The Cheese Thread

[stillscottish]

Kmart

$4

Stainless Steel

Cutlery holder? I don't think so.




Ignore the photo perspective. It's straight sided. Holes on bottom also. I just pressed a 1 kg cheese in it.

 

[stillscottish]

Here's a LINK to some resources I found. I don't think it's been posted here before.

The site seems to have most other "Making" stuff covered as well.

Cheers

Campbell

 

[seamad]

That looks great, what are the dimensions, mainly height , hopefully will fit in my cheese press.
Cheers,sean

 

[winkle]

Kmart

$4

Stainless Steel

Cutlery holder? I don't think so.

View attachment 54496


Ignore the photo perspective. It's straight sided. Holes on bottom also. I just pressed a 1 kg cheese in it.

I must get back into cheesing.
(It looks a bit "hop backish" if you get my drift).

 

[seamad]

Just read brew like a monk, one of the abbeys sends its used yeast to a nearby abbbey in france where the nuns use it to make a washed rind cheese, really smelly apparently, have to get missus to give it a try.

 

[stillscottish]

That looks great, what are the dimensions, mainly height , hopefully will fit in my cheese press.
Cheers,sean

I don't have it here at work but it would be abt 200mm high and 120mm dia.

 

[seamad]

Sweet, have@250 mm height clearance, thanks for that.

 

[stillscottish]

First outing of my new press. 2 Stiltons.

$8 for timber, $4 for the chopping board.

 

[wabster]

Hi folks, it has been a while since I was active here making cheese, but I think I may have a source of excellent untampered with milk in the near future, and want to get some new camembert/brie cultures - penicilium candidum I think - and maybe a roquefortie too.

What places are selling the cheese making gear and cultures?

Cheerz Wabster.

 

[benno1973]

Hey Wabster,

The three I know of are:

Brewers Choice
Country Brewer
Cheeselinks

I've used the last 2 with no problems, not the first one though. Cheeselinks is good for large amounts, country brewer sells in smaller portions but its a bit more expensive.

 

[Truman42]

I want to give this cheese making a go. Are you guys buying the kits or just buying everything separetely?

Also is there any reason why I cant use my old BigW BIAB pot and sit it in the laundry tub filled with hot water to hold my temp at 32C? It wont work on the stove as I have an induction cook top (hence why its been retired from BIAB) Still has the tap fitted though couldn't see that being a problem.

 

[benno1973]

I want to give this cheese making a go. Are you guys buying the kits or just buying everything separetely?

Also is there any reason why I cant use my old BigW BIAB pot and sit it in the laundry tub filled with hot water to hold my temp at 32C? It wont work on the stove as I have an induction cook top (hence why its been retired from BIAB) Still has the tap fitted though couldn't see that being a problem.

I bought a kit off someone on AHB. You could go either way, but the kit to start with makes everything easy, and makes sure you won't forget any bits and pieces. However if you already have some of the things lying around (i.e. camembert mats are just sushi mats rebadged, etc) then you could forego the kit and just buy the bits you need. Might work out cheaper.

You could sit it in a trough of warm water, it'd be like a large double boiler. It's mean a bit more messing around though, as you'd need to get your milk to the exact temp first, and then ensure that the water in the laundry trough was at the same temp before putting the pot in there. It'd be great for holding temps, but a lot of cheeses involve raising the temps by about 1*C every 5 minutes, which I imagine would be hard to achieve in the laundry trough.

If I were you, I'd try the process with water rather than proper ingredients first, to make sure that you can hit and hold temps properly.

 

[stillscottish]

I got the Mad Millie blue cheese kit which Brewers Choice is marking down just now plus some other bits and pieces I had or picked up.

I'm doing 8 litre batches. Stick the 2l milk containers into the microwave for 3 mins each, that gets them to 32 deg -ymmv. Pour into stock pot in water bath. Do the cheesemaking thing.

I have no problems keeping the temps ok. I check it every 20-30 minutes and let out some water from the sink and top it up with some hot.

You can easily step up the temps if required with boiling water additions.

Cheese

Campbell

 

[Truman42]

Thanks guys, will check out the mad millie kits at brewers choice.

 

[Truman42]

I'm just reading some instructions now and it says heat milk to 32c add the starter and leave covered for 75 mins.
Then It says to add rennet let stand for 30 mins, cut curds allow to set for 30 mins etc

What it doesn't say is does the 32c temp need to be held for this entire process? Or just until the starter has been added and it's sat for 75 mins ?

 

[benno1973]

It needs to be at that temp for the entire process. If you're using a double boiler, the thermal mass will keep the temperature pretty steady without too much intervention during that period. Maybe justr a small heat every now and again.

 

[Truman42]

I just brought myself the mad Millie blue cheese kit. Marked down to $33 at Brewers Choice as it is old packaging.

Going to use a 10 litre pot inside an esky as a double boiler setup. (Tried giving this pot away on here but no one wanted it so Im glad I kept it now )

With heating the milk up in the microwave first does it matter if I was to go over the 32C mark and have to let it cool back down a bit? Ive not read anything where it says you must hit 32C exact, no higher?
I will obviously heat for a minute or 2 and check but might end up going slightly over.

 

[benno1973]

I've not done it, but I can't imagine that it would be an issue. 32*C is the optimal temperature for the ripening cultures to work at, so as long as you haven't added those, you'll be right.

 

[Truman42]

Thanks mate. Will try and get as close as possible and should then know for next time how long to nuke it for. But at least if I do go over I know I'm okay.

 

[benno1973]

Making ricotta* today, the simplest of all cheeses IMO. No special equipment required apart from a pot and a thermometer.

Pour 4L of milk into a large pot and add a teaspoon of salt. Dissolve a teaspoon of citric acid (it's in the baking section of your local supermarket) in a few tablespoons of water and add that to the milk. Heat the milk to around 90*C, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot and creating more mess to clean up. As it heats, you'll notice that curds start to form at the surface of the milk, but the milk remains, well, 'milky' coloured. As it gets to between about 85*C and 90*C, you'll notice that the curds really separate from the whey and the whey loses its milkiness, turning watery.

Don't heat the milk over 90*C or you'll end up with burnt tasting ricotta. If the milk has reached temperature and hasn't spilt cleanly into curds and whey, you can try adding a tablespoon of vinegar and stirring it through to see if that helps. Too much vinegar and the ricotta will start tasting acidic, but 1 or 2 tablspoons shouldn't be an issue.

After the milk has separated into curds and whey, ladle the curds into a cheesecloth lined strainer, tie knots in the corners of the cheesecloth, and hang over a sink or a bowl to drain for half an hour. If you don't have cheesecloth, a chux wipe does just as well.

4L of milk should yield just over 1kg of cheese, dependant on the brand of milk and how well the curds form.

Spinach and ricotta canneloni tomorrow night for dinner

* I should point out that this is cheats ricotta. Ricotta is normally made from leftover whey from the cheesemaking process, but this is madee from whole milk. It has a better yield, but isn't the way normal ricotta is made.