Anyone here making cheese?

TomOnBoard

Is there any forum on Boards for amateur cheese- making?

I cant find anything..

Gloomtastic!

Well this is as good a place to start as any.

You go first, I’ll be back later.

tangy

I made it once.

1) You don't get much cheese for your money.

2) As I remember, the Use-by date on the rennet was on the bottle, not the box, so worth checking.

3) I used a PET 2 litre water bottle, with holes melted into it, as a mould. Tin cans then worked well as weights for pressing the cheese.

4) I added too much salt

5) I was going to wax the finished cheese, but postage on small quantities of cheese wax was disproportionate, so I just left it cloth-wrapped. However, as Crayola crayons are designed to be eaten by small children, I read that you could use them as food-safe cheese wax

Gloomtastic!

I've made cheese a few times, either a paneer or mozzarella, with varying degrees of success. I got a cheese-making kit a couple of years ago so I have all the ingredients to make up to a Cheshire but as tangy mentioned, you need so much milk and you need to control the temperature for such a long time, I haven't gone ahead with it.

It's on my list........:D

Graces7

When I had a goat for milk etc I made cheese a few times but it took a lot of milk... and was very strong tasting... not goaty… Great fun making it. And like goat milk butter, pure white.

Mystery Egg

I'm actually planning to make cream cheese this weekend! I made it once before.

TomOnBoard

tangy wrote: »

I made it once.

You don't get much cheese for your money.

On average, standard 3.5% milk has the proteins and fats needed to give a 10% cheese yield at 37% moisture content in well- run production. So 10 litres of standard milk should yield 1kg (+/-) of 37% m.c. cheese. This is a useful metric to guide your cheese-making processes.

Of course, many factors affect the actual yield, so your mileage will vary. However, if you only get say 700g from 10 litres, you know there's a problem with your raw materials or with your process.

TheKBizzle

I’ve made ricotta, mozzarella and curds for poutine before. I’ve used sous vide to get the temperature correct

TomOnBoard

TheKBizzle wrote: »

I’ve made ricotta, mozzarella and curds for poutine before. I’ve used sous vide to get the temperature correct

Sous vide is awesome for temperature regulation using mesophilic cultures and avoids scorching the milk.

However, most folks dont have access to sous vide. An alternative is the double boiler technique using two pots- one pot boiling water on the stove, with another slightly wider large pot on top holding the milk. As the water boils beneath, it heats the upper pot gently. Just make sure the stack is sturdy, as otherwise the top pot can become a milky mess all over the kitchen floor..