Recently become interested in making cheese. I usually see videos that just have the steps be mixing liquid milk(processed) and vinegar and heating this mixture. I want to try it but on a much smaller scale. I've got canned milk and a bottle of white vinegar. Is there anything else that's important?

Just startet making cheese, and this is my first blue. Hope it has the right colour, it is 3 weeks old, when should I taste it?

…for the cheese party to begin! The dogs know that there are a bunch of cheeses on the counter.

Couldn't resist the play on words for the title. Made this Not-a-Butterkase on 3/9/24 following the make procedure from NEC's Butterkase recipe, but with ingredients I had on hand.

Ingredient notes:

• Two gallons store-bought pasteurized and homogenized milk.
• Included 1/4 cup of nonfat dry milk powder.
• Included 2 drops of annatto diluted in 1/8 cup distilled water.
• I don't have geotrichum so I just skipped that ingredient.
• For the mesophilic culture I used 1/8 tsp. of Aroma B.
• For the thermophilic culture I used 2 Tbsp. of Greek yogurt (I didn't write down the brand / specific cultures, though).

Followed the curd washing steps from the NEC recipe but only stirred for 25 minutes instead of the 30 to 45 from the recipe.

Because my house is cold in March I did all the pressing over a pot of water regularly re-heated to keep some steam coming out of the pot. I flipped the cheese every 30 minutes while pressing and pressed for a total of 5 hours. The first 2 hours I used somewhere between 3 and 6 lbs. The last 3 hours I pressed using 8 lbs.

After pressing but before brining:

Not-a-Butterkase after pressing

I was very happy with how well the curd knit together and the smoothness of the exterior. Weight out of the press was 2 lbs. 3 oz. or 1,008g.

Brined for 4.5 hours, flipping halfway. Weight out of the brine was 991g.

Dried in my cheese fridge for 3 days then vacuum sealed and back into the cheese fridge for aging. Flipped daily.

Sampled at 4 weeks when we had company. It was very creamy and mild. It had a buttery and/or yogurty smell, depending on who you asked. Also, shredded some for a pizza. It melted, but not into a smooth, uniform cheese layer.

Opened it again at 7 weeks:

Not-a-Butterkase at 7 weeks

I was a little surprised by the open texture, but chalked that up to mechanical openings and Aroma B gas production. It had a mild smell, was very soft and had a creamy and springy texture. The flavor was still very mild. It was great on freshly baked bread.

Not-a-Butterkase slices at 7 weeks

It's now 9 weeks and I am still snacking on it, but I've moved it to my regular fridge. The flavor and texture are consistent day-to-day. Very pleased with this cheese! Great for sandwiches and such. Just got a larger mold and planning to make a 3 gallon batch soon.

Recipes I see only say 4-6 weeks at room temp. Is there something to look for to know 4 weeks is enough eye development or 4 weeks is not enough - let it go more? Searches returned only about how long it can be aged and infant eye development which I am afraid to click on..

So I just started making fresh mozzarella and a couple questions in regards to storing it. I can't seem to keep it in a container of the whey or it gets milky and slimy but if I wrap it in saran wrap it slowly turns into a pancake in the fridge. Is there a better way to store it?

I’m new to cheese making and am looking to use kefir as my starter culture for all my cheeses. When a recipe calls for say 1/4 tsp of thermophilic culture how much kefir liquid should I use in its place?

Is the conversion the same for mesophilic?

I’m using raw goats milk if that changes anything.

Trying gavin Webber’s “grana padano”/cease and desist cheese.

Supposed to let them settle at the bottom for an hour, but my curds are floating. What’s goin on? Contamination?

Hi everyone.

I have been working on for quite some time now on starting my dairy brand. Our first product will be a high protein drinkable yogurt 27g protein for 11.5 oz.

I’m still struggling on the formulation/process side as far as choice of protein enrichment WPC/MPC or make it as greek yogurt. If WPC/MPC what is the process for hydration/shearing/fermentation etc.

I would love to get some feedback. If you know any experts/companies I can work with that would be nice to know.

Thank you all for your time

So I’m a new cheese maker, and I need some advice. I’ve made cheese twice now and both times it has turned out as shown in the photo. Basically the curds will not stick together unless pressed for a looong time and even then the cheese is crumbly like a less-moist mass of compressed cottage cheese. I would love to get into cheesemaking, but I need to know the cause of this issue before I try again. The ingredients I used this time around were as follows (the recipe was for a “basic hard cheese”.)

1 gallon pasteurized whole milk heated to 85 degrees

1 cup Greek yogurt mixed with the milk and allowed to sit awhile

1/4 tsp animal rennet (I used a vegetarian tablet last time)

Salt.

Posted earlier as a beginner asking for some advice. Downvoted and no replies. I know it’s stupid to say anything, but I am very disappointed. This is something I’m enthusiastic about - but now I know better than to ask about things here.

If so, what kind of cheese are you making?

I have goats, and no skimmer, so I use full fat milk when making my cheeses. Is there going to be an issue with my Italian cheeses that called for low fat? They had fat on the outside while drying… thanks.

Could i add unflavored whey protein to mozzarella or pepper jack? I've never made cheese in my life but I'd love to if this is possible

I made the mozzarella based on the recipe by Joshua Weissmann https://youtu.be/mAxy_oXKJig?si=xkRXfrwn8zqMuD9L and all went well, it stretched well and had a very nice shape. I kept it in whey in the fridge overnight and tasted it today. It has a weird gooey texture on the surface and it’s quite stiff as well. I used raw milk that I low temperature homogenised. Any ideas?

I’ve recently found that chewing on brie mold seemed to decrease the gross feeling in my mouth pretty significantly and improve my breath smell. Looking farther into it I found a 1997 article on the antibacterial effect of penicillium candidum:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9246777/

I wonder if any of you have had similar experiences?

Some of my cheeses taking the air after their (brine wash) spa treatment. (There’s more in the coolers…!).

Front to back: havarti, bel paese, Asiago, Gruyère, taleggio, Gouda

Hi guys, I wanted to make caciotta at home and in Pakistan it's not easy to find rennet. So my question is can I use vinegar to make curds instead of rennet?