Cutting the cheese (56k no bueno)

[the_klenzer]

First: AWESOME
My GF and I eat a ton of cheese. This sounds great to me.

Some questions:

1) How long does cheese last once it is waxed like that? How do you have to store it? Anyone know what the best cheese for long term storage is? If I'm going to make it, I'm going to make a lot.

2) Store bought milk doesnt work, regardless of type? I don't have much other option, but really want to try this.

[KnightoftheRoc]

I'd like to see what results you get with a goat's milk base. So far, all the goat based cheeses I've seen on the shelf are very soft cheeses, something you'd SPREAD, as opposed to slapping a slice of it onto a sandwich. I'd like to know what, if any, cheeses can be made as a harder cheese, like a Swiss or cheddar consistency, out of goat milk.

I think this is really cool, what you're doing, and I for one, appreciate you sharing this little adventure, wins and losses both. Keep them coming!

[tarman42]

A few years ago I had a couple of goats on the pretense of having my own goats milk. Suffices to say that project ended up as goat curry. So I hope you have better luck than I did... or than the goats did for that matter.

I'll second this, we bought a few goats when i was a kid, they ended up as summer sausage after a few months. Silly goats wouldn't stay in their pen and instead of having the werewithal to just run away with their new found freedom, they'd hang out on the front porch dropping their little berries.

[Electricity]

I'd like to see what results you get with a goat's milk base. So far, all the goat based cheeses I've seen on the shelf are very soft cheeses, something you'd SPREAD, as opposed to slapping a slice of it onto a sandwich. I'd like to know what, if any, cheeses can be made as a harder cheese, like a Swiss or cheddar consistency, out of goat milk.

I think this is really cool, what you're doing, and I for one, appreciate you sharing this little adventure, wins and losses both. Keep them coming!

From my readings, almost any cheese can be made from goats milk, it usually just has a richer flavor.
The one site I read a lot's author actually preferred goats milk for any cheese.

[EeeNinja]

First: AWESOME
Some questions:
1) How long does cheese last once it is waxed like that? How do you have to store it? Anyone know what the best cheese for long term storage is? If I'm going to make it, I'm going to make a lot.
2) Store bought milk doesnt work, regardless of type? I don't have much other option, but really want to try this.

I am by no means an expert. I am still in the very experimental stages, cheeses falling over in the press, weird shaped cheeses, consistency still not there yet.

But some answers:

1. Once waxed most of the cheese will last 6 months easily. Some even longer. Some of them like the parmessan I have going need to age at least a year before you eat it. When opened and exposed to the air they should be eaten within a month.
2. Store bought milk will work, thats what I use mostly. Only Ultra-Pasturized will not work. That is opposed to normal pasturized milk. Adding a little heavy cream to the batch drastically increases cheese yield when using store bought milk.


As someone else mentioned goatmilk can be used and you get a richer flavor. Some recipes are even a combination of both goat and cow. Personally I like drinking goat milk better than cow, I like the tastes better, on Corsica it was the only refridgerated milk I ever saw. Most all cow cheese can be made with goat milk, but not all goat cheese can be made with cow milk. Or at least would taste weird if you did.

One thing I have learned is that it takes almost the same amount of time to make a 1 gallon batch as it does a 4 gallon batch. Aside from the initial warming of the milk and getting it up to temperature all other times are equal regardless of the batch size. So only 4 gallon batches for me from now on.

Another thing I learned is that when initially pressing the curds if you press them submerged in the leftover whey then the cheese will knit together better and will dry more uniform. This is now part of my process that is not shown in my initial post.

Also I picked up Ricki Carroll's book (http://www.amazon.com/Home-Cheese-Makin ... 1580174647). The instructions were not always clear and I did a lot of cross referencing of other sources to make sure I was doing it right. But the book is a good primer on the whole process and was helpful. There are other books that I am told are better but I was able to get this one locally.

I'll post pictures of the Colby later this afternoon. I made a tomato, coppa, colby panini for dinner last night. It was good.

[Jephrey]

I made a tomato, coppa, colby panini for dinner last night. It was good.

Jealous!

After I saw your post I told my wife we could, potentially, make 100 lbs. of cheese for $25 + milk. She said, "Hell yeah!"

After my trip out to California, I'll have to get the kit and start making some cheeeeeese!

[EeeNinja]

I made a tomato, coppa, colby panini for dinner last night. It was good.

Jealous!

After I saw your post I told my wife we could, potentially, make 100 lbs. of cheese for $25 + milk. She said, "Hell yeah!"

After my trip out to California, I'll have to get the kit and start making some cheeeeeese!

1. Your wife is pretty awesome based on that regard alone.
2. I forgot to answer your storing it question. Traditionally in a cool moist area. I store it in a closet in my basement. It never gets about 60*F. Right now I have nothing fancy going on, but I'll be building some shelves or something when I get the time.

Here are pictures of the aforementioned panini. It was so good I made another one for lunch today... albeit I am drinking a smaller beer.

Yes. I opened the small, no heavy cream one. It tasted fine:



Cut Open:



Dinner:

[Cavediver]

Thread necro!

EeeNinja, are you still making cheese? If so, any more cool revelations you'd like to share?

Has anyone else tried it?

I think my wife and I are going to give this a shot. I doubt it's something we'll do on a regular basis, but it would be nice to know that we can make a few different types if necessary. IMO, if the economy tanks it will become a "luxury" item that we'd probably have to forgo.

I think we're going to focus on recipes that can be made with powdered milk. After a little research I'll probably buy a beginners kit. I also need to use the whey in a bread recipe, but I don't know how well the no-knead bread will react. More experiments!

[EeeNinja]

Yup still making it. I have 8 5lb wheels in the basement. 2 Habenaro Jacks, 2 Montery Jacks, 2 Colby, 2 Parmessan. I have an opened colby in the fridge I am munching on right now, pretty good stuff! The parmessans should be ready in like 5 months I think. This tuesday will actually be another cheese making day, probably more colby.

The best thing I can say is don't let a little mold on the cheese throw you off. I had a parmessan that has some mold on it and I jumped the gun and cut into it too soon, subsequently having to eat all of it (which wasn't so bad afterall). Also pay close attention to temperature and humidity levels. You can get away with your area being a little drier than it should be, but you cannot fudge the temperature. Too hot is worse than too cold. Too hot can actually damage the cheese or make it spoil, which there is no surviving that really. Too cold can slow the aging down, but the simple solution is just to wait longer.

Definetly start with a kit. You'll know after that if its something you'd want to do more of. And then you can just acquire ingredients as you go. The only real "special" ingredient is rennet anyways. Also Ricki Carrol's processes will work, but her recipes are time based. Time only has a little to do with it and cheese making is actually pH based. Going by a clock gets you close but every batch can be a little different and times can vary by 30-45 minutes in any direction. If you get into it a pH meter will help you nail the process down better. But there is a lot you can do with just a pot, 4 gallons of milk and a thermometer, so I wouldn't spend the funds on a pH meter unless you really want to keep on doing it.

Between the beer brewing, bread making and cheese curdling I'm doing pretty good. The apiary should be up and finished in the next couple of weeks. That will give me some time to focus on the chimney, PhD, reloading, photography and gardening.

[Cavediver]

Between the beer brewing, bread making and cheese curdling I'm doing pretty good. The apiary should be up and finished in the next couple of weeks. That will give me some time to focus on the chimney, PhD, reloading, photography and gardening.

Here I thought I was doing well with my single lousy loaf of bread every week...

How many hives are you setting up?


Thanks for the added info. All of the research I'm doing is adding up to analysis paralysis. Having some experience under your belt, which cheese would you tell someone to start with? (Rephrase: pick a cheese for me, I'm indecisive!) I'm not a big fan of really soft cheeses, so I was thinking about starting with the farmhouse cheddar or Mozarella.

[EeeNinja]

Between the beer brewing, bread making and cheese curdling I'm doing pretty good. The apiary should be up and finished in the next couple of weeks. That will give me some time to focus on the chimney, PhD, reloading, photography and gardening.

Here I thought I was doing well with my single lousy loaf of bread every week...

How many hives are you setting up?


Thanks for the added info. All of the research I'm doing is adding up to analysis paralysis. Having some experience under your belt, which cheese would you tell someone to start with? (Rephrase: pick a cheese for me, I'm indecisive!) I'm not a big fan of really soft cheeses, so I was thinking about starting with the farmhouse cheddar or Mozarella.

I would say start with either Colby, Gouda, or Farmhouse Cheddar if you are patient enough to wait three months or so for aging. They are all about the same process though gouda does have a brine bath that the others do not. If you want to make it in the morning and be eating it by evening then go for the mozzarella. The mozzarella would be especially good if you have a recipe ready to use it for such as a caprese salad with balsamic reduction and roasted tomatos. But dive in and do a 2 gallon recipe to start with. I do 4 gallon recipes now, but that is a LOT of cheese curd to try and deal with for your first time. And you would also need either a second mould or a larger one than what the kit comes with.

The current schedule is to get the hives built in the next two weeks, maybe as many as 4 or 5. But at least three depending on how much lumber I chew up making them. I'll order the bees as soon as I figure out how many hives I can build. I hope to get my chimney flues relined and the the chimney seal coated in June. New garden boxes for next spring will be built in July. PhD will be done in August (at which point you may all call me Dr. Ninja).

[mboyce]

Did you make Ricotta with the leftover whey?

[EeeNinja]

Did you make Ricotta with the leftover whey?

The two times I tried to the yield was so low it wasn't really worth my time. Instead I've been soaking the cheese in the mould submerged in the leftover whey. Then I either use the whey for the 5 Minute a day bread recipe, or add kosher salt to use it for cheese brine, or I add it to the compost pile.

Actually since my oven is currently broken the bread making hasn't happened for a while. But the one time I did get it to come out right the bread was much fluffier and more flavorful than using just water.

[Blast]

Tagged for awesomeness!
Well done, sir!

-Blast

[mboyce]

Did you make Ricotta with the leftover whey?

The two times I tried to the yield was so low it wasn't really worth my time. Instead I've been soaking the cheese in the mould submerged in the leftover whey. Then I either use the whey for the 5 Minute a day bread recipe, or add kosher salt to use it for cheese brine, or I add it to the compost pile.

Actually since my oven is currently broken the bread making hasn't happened for a while. But the one time I did get it to come out right the bread was much fluffier and more flavorful than using just water.

That is really interesting! I wonder if the cultures in the whey react with the yeasts to produce more gas. HMMM, next time I make some of that bread I may have to pour off some of they whey from the cottage cheese or yogurt in the fridge.

[whisk.e.rebellion]

Hall of fame'd!

[EeeNinja]

Hall of fame'd!

1. Make a bunch of cheese and take pictures.
2. Get into ZS Hall of Fame.
3. ???
4. Profit.

I am far from an expert and I still make newbie mistakes from time to time. If you want to see some really fine examples compared to my extremely rough process check out http://www.cheeseforum.org/

[BadIntel]

This is really awesome, EeeNinja. My wife and I are working on finishing remodeling our house, and once we get in, she's gonna be working on starting a garden (veggies, herbs, and the like, as well as a lot of fruit trees) and apparently we're getting some chicks later this month to raise for eggs, lol.

After reading this thread, I sent her a message at work about doing composting, cheese-making, and the like, and she's all for that, too. I love going places like Whole Foods just to taste/buy cheese, so hopefully this will give me another outlet for my cheese addiction

[EeeNinja]

This is really awesome, EeeNinja. My wife and I are working on finishing remodeling our house, and once we get in, she's gonna be working on starting a garden (veggies, herbs, and the like, as well as a lot of fruit trees) and apparently we're getting some chicks later this month to raise for eggs, lol.

After reading this thread, I sent her a message at work about doing composting, cheese-making, and the like, and she's all for that, too. I love going places like Whole Foods just to taste/buy cheese, so hopefully this will give me another outlet for my cheese addiction

Based on all of this information the best advice I can give you when remodeling your house is don't break your oven. It sucks

But here I took pictures for everyone. Tonight's dinner was a pasta and chicken dish I whipped up with some fresh grated parmesan on it.

Parm cut in half:



Parm grated:


Dinner ready, that is a homebrewed beer in the background there:

[BadIntel]

Dude, that looks amazing..... That picture makes me hungry, haha

[EeeNinja]

This little video came up from Make Magazine on my RSS feed today on cheesemaking: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/0 ... akers.html

[Vanniek71]

sweet new hobby! Plus my daughter would love to help me do this, so its a pretty cheap and easy way to spend time with her, and get a cool product out of it!

[Metzger]

A good thing to do when curing meats or cheeses is to get another finished product at the store, and hang it where you age yours. The good white mold will spread out and colonize your cave/closet etc.

[yuzuandpepper]

that was the coolest thing i've seen all day.