# Calling all cheese makers



## lovinglife (Jun 6, 2013)

Who here makes cheese, what is your favorite kind? I have made tons of regular chevre goat cheese, decided to branch out, I now have two regular goudas ageing one horseradish gouda, several small mason jar marcellin, which I don't seem to be getting the correst Geotrichum fungus going but not giving up on it yet. I want to try a camembert and cheddar. 
Of course now the husband has convinced me it is time to dry up my girls and in his defense it is getting cold and breeding season and with a full time job and two hours commute time I guess we all could use a break. Plus I have over 20 gallons of milk in the freezer I can play with this winter. 
Would love to hear about your cheese making experiences and how they tasted, also did you use raw or pasturized milk, and what your starter cultures are. I have been trying kefir as I hear it has everything you need for meso or thermo cultures, plus you only have to keep one starter and never buy all the dried cultures.


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## ShireRidgeFarm (Sep 24, 2015)

I just started making cheese a couple months ago, and so far I've only made one kind - it think it's ricotta? It's really easy, so I'm sure a lot of people have made it, too.  I just take my raw goat's milk, heat it up to about 180 F and add either lemon juice or vinegar, and then the cheese separates from the whey. After I strain it, I add all sorts of different flavors or sometimes just leave it plain. It's really good! 

I've been wanting to try and make other kinds of cheese, too, so it will be neat to hear what everybody's done.


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## lovinglife (Jun 6, 2013)

That sounds like paneer, I made that once just to try it. Neat thing about paneer is it does not melt so you can make nice sauces to cook some in and use it as a meat replacement. I used a good balsamic vinegar for a different flavor, it is good! I can't wait to try the gouda! another month to go at least. I am looking at trying my hand at a Butterkase, it is a short aged cheese that has a mild flavor or can age longer for a more complex flavor. I also made a yogurt cheese, made the yogurt then strained it in my cheese cloth which took forever, finally dryed out enough I could roll into balls, coat with herbs and put in olive oil. The texture of this cheese is so creamy and nice, it has a good twang from the yogurt but it is really tasty.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

I've done cream cheese, ricotta and several different versions of spreadable farmer's cheese. My next adventure will be mozerella. We eat alot of it and I'd love it if we were eating my own groovy homemade instead of store bought!


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## lovinglife (Jun 6, 2013)

Have fun with that! I have made it a few times but I think it is harder than it looks. It turned out but to me didn't have any flavor, I think I need to look into an aged mozz, or even one that just takes longer than 30 minutes. If you fine a good recipe that works and tastes good I am all ears!


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

I was going to try this method by Mary Jane Toth


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Mary Jane Toth's books are great. Unfortunately I've only had time to do chevre.


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## milk and honey (Oct 31, 2010)

You definitely need salt in the mozzarella! Otherwise it is pretty bland. I like the feta I've made but my fave so far has been farmer cheese (with kefir as the culture) with fresh basil in.


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## lovinglife (Jun 6, 2013)

Last weekend I made butterkase and a cheddar. My goodness, I didn't realize the cheddar was going to take so long. So far all my cheese has been with raw milk, but decided I would pasturize this first just in case I didn't care for an aged raw milk cheese, so my recipe had 5 gallons of milk, that is a lot of milk to pasturize then cool then on with the recipe. I made it according to David Ashers book Natural art of Cheesemaking. So he does cheddar the old fashioned way, not the stirred curd way, so by the end of the day I had a nice large round of cheese done. Now to air dry, wax and age. wish me luck.


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## FineFolly (Dec 29, 2015)

I would like to offer this website for complete cheese making info. She has fabulous videos, including using Wine Coolers with small humidifiers as cheese caves (if you want to make aged or hard cheeses for your family). She uses cow milk, but there is no problem using goat milk instead when making cheese with rennet.

She also goes into the different ways to wrap cheese for aging, and the equipment and process in all of it.

http://thepromiselandfarm.com/category/cheesemaking/

This pic is for just one of her videos in the series.


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## Steampunked (Mar 23, 2015)

I've made cheese a few times, including aged cheddar - I got a cheap wine refrigerator from eBay for $50 and I use that to age the cheeses in, so they don't become contaminated with the other contents of the fridge. Temperature and cleanliness is very important, so I'm not a fan of wine coolers for cheese that needs to mature.

The most successful cheese I've done was a vine-ash-rolled chevre from goat's milk, but it got eaten so fast that I regret not making more.

Most of what gives the taste in cheese is the interaction of the bacteria and fungi with the milk proteins, so the faster a cheese is to make, the milder it tastes - mostly. 30 minutes gives a very bland tasting cheese.

For a moderately soft cheddar, 20 gallons will make '5 gallons' of cheddar - the ratio is about 1 to 2 for ricotta, 1 to 4 for cheddar, 1 to 8 for harder cheddar, and about 1 to 16 for parmesan - the harder the cheese, the less cheese you get.

You can make it with all kinds of things, though, including some herbs - all you need is enough of an acid base to extract the proteins. That's why lemon juice is so good.


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## sassykat6181 (Nov 28, 2012)

I've made ricotta and mozzarella. I plan to make new kinds once my girls freshen this spring. With our move last summer, I dried everyone off after kidding.
There's a 30min mozz recipe using the microwave that's super easy


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## justamerefarm (Sep 2, 2014)

I'm making Guidos cheese out of Ricki Carrols book, today. Will post how it turns out. Love to make the mozzarella as it's quite mild but I never seem to get it quite right, it's always tough/rubbery.


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## justamerefarm (Sep 2, 2014)

So I tried the quick mozzarella. It was flop for me but I think I know what went wrong. When they say to hold it at 108 degrees, I think it got too hot and I over cooked the curds. It is rubbery and so tough not edible at all. I will try again but once I get it to 108 I'll just leave it without heat. Hopefully that works. Oh ya that part about non iodized salt is so true. Thought I had non but was wrong........lol


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## sassykat6181 (Nov 28, 2012)

^ look up 30 minute mozzarella. There's a simple microwave recipe


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## justamerefarm (Sep 2, 2014)

Okay, well I tried the 30 minute mozzarella again and it was as bad as the first batch. Like rubber, no stretch. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong!! When I heat it in the microwave and go to knead it all the good milk fat comes out on the plate. So frustrating.


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## Steampunked (Mar 23, 2015)

There is never dead cheese! Use your rubbery hard mozzarella in a grater for a very mild pasta cheese.

Working the hot mozzarella must be done quickly - use gloves if your hands aren't immune to everything as you must really get in there.

Rubbery mozzarella can be caused by heat that is too high or curds that are too stretched. For Mozzarella to stretch well it needs two things – the right amount of heat to soften the curd, and acidity (pH of approximately 5.2).

The 30 minute recipe is popular because it seems really fast BUT if you are having problems, try resting the curd quite a long time - even 24 hours. You may get a better result.


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## justamerefarm (Sep 2, 2014)

Thanks, I'll try....


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