Cheesemakers In Here- Help! I Have A New Addiction

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ashanti, Jul 15, 10:21am
It's very easy to make your own culture for soft cheeses
donna23, Jul 15, 8:18pm
I brought the beginners italian kit for my mum for her b/day, we both had a fun afternoon making the mozarella, am keen to continue - what do you expert mad millie cheesemakers suggest next!
davidt4, Jul 15, 11:07pm
I'm working my way through the fresh cheeses at present and it's great fun.If you get the Fresh Cheese Ingredient Kit you will be able to make feta, haloumi, ricotta, cream cheese, cottage cheese and quark.
popelka1, Jul 15, 11:52pm
Not too sure how true this is and I haven't tried it myself, but I have heard if you mix a big wedge of your favourite blue cheese with a grated cheese you get more blue cheese.Not too sure how it would work but anything is worth tria; and error.
davidt4, Jul 16, 12:47am
Do let us know how you get on.Here's a link to some detailed instructions using an existing blue cheese to innoculate the curds.

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/blue_cheese/blue_cheese.htm
pom-pom, Jul 17, 9:07am
I have a friend from germnay who makes all their own cheese. They use an old garden seive, a bike inner tube and new jeyes cloths as part of their cobbled together kit. Fascinating and they make fabulous buffalo mozzarella!. Their are some excellent instructional videos on cheesemaking on youtube!
davidt4, Jul 17, 9:15am
Where do your friends get the buffalo milk from!
kanoo, Jul 18, 11:06am
Mad Millie have some tutorials on youtube for making some of the fresh cheeses. I cheated a bit and just bought the essentials and then you can order the recipe books from their website without having to buy all the kits. The kits are fantastic, I just couldn't afford one outright. Now I would just love to know where I can buy fresh jersey milk from, apparently that makes the ultimate cheese!
valentino, Jul 18, 9:36pm
Have been doing Blue Stilton-type cheese now for quite a while.
Friends are now calling it Philton, these cheeses are so variable that one has yet made two exactly alike, (no matter how precisely one does this and please ensure all is steralised unless it is used only for this cheese) however each one so far has been superb and is sort after by friends every time they visit.

I do about 8 litres of unpasteurised full milk, add a cheese culture, then add some blue culture, bring it to 32C very slowly, add 0.8 to1 mil calf rennet and allow to set for 100 minutes, cut curds 10 to 12 mm cubes - leave for 10 minutes then into a cloth back into the whey for another 100 minutes. Then is lifted out of whey but curds in cloth, tie the top with a bit of string and hang this until the drips stop, then into a large bowl which has another bottom raised from the bowl bottom (to allow to collect more whey) and using an Ice cream container filled half with water (1KG) plus two 3 litre bottles half filled with waterplaced on top of ice cream container and leave overnight. Next morning, take the curds out of cloth, break into small(big Cherry tomato size) pieces, place into a cloth lined perforated Ice Cream container but with desertspoonful of salt added at quarterly layered sections, close the cloth over the top and repeat my weight combination of above on top. After about an hour, one then re-sets all to ensure a bit of nicety - levelness and leave for 3 days. Then, unravel the cheese, a brine of 25% salt is then rubbed all over the cheese ans set aside for another day. On this last day of prep, drill holes thoroughout cheese at 1 cm intervals then place in a cool spot (About 12 to 14C) for at least a week to 10 days then wrap in foil and refigerate for at least 4 to 5 weeks, then cut into large portions, into an ice cream container and allow to bloom further before eating.

Thoroughly delicious and better than most shop expensive Blue Cheeses.

Editing to add that when one drills holes, one uses a wooden skewer blunting the point a little, about 2 to 3 mm in diametre and about 20 to 25 cm long.
buzzy110, Jul 18, 10:35pm
You can get it from the people who make Buffalo yoghurts and cheese at Clevedon Markets. You have to order it. I usually go to the Parnel French Market on Saturday (they are there then) and place an order for the milk for next week. My girlfriend can't tolerate cows milk at all and has a standing 4 litre order weekly. However, be warned that sometimes they won't do it because they need all their milk for cheese and yoghurt and they make more money from that than the milk.

You can ring them up. I haven't got the number on me at present or I'd give it to you.
dinky17, Jul 20, 5:38am
I grow a few veges to save a few bob,,,then I baked my own bread to save a few bob again,and boy does it taste beautifull too, so I thought I learn how to make cheese,to save a few bob and also I love cheese,,,I got a book from the library,Cutting the curd,on the second or third page it says,,,10 litres of milk makes 1 kg of cheese,,,wooaahhh,,,,a litre of milk in this green and pleasant land costs an arm and a leg.surely it would be cheaper to go to P&S and buy a kg of cheese! or am I going wrong here somewhere!
tielfan, Jul 20, 5:42am
No you are correct, a litre will yield 100gms of cheese and therefore 10 litres a kilogram.It's about making artisnal cheeses, not a block of Mild, so you can see why some of the cheeses on the market are priced so highly.
shop-a-holic, Jul 20, 6:34am
The cheddars that I have made so far, following Mad Millie using 4 litres of whole milk:
First Curd Weigh: Do this to find out how much salt to add, which is 2% of the total weight of curds (before pressing). They were all between 900gms and 1kg.
After pressing: First newborn (called Chesney) weighed in at 760gms. His sibling arrived two days later at 670gms. Their new sister (liquid smoke and whole mustards seeds) weighs 730gms.
Aside from that: 4 litres of milk making haloumi, (cost $10) produced 4 large haloumi cheeses at 200gms each which costs $9-10 per piece at Moore Wilsons. $40 worth for $10.
Same for yield for Feta.
I'm presuming savings can be made depending on the type of cheese. Unfortuately, not every home kitchen can cope with a pot (and a double boiler at that) to cope with 10 litres of milk, as with Kath Mowbreys recipes.
Mad Millies use 4 litres, and is managable for all. 10 days to go before I crack into Chesney :-)
shop-a-holic, Jul 20, 6:41am
Katherine Mowbreys recipes use 10 litres of milk to 10mls of Calf Rennet diluted with 10mls water.
Mad Millie recipe says 4 litres of milk to 1ml of Rennet diluted with 4mls water.

I'm wondering if this makes a difference to the density of the curds!
I have no idea!
dinky17, Jul 20, 6:44am
thanks for your input,looks to me cheesemaking is a hobby and every hobby costs money, I never bought any of those fancy cheeses.I am strictly a Tasty and Edam cheese person.lol.
davidt4, Jul 20, 11:53pm
Same here.4 litres of milk produces the equivalent of four large blocks of feta at about $8 each, so for $11 worth of milk I get $32 worth of feta. I used to buy Zany Zeus haloumi and feta, and my own versions so far have been easily up to their standard.We get through a lot of both so it won't take too long for the savings to coverthe initial outlay on equipment, and then the only cost will be the milk, the starters and rennet.
valentino, Jul 21, 12:19am
Oh must add,

The longer it is pressed for also increases the dryness.

The higher the weights or pressure - the harder the cheeses will be.

Hence with cheeses like Parmesan - it is a long time and higher weight pressing to get the hardness of this cheese.

Most variations of cheeses are basically all the same method but using different levels of rennet, setting of rennet, size and time of cutting curds and time resting in the whey, preparing the moulds including method of placing into of, pressure-weights-press time then the maturingness time. besides the cultures there is one the other item - SALT, very important to know the levels of salting - brining! but that is mainly another part of cheesemaking, at the moment - just referring to hardness and or texture.

Hopes this helps.
davidt4, Jul 21, 5:11am
Ashanti, can mizithra be made from pasteurised milk!I love those fresh white Greek and Turkish cheeses, and as you say, they are much more practical domestically than hard cheeses.
kamitchell, Jul 21, 5:52am
Oooh I love cheese too! I have been trying to make my own cheese for a while now, and my cheddars always turn our bitter!Does anyone on here know why that would be!I make the cheddars with raw jersey cows milk.

Does anyone on here have a good feta recipe that they would share!We have a couple of goats due to kid in a few more weeks, so will soon have plenty of goats milk to play around with .Thanks!
kamitchell, Jul 21, 5:53am
Ashanti, would you share you easy cheddar recipe! A 3 week turn around sounds wonderful!
zambesi2, Jul 22, 9:57pm
How much are the starter kits to buy!Is Millies the only outlet to sell them!
davidt4, Jul 23, 12:18am
Here's a link to the website.The best value seems to be the One Day Kit for $179 as this provides everything you need to make fresh cheeses and Italian cheeses.

http://www.madmillie.com/store/nz/cheesemaking-kits.html

There is a chain of brewing supplies shops that sells the kits, and many other outlets.Look in the "stockists" page for your area.
dolphin9, Jul 23, 6:26am
I did a day cheese making course to learn how to make brie.Have just made more this week at home so have 4 currently maturing, takes 5 wks.They're doing a hard cheese workshop next year so I'm keen to go along.We were told to always used paserised milk to kill bacteria, but don't use homoginised.if you want to buy the milk in the supermarket, the silver top is non-homoginised.I'm lucky living in a dairy farming community so have access to milk from the farm, but still pasterise it before I use it.
jed, Aug 21, 12:21am
Yay, have just purchased a kit with my Flybuy Points.Can't wait to get started.Where do you store the cheese while it is maturing!
davidt4, Aug 21, 12:46am
Jed, I suggest that you start off with the simple fresh cheeses such as feta, haloumi and mozzarella, and move on to matured cheeses once you get comfortable with the processes involved.

To mature cheeses you need controlled temperature and humidity - a cheese safe is ideal, or a fridge that has been modified to operate at the correct temperature (not as cold as a normal fridge).

It's a very exciting pastime; do report on your results.

It's useful to read as much as you can about the cheese-making process, as there are all sorts of variables.For example, the Mad Millie instructions all involve heating the milk in a microwave, but I don't do this.Instead I heat the milk very gently in a pan submerged in simmering water.