The Cheese Thread

[AndrewQLD]

haha thats a sh!t load of cheese! beyond my dairy capabilities! yeah i realised what had gone wrong when i saw it, i just didnt think it would go so quick.. i had a few stuff ups whilst making beer and its the mistakes that help you understand the process better.would i have got a higher yield if the rennet worked properly or is that about it? the cheese itself tasted sour-ish but not unpleasant, hopefully just a "tangy" blue.. just like i like them luckily.

10 lt of milk will usually yield about 1 kilo of cheese, that varies depending on the style of cheese your making.


Cheers
Andrew

 

[capretta]

cool, so not much more then, just tighter curds by the look of it. thanks for your help and inspiration.. i have been sampling different blues constantly trying to improve my palate, my mrs thinks im crazy from all the mold! :icon_drool2:

 

[Kai]

Love the cheese press, capretta,

 

[AndrewQLD]

After finishing of my last cheese I had to make another batch of Blue Vein cheese, this pic is after it's first turning. Very easy and reliable recipe and tastes great. The PDF is the recipe.
View attachment Blue_Vein.pdf

 

[capretta]

well i just got back from holidays and went to check on my "cheese" first thing (cause i had a bit of a stab at temp regulation, didnt have time to see the temp stabilise with the timer before i left) and it turns out it has been sitting for 10 days at 7 degrees and is REALLY moldy! :icon_drool2:
should i wash the rind or just leave it?

 

[AndrewQLD]

well i just got back from holidays and went to check on my "cheese" first thing (cause i had a bit of a stab at temp regulation, didnt have time to see the temp stabilise with the timer before i left) and it turns out it has been sitting for 10 days at 7 degrees and is REALLY moldy! :icon_drool2:
should i wash the rind or just leave it?
View attachment 15601

Looks like the humidity might have been a trifle high, I wouldn't wash the rind, that's how it should look, now would be a good time to pierce the cheese all over with a knitting needle to let the mold travel to the inside and maybe leave the container lid open a little more to start the cheese crusting.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[capretta]

yep yep, the lid of the tupperware fell down and sealed while i was away and i had a little water in the bottom, so the humidity would have been as high as it was possible! cool, cheers andrew..

 

[AndrewQLD]

After finishing of my last cheese I had to make another batch of Blue Vein cheese, this pic is after it's first turning. Very easy and reliable recipe and tastes great. The PDF is the recipe.
View attachment 15396

View attachment 15395

10 days later and the mould is starting to form, the blueing will happen very quickly now and within a couple of days they will be completely covered, it's hard to see in the pics but after about day six a white fuzz forms on the outside of the cheese, this then turns to the blue/green mould. I'll post another pic in a day or two to show how fast the mould grows.


Cheers
Andrew

 

[sstacey]

Something that I have been wondering... do you have to use non-homogenised milk to make cheese, or will your average supermarket full-cream milk do the job okay?

 

[AndrewQLD]

I use normal store bought Homo/pastuerised milk with no problems, I do add 2.5ml CaCl for each 10 lt of milk to help bring it back to how it should be.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Kai]

CaCl doesn't bring the milk back to how it should be exactly, but it does give you a better set than homogenised milk on its own would. If you're going to follow that path then I'd definitely recommend using it.

 

[AndrewQLD]

CaCl doesn't bring the milk back to how it should be exactly, but it does give you a better set than homogenised milk on its own would. If you're going to follow that path then I'd definitely recommend using it.

Kai is right, and I should have been a bit more detailed in my reply, a CaCl addition will help to restore the ability for the milk to coagulate properly,

heat treatment of milk at high temperatures can bring about changes in the mineral constituents of the milk, principally the calcium, which can interfere with the secondary phase of gel formation, that is the aggregation of the renneted casein micelles, 5-20 grams of calcium chloride per 100 kg of milk is normally enough to achieve a constant coagulation time and results in sufficient firmness of the coagulum

, some interesting reading here link, and although the addition of CaCl to Homo milk is not as good as using unhomogonised milk it certainly does help in approximating the required results.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[AndrewQLD]

10 days later and the mould is starting to form, the blueing will happen very quickly now and within a couple of days they will be completely covered, it's hard to see in the pics but after about day six a white fuzz forms on the outside of the cheese, this then turns to the blue/green mould. I'll post another pic in a day or two to show how fast the mould grows.

View attachment 15631View attachment 15632
Cheers
Andrew

And here are the same cheeses 3 days after the above post, the mould really takes off fast once it starts to develop.
I'll needle them in a day or so.


Cheers
Andrew

 

[apd]

Something that I have been wondering... do you have to use non-homogenised milk to make cheese, or will your average supermarket full-cream milk do the job okay?

And has anyone used raw milk and did you notice a difference? I noticed raw milk for sale at the organic shop at Sth Melb market. They market it as a body wash sort of thing to get around the no-raw-milk-for-human-consumption thing.

Andrew

 

[bottle top]

Hey guys, great thread. I was inspired to have a crack at camembert - which is (hopefully) moulding up in the fridge as I type - and I just thought I'd post a few questions/observations out there.

- Can anything useful be done with the leftover whey, or is this discarded? I had a go at making some ricotta but it seems to have such a low yield it's not worthwhile.
- Does anybody actually accurately measure the quantities of starter/mould powders, or is the consensus that you just add a pinch? The penicillin mould is supposed to be good for 250L but it is a tiny amount of powder!
- What is the idea behind making a starter? I didn't bother, just pitched the culture directly into the milk, and I got a very good set.
- When you leave the curds to shape in hoops is this done in the fridge or at room temp? Are there any issues with leaving at room temp for so long, e.g. infection?
- How long does it take for brie/cam to mould sufficiently before wrapping? Can the cheese be aged in the fridge (i.e. 4*C) at that stage, or is it better to keep it higher?
- How do you guys store your cheeses while they are growing mould? Do I need the container of water for humidity as others have mentioned? It looks pretty damn humid in there as it is...
- Does anyone have any links to good cheesemaking sites with recipes/guides? I didn't bother with books because I figured I could find everything I need online, but I had trouble finding anything comprehensive and ended up winging it with bits and pieces from this thread and elsewhere.

Pic of my babies at 1 day old:



Keep up the good work!

 

[capretta]

heh heh welcome to the dark (and moldy) side. ill have a crack at one of your questions about starters after screwing up my starter..

the starter appears to be there to provide the proper flavour profile for the cheese (ie tangy, but not too tangy..). Its not like yeast, in that it is possible to make cheese happily without a starter, it just adds a bit of sourness (think of it like adding hops or something).

i made my mistake by thinking "oh screw a starter ill just add the culture to the milk and leave it for a night". it turned my milk into a yohgurt like consistancy and i reduced effeciency as the curds didnt set properly.

i kept mine in a big tupperware container on a raised metal rack with a (very) little water swilling round under it. andrewqld suggested this method was probably too much humidity, so now i just use a facewasher cloth wrung out in the corner and the tupperware lid half open, worked fine so far..

enjoy, cam

 

[bottle top]

Thanks for the reply.

I guess my cheese won't be as strong-flavoured as it would have been with a starter? I did read elsewhere that a starter wasn't necessary with DVI cultures. I suppose I'll reserve my judgment until the taste test.

Do you keep your tupperware container in a fridge? If so, at what temperature?

Cheers
Ben

 

[capretta]

yeah mate in the fridge with a timer on the power so the temp is between 7-10 degrees.. unfortunately it gets stinking hot over summer in wollongong so its neccesary.

 

[capretta]

well all this cheese talk has inspired me to get my over cultured blue vein attempt out of the fridge and wrapped for human consumption.its been 2 months, occasionally at higher temps than optimum ie 12-14 and pretty instructive.
the smell is pretty intense, to be expected. its lost a fair bit of moisture and in most parts except for a little patch it looks like an aged chedder. the taste is very strong especially towards the outside of the cheese, tastes not like the creamy blue i was aiming for (who am i kidding i didnt follow any directions properly..). taste is almost metallic in strength, but there is an almost there quality to it which drives me nuts!!

just like my first homebrew. <_<

well andrewqld i realise your ability after rereading this thread tonight and im inspired to exactly follow a pdf recipe, something very difficult for me to achieve.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I saw tha Basic Brewing video episode where he made Mozzarella.

I thought "it couldn't possibly be that easy, but it got me thinking. 4 days later the rennet I ordered from cheeselinks arrived and I had a crack. About 1 hr later I had 250g of mozzarella cooling in my fridge and it was really really nice.

I served it up as an afterwork snack when Mrs Thirsty got home. She liked it and and wanted to know where I got fresh such fresh mozzarella

I think that I'll be giving the stilton and some camemebert a go in the very near future.

Could I use a bit of mushed up brie/cam rind as a white mold ionnoculation? Obviously from Andrews first post I can use a bit of blue stuff from a hunk of cheese as a blue mold starter ... I thought maybe the same would work for the white mold.

Thanks for the great thread

Thirsty