The cheese on the left is the drying Asiago Fresco that I posted on Thursday. The one on the right is an extra hard Italian-style grating cheese I made yesterday, still brining. Both use four gallons of milk from the same two cows milked two days apart. The cheese on the left is four gallons of full fat raw milk with a bit of cream added. The cheese on the right is made with four gallons of hand skimmed raw milk. Of course the make and recipes are different between the two, but the difference in yield is striking. Just thought it was interesting!

I made Havarti a week ago, I've had it in food safe container in the cheese cave for 7 days now. I have been flipping the cheese daily, I wash my hands and dry them thoroughly, then splash a little white vinegar on them before handling the cheese. Cut forward to this morning, day 7, when I went to flip the cheese I found dark, blackish mould on the cheese. I rinsed it off with some water, patted it dry with paper towels then rubbed some rine solution over it to help. I then cleaned the container and put some brine solution around it as well. No idea what I'm actually meant to do though.

Is it normal that havarti will mould while ageing in the cheese cave? How should I remove mould when it comes up? What should I do to reduce it happening?

I didn't have my phone on me when out happened so I don't have photos.

I started way too early on a blue cheese, resulting in the curd under a cheeseboard and light pressure at 3pm. Recipe I use says to leave like this 'overnight' but that would now be 18 hours before salting and putting in a mold. Or I do it at midnight, so just 9 hours for acid development?

I have been working on this receipt lately and it seems that leaving it too long at this stage results in a drier crumbly blue, 10-12 seemed to give a more creamy result but limited sample size so far. Should I cut it short?

I’ve made ricotta cheese in my instant pot for years. I always hit the yogurt button twice and the word boil would pop up. I replaced the instant pot a couple months ago but the settings looked the same. Today I hit the yogurt twice but nothing happened. Any idea where the boil might be hiding?

What if you have very acid whey and cream on top and curds - like years old? It doesn't have to be a food application. I left a jar expensive sheeps milk in back of fridge. Instead of tossing it, I was thinking there have got to be good uses for it. I know fermenting veggies is one, but that only uses a little. I used it diluted as hair conditioner before but won't do that often because of potentially smelling like whey.

Needs to sit in the mold for a couple of days at 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit to acidify before the brine bath.

Hi, I'm a newer cheesemaker. This is my first tomme-style cheese and first natural rind type.

-I used 1 gal pasturized milk (didn't want to waste 2 gal if it didn't work) -made Nov 3, brined Nov 4, cheese cave Nov 7, re-brined Nov 10, -have washed it lightly in brine (water, salt, sugar, a piece of rind from delicious alpine cheese, dont hate on me for that last one).

Issues I'm having:

1. Cheese is tacky - it wept whey for a couple days after making and brining. Never really developed a solid rind, it feels more like dried feta, but is closed knit and firm.
2. Lack of good mold but have weird mold??(or bacteria or yeast) growth on rind. Maybe because of 1.

I made a second tomme-style with 2 gallons after I thought this was a fail. The rind is much drier and starting to grow white fuzz.

Can this be saved? Is it even edible. I have a vac sealer if needed. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

https://preview.redd.it/qdxloh9ykh3e1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5db02b08df631a0dddc827c91c8dd0612c9e46a5

https://preview.redd.it/soc0wq9ykh3e1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cff3b0a8e7141f38719f4f2c77887bfa6390b7cd

https://preview.redd.it/0ha1jp9ykh3e1.jpg?width=3374&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=39cf2d116e1d30ea5e502cbca9ed2e04b7ef9701

https://preview.redd.it/664m9r9ykh3e1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6da52e880672f350f8fc70597130a07860820f2

Struggling to get my conditions both cool and dry enough to properly dry out the surfaces of my robiolini. Can anyone anticipate any bad results if I upped the temperature? Unclear on the issues re: the culture development. Using the NEC recipe. Thanks in advance!

As cheddar is quite an advanced cheese to make, what cheese is slightly simpler e.g. no aging but could be a reasonable stand in for cheddar? I.e something with a reasonable flavour, enough flavour for a non aged and simpler to make cheese?

Hi

Short version: Where do you age your cheese?

Long version:

I love hobbies. Todays hobby is cheesemaking and I've set myself the quest to make a brie over Christmas. I have a fistfull of dollars (actually UK pounds, but it doesn't sound as cool) and am buying the bits I need.

My question is this. I need to age the brie, as is the case with most cheeses, under certain conditions. The recipies I have are mainly in F's, but if you convert them to Centigrade, then I'm looking at aging in a room somewhere between 10 to 15 degrees C (52 ish F) with about 95% relative humidity. The temperature is fine, but I can't think where in the house I might that type of temperature but with a relative humidity that high.

Thought about the fridge, but probably too low. The garage is the right temp, but it's not consistently controllable.

Any thoughts?

Olly

First time cheese making, please guide me.

Help! I was distracted by my kids while culturing my bloomy rind triple cream cheeses (recipe by Give Cheese a Chance) and I added the culture (homemade clabber), but not the penicillium and geo cultures 🤦‍♀️ I didn’t realize it until after I had finished filling the draining forms. Is there any way to save the cheese and inoculate it after they are drained?

Or if there is no way to get the white bloom now…what do I do with these two cheeses?? I used 10L of milk/cream so I really don’t want to waste it 🙈

This is my second attempt at farmhouse cheddar, using this recipe. With this one, the only things I did that were different than the recipe was leave the curd and whey for about 2 hours instead of 20-40 minutes because something came up, and I ended up pressing it for more time than it said.

I saw a previous post asking about holes, so I wanted to check here to see if the cheese is ok to eat. If not, what happened? I really don't know what I'm doing here!

https://preview.redd.it/8edqvrovh93e1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=114d62e28a19ce700a554fba659a6f098cedb777

https://preview.redd.it/0ax4grovh93e1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1f108d03b330599fb0b0af880bea6e5ae513e8a

https://preview.redd.it/k0ws3tovh93e1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f455a74e624c84b23725c9f46792690961d782ba

Hello :D

I started making my own cheese two weeks ago. But now, I am starting questioning my procedures and want to do it more professional/simple/automated. I am looking for a cheese making machine, like the Brezilla for making beer. Does somebody of you know, if there is a machine like the one I mentioned?

And if not, are there any cool Raspberry pi projects?

Hi r/cheesemaking

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we have been building Batch Radar specifically for professional cheesemakers to make it easier for you to track your batches and ensure adherence to your compliance policies.

We are wanting to ensure that the software meets the needs of professional cheesemakers and so if any of you would like to sign up for a free trial and provide some feedback that would be awesome!

You can sign up at https://batchradar.com/auth/signup with no credit card required.

I would be very happy to walk any of you through a demo of the product if interested.

Hi all, I'm new to brie making and was wondering if it always needs to be wrapped for aging after the initial rind forms or can it be aged with the rind naturally exposed at the appropriate temp & humidity (50F & 80%rh) for long-term?

This cheese came out wonderfully! I’m proud of this one.

I recently stumbled upon the idea of preserving cheese by rinsing it with vinegar and then waxing it. I know I'm not actually making my own cheese but I'm hoping the community can help

It's been about a month, and out of the 24 bricks I waxed, 4 of them (all the same type, new York extra sharp cheddar) have puffed up a bit. I cut 2 of them open, one that seemed to hold the air when I squeezed it, and another which hissed a bit and deflated. Neither one has visible mold, but both were kind of moist. I dont have a sense of smell, but can add that to the report shortly as I have a friend coming over.

A quick Google has me worried about botulism. I'm comfortable cutting off some mold (altho there is none) but I'm wary of them helping me with a smell test and then a taste test.

Since my only warning sign was the puffed wax (minor, and i may have created the leak in the second one when I squeezed it) and the moisture, are these safe or should they be discarded? I've read that most cheese will leak whey, but none of the others have this same symptom.

I thought I had a pretty good handle on everything until I came across the botulism results. I've washed my hands twice since then but im wondering how dangerous of a situation I may be finding myself in.

Thanks!

EDIT: She says it just smells like cheese, no abnormal odors or anything

I wanted to make some cute hearts for the Christmas cheese board and decided to make them pink (because why not). I used a camembert recipe and added beet juice tea (a grated beet boiled in water, strained then cooled) to the milk when I added calcium chloride. The colour has faded quite a bit but they are a beautiful velvety pink right now.

I had to stack them because I got very flat camembert from the forms...but maybe it's also my curd. If anyone has advice there, I'm all ears.

https://preview.redd.it/0h2gaisndp2e1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f0694c9dc09db682c45c767950049391ca9d1452

https://preview.redd.it/973k0ksndp2e1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e0daae6c7cbca268fe27bfc0bda6ab1cfa5b516

https://preview.redd.it/nfxlvisndp2e1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84c5ec3288dbd9742fe885f382dd70fc7f00cb3d

stoked to check on these in a couple weeks!

Hi everyone, I’m a beginner cheese maker, just for fun and because we love cheese. I have some basic equipment already, but I’m looking into buying a ph meter. What do you recommend? Digital or paper strip? I’m based in Europe. Thanks in advance!