Anyone tried making cheese at home?

[markjd]

After watching a couple of how to videos on youtube, I'm tempted to try making camenbert and stilton cheese at home.

Anyone tried making cheese at home? Got any tips?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk03ja6vS58&list=PLQFNepxfEjRb98R7Wnz1-5pP4W_RQwX7M&index=5[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2dXcMm6S40&list=PLQFNepxfEjRb98R7Wnz1-5pP4W_RQwX7M&index=6[/media]

 

[barls]

ummm
The Cheese Thread

 

[Phoney]

Try the cheese thread

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/15818-the-cheese-thread/?view=findpost&p=874695&hl=cheese

Ive had a go at making camembert, the flavour turned out too strong, couldnt eat more than a mouthful. Not sure what i did wrong but i gave up!

 

[markjd]

Thanks. Did a search for 'cheese' in this sub-forum and it didn't notice it at the bottom of the page.

 

[Jessica]

I love Camembert so much though, I think I wouldn't mind taking the time to make it on any weekend if I could got all the recipe needed.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Blessed are the cheese makers -_-

 

[OzPaleAle]

I found it hard to find milk that worked well for it, the supposedly full cream supermarket milk was pretty crappy in terms of the yield you got from it.
I only tried making a mozzarella and a ricotta and gave up after that.

 

[benno1973]

I make plenty of cheese at home, both blues and camembert. Yield is good (6L makes 4 x camembert) and the taste is far better than what I can buy from the supermarket. Definitely give it a go.

 

[OzPaleAle]

I make plenty of cheese at home, both blues and camembert. Yield is good (6L makes 4 x camembert) and the taste is far better than what I can buy from the supermarket. Definitely give it a go.

Where you using supermarket milk?
Maybe because I was making the not so cultured cheeses like mozzarella\ricotta.

 

[benno1973]

Yep, regular supermarket milk. Ricotta is a pain, as you need the whey leftover from cheesemaking if you're doing it properly. Otherwise just dissolve some citric acid in the milk and heat it to around 85C and it should coagulate and form ricotta. I've tried mozzarella before and failed. Will try again some other time, but haven't yet been able to do it.

 

[treefiddy]

My first attempt a few months ago was feta using supermarket milk. I figured it wouldn't matter if I stuffed it up too much as I mostly use it for cooking.

In the end it turned out really really good.

 

[OzPaleAle]

mmm got me thinking I should try round 2, wonder if I can collect cultures from supermarket blue cheese etc, been playing with yeast plates and mushroom spore\cloning plates lately, might add cheese to the culture collection list.


I've got a super strong creamy blue cheese from Costco in the fridge at the moment, tastes amazing.

 

[Phoney]

I make plenty of cheese at home, both blues and camembert. Yield is good (6L makes 4 x camembert) and the taste is far better than what I can buy from the supermarket. Definitely give it a go.

When you say far better than what you can buy from the supermarket, what are you actually comparing it to? Because if you can make it better than Fromager d'Affinois, Fromage des clarines, Rouzaire Brie Aux Truffes and others of my favourite French varieties (which are technically bries but whatevs) then you should quit your day job son.

 

[benno1973]

When you say far better than what you can buy from the supermarket, what are you actually comparing it to? Because if you can make it better than Fromager d'Affinois, Fromage des clarines, Rouzaire Brie Aux Truffes and others of my favourite French varieties (which are technically bries but whatevs) then you should quit your day job son.

My supermarket doesn't stock those unfortunately

I guess I'm comparing it to mass produced cams. Mine certainly aren't perfect, but they are tasty!

 

[Truman42]

Here are four Brie cheeses that me and the missus have recently made. They were sprayed with a slurry of mashed up brie cheese and water to get the white growth on them which once fully covered will ripen the inside of the cheese.

@Kaisersoze... Once you wrap your cams what temp do you store them at to ripen the inside? I've read so many different things Some say 7C some say 3C??

 

[HBHB]

Milk varies so much from region to region, even under the same brands.

In general, Australian milk is pretty ordinary and adding a little more calcium chloride and double the rennet will lead to a better clean break and thus a better result in many styles including the cams, brie's and bra's etc.

For feta's and ricotta's just using the full cream milk from the supermarkets is fine and gives a pretty good result.

The best mozzarella's are made using unhomogenized milk or what's often referred to as "Bath Milk" which is largely unmolested and in it's whole state. Simply pasturise it and it makes great Mozza'.


In Victoria, try any of the following places for the better milk and best results:

Barambah Organic: http://www.barambahorganics.com.au

Paris Creek: Unhomogenised Milk made by BD Farms

Alexandrina Jersey Milk

Tweedvale Milk

Jersey Fresh

Pauls Pure Organic: Can be purchased from supermarkets http://www.pauls.com.au/

Elgaar Far: Fresh Organic Full Cream Milk- www.elgaarfarm.com.au

Hope this helps,
Martin

 

[milkit99]

I brew, my wife makes the cheese. It's the perfect partnership, because my LHBS has cheesemaking gear as well, so I never need to come up with any elaborate justifications or excuses for when I wanna go and blow more money on brewstuff!

She's make some great feta, haloumi and mozzarella from supermarket milk, and we do labneh pretty often too.
I can't vouch for the truth of this, but apparently buying the hi-lo milk and adding cream to it to get the fat content back in is a little better for making cheese... something about the processing techniques?

 

[HBHB]

She's make some great feta, haloumi and mozzarella from supermarket milk, and we do labneh pretty often too.
I can't vouch for the truth of this, but apparently buying the hi-lo milk and adding cream to it to get the fat content back in is a little better for making cheese... something about the processing techniques?

We tried to do the same with local milk here and each cheese was a dismal failure. Again, it probably depends on the individual milk from different areas too.

Martin

 

[benno1973]

@Kaisersoze... Once you wrap your cams what temp do you store them at to ripen the inside? I've read so many different things Some say 7C some say 3C??

I stick them in the regular fridge, so around 3C to ripen. They tend to have ripened after about 2-3 weeks, have to eat them by week 6 or you can start to taste a bit too much ammonia.

 

[Phoney]

My supermarket doesn't stock those unfortunately

I guess I'm comparing it to mass produced cams. Mine certainly aren't perfect, but they are tasty!

Fair enough. They are available at (my local) Coles & Thomas Dux (Wollies speciality store).

The one time I made Camembert, it turned out very strong flavoured. Couldnt eat more than a mouthfull of it, I ended up chucking it. Not sure what went wrong. :blink: Actually just not far from my house a pickelry opened up recently, they offer cheesemaking workshops there. They're charging $120 a session! and I see hipsters lining up out the door. link.