If I wanted to make 2 large cheeses at the same time, something like havarti or gouda. Would I be able to leave half the curds in the whey for 8 or so hours while a press thr other other in the mold? I only have one mould. Just trying to save time. If it can't be done, I might buy more molds in the future

I'm going to try making my own mozarella cheese. To gauge the cost-effectiveness of doing so, I want to know (by weight) roughly how much Mozarella I will get from 4L of full cream milk?

Does anyone have a recipe for this soft delicious Venezuelan Cheese? Cannot find a complete recipe online anywhere.

Hello,

I am in the middle of making Saint Marcellin cheese for the first time. I have 8 hours left in a 22 hour rest after adding the rennat but I noticed the curds have a clean break already and am seeing natural cracks around the edge. Should I wait for another 8 hours or continue on to the next step?

I am using 0.5 gallon (2lts) of goat's milk which is much less than the original recipe of 2 gallons.

Thank you

https://preview.redd.it/hgkelygnjh1e1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=315c52c7f2100c1db230cbefc5e324f710da9142

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Made a month ago, smells good…stopped washing it with brine about a week ago. First signs of these tiny black spots. Should I be brushing the rind?

I've been jonesing to make a Brin d'Amour thos weeken that will hopefully be decent for cmas. I've seen here and the cheese forum that often there's mould issues and to possibly sanitize the herbs before use, but is this possible for dried stuff that's meant to be dry as a coating? A quick spritz of something? I read here maybe vacuum seal the herbs and boil to a certain temp but i never saw if anyone did it. In the end, I couldn't find an actual answer in my googles so is it just a suck it up scenario? What if one added a layer of ash before the herbs? Hmm I suppose that would protect the cheese a bit but not prevent the herbs from growing rando things. Anywho, any information or ideas are welcome! Thanks

First, once the fresh beer is added to the curds and then they are drained for pressing, some amount of beer is enclosed within the rind. Is that alcohol still present after aging? Second, does the alcohol adversely affect the culture? Is the beneficial bacteria damaged by the added alcohol such that dosing needs to be altered?

https://www.youtube.com/live/fvBqDDavbXc?si=I3AgXr5vbGSWOgfW

Live stream

I got 10L of raw milk and thought I had heated it up enough to pasteurize it (but im guessing it wasn'tenough time i had it on the right temperature). I let it cool down over night, wanting to make cream cheese with it early next morning but coming back, it had turned thick already. I believe the right term for it is 'clabbered'. I don't want to waste 10L of milk and I'm now wondering if there is any sort of cheese I can still make with it.

Sorry, in the title I meant it's my first time trying to make cheese of any kind (I tried mozzarella)... oops.

Here's what I used-

-1 Gal pasteurized/homogenized whole milk (I know homogenized is not ideal/not good, but we were given 5 gallons of this milk and I'm trying to put it to some use)

-1/2 c apple cider vinegar mixed into 1 cup of well water (non-chlorinated), then mixed into the cold milk

-1/2 tsp New England Cheesemaking Supply liquid animal rennet with a "Best by" date of November 2020

---I did a test run with 1/4 tsp in 1 cup of milk (without any acid added), and it worked perfectly... clean cut lines, no curds, just a little soft. Per the test instructions and my soft result, I doubled the rennet from the typical 1/4tsp for the 1 gallon to hopefully get a firmer set

-I heated the milk/vinegar slowly, like 35 minutes, stirring often, on Med/Low heat. The plan was to mix the rennet into the pot at 90 degrees F. I had a digital thermometer suspended in the milk, and it alerted me at 85 degrees. I jumped over to stir the pot... and bumped my digital oven thermometer into the pot of milk! *facepalm* It stopped working instantly.

I grabbed out my backup digital thermometer... battery acid had leaked and it wasn't turning on.

I grabbed my manual thermometer... my house is currently around 65 degrees F, the thermometer was reading 100 degree air temp... it said my milk was 145 degrees F (I'm a barista, so from the "touch test" I know it wasn't near that hot, lol), so I tossed it aside to recalibrate later.

My husband raced in to the rescue with his FLIR thermal imaging camera- said my milk was 109 degrees. I panicked, took it off the heat, and stirred the well water/rennet combo into the milk/vinegar. Within seconds it turned into micro-curds and separated from the whey. I stirred it for about 30 seconds, even though I could tell it wasn't right (like I said, my non-acidified test batch turned out soft, but almost perfect). I put a lid on it, and was about to pour a glass of wine and pout that I ruined it... but decided to Google first. I found this group, now I'm begging for help, haha!

Can I save this batch?

Even if the cheese is sub-par, is there a way to salvage this?

I know my milk type isn't good/ideal, and I absolutely should have let the milk cool back down to at least 95 degrees F before adding the rennet. I still have 4 gallons of this milk that I'm trying to be a good steward of, so I get to try 4 more times (lol). Open to any beginner-friendly suggestions. I'm going to run into town and buy a new thermometer before I open the bottle of wine, haha. I'll check back here before I toss the current curdled batch (in hopes y'all can provide rescue options), and before I start the next batch attempt.

Sorry for the long post, but figured more details is better to get good help. TIA! :)

Unlikely, but does anyone in NYC have a tiny bit of MY800 or other thermophilic that I could pick up this weekend? I’m making a last minute dash out of the city to pick up some raw milk and have run out.

Will trade for a gallon of good raw milk!

So I attempted my second batch of churpi last night. The first time I made it, I believe I squeezed too much liquid out of the curds immediately after removing from the pot. The curds didn't stick together well. The first time I made it, I used a gallon of skim milk, 3/4 c. lime juice and 1 tsp salt. I removed it from the heat prior to adding the lime juice. I didn't seem to get an overabundance of curds and like I said, I think I squeezed too much water out. This time I left it on the heat while adding 1/2 c. of lime juice. I have a really hard time figuring out when it's done creating curds. I THINK I'm supposed to keep stirring while it's producing curds. When I thought it was done creating curds, I drained it. The curds seemed moist enough but kind of rubbery. Should I not have left the mixture on the heat and essentially cooked the curds once they turned into curds? I can't find any type of real direction on this, just random YT recipes that don't include detailed instructions. I've even tried to decipher foreign language videos for more detail.

Hi, can anyone suggest a link explaining the cheese culture differences?

I haven't tried cheesemaking yet, but a friend of mine just did, which inspired me to get a book off my shelves--published in 1975 called "Super Easy Step-by-Step Cheesemaking." There is a series of steps, which I understand, but, for example, in the Cheddar recipe there is a cooking step which requires the cheese to be kept at exactly 98º for many hours. I'm not sure that with the equipment I have, I can maintain the prescribed temperatures.

I can't help but wonder if that is really necessary. Haven't people been making cheese for centuries? Surely most of that time they didn't have such exacting control over the processes.

Hello, I have access to jersey milk which is 5% fat, and I was thinking that as sheep milk is 6-7% fat, I could try doing an etorki-like cheese with it. But I cant find any recipe in the web. Anyone here can help? Thank you!!

I'm sure a lot of UK cheese makers have been frustrated trying to source unhomogenised whole milk.

I've just discovered that Tesco's own brand Jersey Milk is not homogenised.

Overall, I would say I've been pretty successful so far. Lemon juice seemed to work well in producing the curds, I think I drained it pretty good and it is currently being pressed in my refrigerator as we speak.

But I was curious to know what additions you put into your paneer if any after it's finished.

I know that the point of ricotta is making use of the leftover whey from rennet-based cheese. But homemade ricotta recipes usually call to curdle the whey from milk using acid (vinegar, lemon juice) and heat, and possibly add some heavy cream.

I read that some of the casein will remain in the resultant cheese, making it different than traditional ricotta. Is it because some of it also curdles or simply because it is proportionally in the wet constituent that hasn't been drained, as it is in the drained liquid?

And what about the fat percentage? I assume it should be more than in traditional ricotta, but it seems that ricotta in Italy is commonly 5-6% fat which already sounds to me unlikely to come just from leftover whey (which is supposed to be less than 1% fat).

Thanks.

Tried making my second ever cheese yesterday, which was a queso blanco with pickled jalapeño pieces in it. Overall I'm happy with how it came out. I used the queso blanco recipe from cheesemaking.com and took some pickled jalapeños, ran them through a food processor, and added at the end. It probably could have used more salt, but I was cautious and didn't want it to be overly salty.

Going to try making feta next weekend.

I've made my first cheese over the weekend, 1kg Gouda. It sat in bring for a day and now it is into its second day of air drying at room temperature. I will wax it tomorrow and put into a cheese cave.

Does it look okay? It has a bit of white in places but since it's my first cheese I'm not sure it that is normal or a bad sign. I've been careful with sanitising everything while making and handling it.

Thanks

I opened my second butterkase today. Holes are present again but since this has occurred before I am not concerned. It is SO GOOD! I never had butterkase until I made my own so I’m not sure if it’s exactly a butterkase flavor, but it’s a good flavor and quickly becoming a favorite. 10/10 happy with this cheese! The pot behind it is ripening for a new batch of butterkase!

hi guys, i think the cheese god was on my side today.

i had a little of leftover raw milk, and i was going to boil some to drink, but it was sour. so i decided to make cheese with it, probably cream cheese because mozzarella is not easy for newbies.

as i mix my milk, it starts to curdles, and i haven’t even reach for the bottle of vinegar yet, and it became stretchy.

this must be magic or some sort because i am flabbergasted.

i heard that there is a higher chance of success if you use raw milk to make mozzarella, but i didn’t know i found the cheat code to it.

i don’t know how it’s going to taste, but i’ll let you guys know!