The Cheese Thread

[gap]

Welly2 , you will need some sort of cheese press to properly make hard cheeses like cheddars etc.

Google Dutch Cheese Press , if you are vaguley handy with wood you can make one for not many dollars.

 

[welly2]

Cool, thank you gap! I shall look into it.

 

[welly2]

I made cheese tonight. Mozzarella:

Not bad for a first proper effort. It certainly tastes like cheese!

 

[welly2]

Bleh. It tasted of mozzarella but it's too rubbery. Back to the drawing board.

 

[TimT]

I think mozza is meant to be eaten fresh or, if not, refrigerated straight away - maybe if you left them out a while the texture changed? Anyway looks like you've got the basics down, now it's just time for fiddling with the fine details.

 

[welly2]

Yeah, I ended up starting a bit late and didn't get finished until the early hours of the morning so wasn't going to start scoffing cheese at 2am I did refrigerate it when I was done but I suspect I didn't knead it enough. Maybe? I'm not sure. I shall do some more reading but it was certainly pliable when I got the curds together in the hot water. I don't think I cut the curds very well either as they became a little bit too "bitty" as well. Anyway, it's a start!

 

[TimT]

I struggle with mozzarella too; the whole curdling process is a bit more finickity - not just heat + acid or heat + rennet + culture, but heat + acid + rennet + culture - and I'm never sure if the kneading really does the trick. You're supposed to get the curds to the stage where you can stretch them right across the room but I can never manage that - however, after kneading them for a bit they do seem to reach a 'stable' point.

I've read it helps for the milk to have lots of culture in it. So start off with raw milk. Also focusing on milk pH is probably important. Perhaps if you made them with the original mozzarella milk - buffalo milk - you'd get much better reswults too.... though good luck milking that buffalo.

Anyway, first proper effort? I'd say damn good job. Especially for a cheese like mozzarella!

 

[welly2]

I reckon I might try a different cheese and get the basics right. This site seems to be full of useful info: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese_course/Cheese_course.htm

 

[AndrewQLD]

It's been a while since I made any cheese, here's some Cows milk Feta. Turned out in between a soft Danish feta and a hard Greek feta.

 

[TimT]

I've found haloumi is a satisfying and fairly easy cheese to make. Easier than mozzarella but with a similar principal involved - you heat the curds in the final steps which not only effectively kills off remaining bacteria, but helps the proteins develop in the cheese, giving the haloumi it's chewy, chickeny texture. No troublesome needing step, though - you just have to keep the curds in the right temperature range.

 

[welly2]

I'm thinking about making feta, it's a cheese I really like and the recipe I have here, it looks fairly straight forward. Nothing too complex. One for sometime this week!

 

[welly2]

Cheese #2

My feta just before the brining.



I made this block and also another one with a slightly different method. The other is in cubes and is ripening just with salt rather than in a brine bath. So we'll see what happens.

 

[AndrewQLD]

looks great welly, try to use a brine container that is just a little lager than the cheese or it will become too salty.

 

[welly2]

Thanks for the tip, Andrew. The brine container is a reasonable bit bigger than the cheese (it's not huge but big enough) although the brine isn't really strong either. I'm not sure of the exact percentage but used 300g of salt and 2l of water. A taste of the brine tells me it isn't crazy strong! Anyway, we shall see! But good tip, I'll look for a container that's closer to the size of my cheese mould.

 

[Florian]

As for Mozarella:

I have only made it once but it turned out absolutely perfect, not the slightest bit of rubberiness, just that soft but firm layery mozarella bite.

I remember following a video to the absolute letter so I just dug it out, but forgot that it was actually in German. Still, I think the secret is mostly in the 'pulling' part from about 4 minutes onwards which doesn't require any translation.

They also have an English video, I'd assume that the process is pretty much the same but I haven't specifically compared the video.

The German video, 100% success guaranteed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0yOZ71OeOg

The English language one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YIYjOFwLWw


Overall I have stopped cheese making for now, I find the the few hours of work and waiting time are in no comparison to the 30 seconds it takes me to eat the end product.
At least with a keg of beer the drinking time usually exceeds the time spent at brew day.

 

[welly2]

I may have to give mozzarella another go. Just with different milk and perhaps that technique above. Looks good!

Cheers

 

[Tahoose]

Any Melbourne guys know a good place to get reasonably priced in homogenised milk from?

Giving mozzarella a go this weekend for a first time.

 

[TimT]

Do you mean unhomogenised milk?

Cheapest homogenised from Woolies, obviously.

Cheapest unhomogenised.... probably from a direct dairy outlet. Maybe La Latteria on Elgin St, Carlton.

You can get the Schultz brand at various organic shops. The Fruit Peddlers probably have the cheapest price.

 

[gap]

My local Woolies (Katoomba, NSW) sells unhomogenised milf for about $3.50 for 2 litres

 

[TimT]

What brand, Gap?

There's a brand of unhogenised milk you can get in some Woolies and Coles. Well, it says unhomogenised but I can't tell much difference. I think they skim off so much cream anyway that it hardly matters. Can't remember, it might be just their in-store 'Woolworths Organic' or 'Coles Organic' or it might be in the Pauls milk range.