The Cheese Thread

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fixa

Barking Hound Brewery
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Tell us about your homemade cheeses...
after talking to andrewQLD, i'm all keen to give it a go, just gotta get some time now.
How do you make yours? what has and hasn't worked for you?

and most importantly, is cheese possibly the best food ever?
 
Brie and Camenbert are really easy to make. If you have access to fresh cows or goats milk even better. I am a real beginner at it but I made some a while back that wernt that bad. Everyone around here are a bit cheesed out now but Ill knock up another batch soon.

once you have the basics like spores(I think thats what there called) rennet (the stuff that makes the milk set) and a few pcv pipes to put the curds into (about10cm round and15 high) your off! you just cut the curds into cubes, put them into the pvc (or cheese molds) flip them every few hours, next day soak them in brine(salty water) put a spec of white moud spore powder in it(this gives the cheese that white fuzzy velvet like coating on the out side) store at cellar temp. (13-16c.) for 4-6 weeks and enjoy.

I also experimented with blue linnens and got some pretty funky fromage :D but it was all really edible (if you go for reall pundgent type cheese) It dosnt cost allot. Your best off checking out Cheeselinks for all you need to know and get more info but if your into it its very rewarding much like homebrewing.-
 
Fixa, cheese IS the best food in the world. Here is a rundown of the process I use to make Stilton cheese.

The Recipe
4.5lt full cream milk
1/8 tsp farmhouse culture available here Cheeselinks
OR 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tbls of stilton cheese for the mold culture or a blue mold culture available from the above link
1.5ml of liquid Rennet
2 tsp salt, non iodised (rock salt or sea salt is best)

Warm your milk in a S/S pot or plastic bucket to 31c, I usually put the pot in a sink of warm water to keep it at 31c, stir in the farmhouse culture OR buttermilk, make a paste of the stilton cheese with a little of the milk and stir this into your 4.5l milk until it is dissolved.
Dissolve 1.5ml of the rennet in 50 ml of boiled cooled water and then stir this into the milk, you must do this quickly as the Rennet will cause the milk to set fairly soon.
Keep the milk at 31c for the next 90 minutes and do not disturb the milk, it is important to keep this temperature constant throught the "cooking" period.

At the end of the 90 minutes your curd will have formed and the milk will be a soft solid mass. If you push down on the top of the curd and it splits you will know it is time to cut the curd. Cut the curd into small 1cm cubes by slicing with a long knife that reaches to the bottom of the pot.
cheddar_001.jpg
Stir gently and rest for 30 minutes all the time keeping the temp at 31c, remove some of the whey at the end of the 30 minute rest and stir gently again and rest for 30 minutes and remove some more of the whey.
cheddar_004.jpg
Pour the curds into a cheese cloth lined collander and drain for 10 minutes then bundle and hang the curds over a bucket for 1/2 an hour to extract more of the whey.
cheddar_008.jpg
next place the curd bundle on a draining board and put a 5 kilo weight on top for 2 hours, this will extract more of the whey.
next we need to salt and crumble the curds. open the bundle and break up the curd into small pieces about the size of a sultana sprinkle in the salt and stir gently.
pack the curds evenly into 2x 3 1/2 inch diameter molds and press for 12 hours with 5 kilo weights turning every couple of hours.
Roqueforte_039.jpg
and here is what the should look like after the 12 hour pressing
Roqueforte_040.jpg

Put the cheese onto cheese mats to allow them to drain some more. I keep my cheeses in a decore style container in a spare fridge at around 9c, leave the lid open a crack to regulate the humidity and keep turning the cheese on a daily basis. After about 10 days you will see the cheese is starting to mold up
cheese_003.jpg
and after about 4 weeks it is time to needle the cheese to allow the blue mold to get inside the cheese, here is mine at 4 weeks just before I needled it,
Roqueforte_006.jpg
and at 6 weeks I am eating it along with home made Salsa and home grown pickled vegetables Roqueforte_009.jpg

This is a fairly simplified approach to making a Stilton cheese but the results are very nice.
 
Great post Andrew :) I'm sorely tempted to give it a go... :super:

cheers Ross
 
oh god that looks great.

My wife will go postal when i tell her i am going to make cheese

hehe

cheers
 
great post andrew.

keep it clean and have good temperature control and your half way there.
 
AndrewQLD that was excellent Im going to give your method a go next.

And Stilton is my favorite of all cheeses.
 
Love the post Andrew .

I am going to have a go at that

Home made Beer, Bread, Cheese , Pickles and Salsa .who could want anything more in life .

Pumpy :)
 
Gaargh!

Must...not... buy...cheese...
 
This is justa little freaky - yesterday morning I was trolling the net looking at cheese making, thinking that while I lager there must be something I can do with a temp controlled fridge....

you guys suck. Now I'm going to buy a cheese making kit. I'm going to be in so much trouble.

M
 
thats awesome. if my mrs thought fermenting homebrew smelt, she is in for a shock!!
 
What is it with some brewers a desire to create food and drink with microbiological creatures ? :blink:

pumpy :)
 
Brilliant Andrew, you've just made it a whole lot easier for me :super:

Cheers.
 
Yeah but look at the fraternity you have to hang around and the gear you have to wear Duff when stretching cheese .

Pumpy :unsure:

stretchingcheese2.jpg
 
jeeze, every day on this forum i find myself more and more fascinated with food and drinks!

beer, beef jerky, cheese, what will be next?
 
I've been looking at the kits on cheeselinks for a while. One of these days I'm going to bite the bullet and make some brie/camembert...
 
Is there any risk making cheese close to beer? Can you make cheese in your fermentation fridge?

I've read a bit about making sauerkraut and that the organisms used in making kraut will spoil beer and very quickly and at a good distance. ie, don't make kraut in the same house as beer. Is there any risk of infecting beer if you were to age a cheese at the same time as fermenting an ale in s fridge set to 14C?
 
Is there any risk making cheese close to beer? Can you make cheese in your fermentation fridge?

I've read a bit about making sauerkraut and that the organisms used in making kraut will spoil beer and very quickly and at a good distance. ie, don't make kraut in the same house as beer. Is there any risk of infecting beer if you were to age a cheese at the same time as fermenting an ale in s fridge set to 14C?


What like it may turn the Camembert blue , Bitter !!!!

:unsure:

Pumpy :)
 
Yep, great post Andrew, sums up the process perfectly.

I made a couple of Stiltons shortly after you first posted your results in the jerky thread. I've pretty much used the process you detailed and got excellent results. Except when I tried to age a non-blue cheese near a blue cheese - that doesn't work so well.

PoMo - I age my cheeses in a sealed container in my ferment fridges - no problems thus far with the beers.
 

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