so the pressure per square inch is reduced) means that you can be more assured that the weights stay in place... but if that is not an issue for you then you can indeed drill many dozen holes in a can , use the lid as a follower, and use a smaller can as the way you exert the pressure from whatever you are using as your weights. Try it and see... but I think you will find that that sort of rig is inherently unstable...