/r/cheesemaking

Photograph via snooOG

A place for people to discuss the world of cheese making.

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A place for people to discuss the world of cheese making.


Not seeing your post? Message the moderators so we can get it fixed for you.


Resources


Cultures & Equipment:

The Cheesemaker Steve at The Cheesemaker is quick to turn orders around with free shipping and offers helpful & prompt answers to questions.

The Beverage People The Beverage People have a few cultures and pieces of equipment that The Cheesemaker does not. Also offers prompt shipping, especially on cultures.

Cheesemaking.com Originally created by Ricki Carroll, they sell cultures and equipment, as well as cheesemaking kits for newbs, with plenty of information for beginners.

Artisan Geek

Glengarry Cheesemaking A Canadian supplier of cultures and cheesemaking equipment, but when you order from the U.S. they ship from a New York facility, so you won’t have to pay international shipping charges.

Milk:

Cheesemaking's Good Milk list Cheesemaking.com keeps a comprehensive list of sources for raw and vat pasteurized (not ultra-heat pasteurized) milk appropriate for cheese makers. They're also a supplier of cultures and equipment.

Articles and Recipes:

Curd Nerd Curd Nerd is a source for articles, recipes and troubleshooting guides. Check out the article on cultivating your own blue cheese mold.

Cheese Forum A great resource for articles, troubleshooting and recipes.

Books:

Mastering Basic Cheesemaking- Gianaclis Caldwell

The Basics of Cheesemaking- Paul S. Kindstedt Free resource

Cheesemaking Practice- R. Scott, Richard K. Robinson, R. Andrew Wilbey 1981

Fundamentals of Cheese Science - Patrick Fox

Home Cheese Making - Ricki Carroll Clear, concise recipes, designed for the home setting.

Artisan Cheesemaking at Home - Mary Karlin A nicely laid out cookbook with plenty of photography, and an extensive collection of recipes organized by difficulty from the easiest cheeses (quesos, ricottas, paneers etc) to the most challenging (blues, washed rinds, etc).

Cheese and Fermented Milk Foods - Frank Kosikowski This two-volume set is the “bible” of cheesemaking for many. Kosikowski was the founder of the American Cheese Society and these textbooks, while they will often go over your head scientifically and are intended for the large-scale cheesemaking operation it makes for a good window into the American cheese industry.

Troubleshooting:

A good resource to see what went unexpectedly during your cheese make


Rules:

1) Post about cheese making

2) Be civil

/r/cheesemaking

100,388 Subscribers

6

Cheese is always turning bitter

I tried making three cheese A Gouda, camembert, roquefort, everything was fine, except it was always bitter very why ?

5 Comments
2025/02/02
09:55 UTC

54

WOW! I made my first cheese and it tastes like cheese! Very proud

As a cheeselover i always wanted to make my own cheese... read something here and there.. but never did it. i asked a lot of questions on the sub and tried.

Now i did it! Freestyled my first "Feta". wanted to make something that didnt have to age so i would see results fast.

and all i can say is - wow! it tastes like cheese! i think i dry salted it way too much... salting with brine was a bit slimey... so i dry salted it and added some dried herbs.

i used buttermilk as a replacement for a starter culture - next try will be with a dried culture.

but i learned a lot and the next batch will get better <3

https://imgur.com/a/Fz2WdTa

4 Comments
2025/02/01
14:40 UTC

1,202

is this safe to eat

its a soft raw milk chevre style goats cheese, 6 days old and stored in a fridge but it is more watery than it should have been. covered it with a layer of food grade charcoal but got a white fuzzy mold. tastes pretty much the same

136 Comments
2025/02/01
06:45 UTC

731

Hands down the best cheese I have ever made. A gouda recipe. And my first natural rind. Aged two and a half months.

I would buy this. I can’t believe I made it. It’s nearly all gone already! My family are savages. Good thing I love them!

36 Comments
2025/02/01
03:26 UTC

3

First time cheese maker, help

I recently got about 4 L of homogenized milk and would love to try and make a easy quick cheese from it, something like mozzarella or maybe feta? I figured I’d ask actual people who have experience rather then google and chance it. If anyone has any recipes or notes for storing I’d love them!

5 Comments
2025/01/31
17:42 UTC

3

Can I use Good Culture cottage cheese as a starter?

I searched and didn't find a previous thread on this. According to the label, it has live Lactococcus ssp., Lactobacillus ssp. and no rennet or anything else that looked like a coagulant.

I looked it up and the culture temperature for lactococcus is usually around 30 C and lactobacillus is around 40 C.

My cheesemaking knowledge level is somewhere around "yogurt, ricotta, and paneer" so I may be way out on a limb here. (Edit: was typing on autopilot, F corrected back to C)

ing

2 Comments
2025/01/31
17:22 UTC

9

Is it possible to age cheese without humidity controller?

Basically the title. Ive cheese cave with right temperature but found that humidity controllers be pretty expensive. And when I'm just learning to make hard cheese it would be quite an investment.

16 Comments
2025/01/31
13:05 UTC

0

how do I identify P. roqueforti using a microscope?

inoculated p. roqueforti using store-bought blue cheese but I want to make sure the mold is actually p roqueforti and not a wild one. what differentiates p roqueforti from other wild molds in a microscope?

2 Comments
2025/01/31
10:19 UTC

2

Why is my homemade cream cheese drying out when i put it in the oven?

Hey everyone! first post in this sub. I made some cream cheese using just milk and lime and blended up the curds that formed.

I used this cheese as a filling for a bagel bomb(similar to a jalapeno pizza popper) and it pretty much dried out. When i use store bought cream cheese with the same recipe it seems to be almost liquidy and oozey, and nice.

Why is this happening?

19 Comments
2025/01/31
05:53 UTC

59

Making Queso Fresco

The impolite noise it makes when it gets up to temp…

19 Comments
2025/01/30
18:34 UTC

2

Calcium chloride for pasteurized hard sheep cheese?

First time making a parmasan style hard cheese from sheep milk. The milk is pasteurized and homogenized. Should I add calcium chloride in this case? In cows and goat milk it is a must but no clue about sheeps milk…

4 Comments
2025/01/30
15:37 UTC

1

How do i save my salty Goats cheese?

Newbie cheese maker here I made goats cheese over the weekend and its way too salty Does anyone have any tips to rescue my cheese please?

2 Comments
2025/01/30
09:30 UTC

8

Which brand of liquid rennet off of Amazon to get to make a small batch of cheese?

There are so many brands of liquid rennet I could get off of Amazon, but I can't figure out what to get.

I made my first batch of fresh mozzarella cheese from a kit, and attempting to split the hard rennet tablet into quarters just did not work. It all turned to powder, and I must have measured it incorrectly, adding too much, since the flavors of the gallon of whole milk I picked up at a local dairy became off when I turned it into cheese.

Next time, I want to use liquid rennet, something I can properly measure... but I just don't know what brand to get. There are too many, and I can't decide between this 4 3/4 star product and that 4 3/4 star product.

The best part of my first attempt at making cheese was being able to recruit my six year old son, who did all the stirring of the milk as the temperature slowly crept up to 90 degrees F.

3 Comments
2025/01/30
05:29 UTC

1

Cheesemaking Manila

Hi. Has anyone tried making mozzarella without rennet? Can you recommend which milk brand is best? Thank you

5 Comments
2025/01/29
15:35 UTC

4

Mozerella Going Sour After 2 Days?

I made some mozerella last week and had an extra ball I left in the fridge. I used it 2 days later, but also tried a slice by itself and thought it tasted a bit sour (not bad just noticeable) but I was surprised because I thought it should be lasting longer before doing that. Anyone know why this may be the case?

2 Comments
2025/01/29
14:11 UTC

4

Can I age cheese in bees paper

Hi! New to cheese making.

I got a kit from New England Cheese Making Company and it came with bees paper. Not bees wax.

I've read I can store cheese in this paper but can I age cheese in it? My online searches aren't giving me the definitive answer I'm looking for. Just talks about storing it in the fridge.

I do have food grade wax available to age in but was curious if I could just wrap it in this bees paper.

2 Comments
2025/01/29
13:42 UTC

4

An app for cheese makers

There is a cheese app coming out where you can save and rate different types of cheeses you find and share them with your friends. If anyone is interested in getting it, sign up on the waitlist at cheesevault.app

3 Comments
2025/01/29
00:31 UTC

135

Made a Tomme over the weekend to continue working on natural rinds

It’s odd not to have the rind closed completely out of the press. But it does look correct according to NEC’s recipe, so onward and forward! Let’s get this thing moldy! Perhaps, I shouldn’t clean so much.

11 Comments
2025/01/28
23:31 UTC

0

Make ricotta with olive oil instead of cream?

Hi all,

Can I make ricotta with milk and olive oil instead of cream, to reduce saturated fat intake?

Thanks!

11 Comments
2025/01/28
21:27 UTC

3

Inkbird Probe and other newb questions....

I have a wine fridge and the temp is fluctuating about 5 degrees every 50 minutes (right now its going from 44.4 to 49.6) . Is that bad for aging cheese.

I have thought about getting the inkbird to hopefully smooth out the temp. curve. Do people just put the temp probe from the inkbird inside the fridge and close the door on the cable? Thanks all for your wisdom :)

6 Comments
2025/01/28
17:14 UTC

9

Someone gave me 2 gallons of 1% milk. What can i make with it?! I am open to adding heavy cream if needed.

20 Comments
2025/01/28
15:22 UTC

40

First time

My first time making any kind of cheese. This is a mozzarella. Supposedly. I got 60g from 1L of milk. Is that about right? Seems…small.

7 Comments
2025/01/28
01:41 UTC

113

Did my first Cotswold with spices (garlic, onion, & chive).

11 Comments
2025/01/26
19:41 UTC

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