Cheese Makers

[Homemaker]

My MIL and I are wanting to learn how to make cheese. How do we get started? What books would you recommend for beginners?

 

[freemotion]

Goat's milk or cow's milk? I started with the recipes on www.fiascofarm.com. I also have Rikki Carroll's book, Cheesemaking
and that 200 cheese recipes book that I can never remember the title....

 

[patandchickens]

I would suggest starting with yogurt or whole-milk acid-coagulated "ricotta", and getting comfortable with them, then if you want to get into hard cheeses try a generic farmerhouse-cheddar type thing a number of times til you've got it under control, THEN experiment. What you can do beyond that depends considerably on whether you have a source of home-pasteurized or raw milk available, or whether you're dependant on storeboughten milk (and if you are, how badly heat-treated it is)

Just a heads-up, IMO the Ricki Carroll book is overrated (not very clear instructions, and it seems like a *majority* of people who try her 30-minute mozzarella have repeated problems getting it to work); I'm not saying don't get it (alhtough there are other good cheesemaking books available too, that are as good or better), just don't get too invested in her rah-rah what-can-go-wrong hype

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey homemaker!

you'll love cheesemaking - here's my link for an easy 'how to', but there are tons of sites with good info:

http://adventuresinthegoodland.blogspot.com/2010/09/cutting-cheesecurds.html

and it has the link/title for the 200 cheese recipes book.

and i love this guy - a little over technical but good info:
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/cheese.html

at first its a little overwhelming - there are a lot of terms you may not be used to.. but just remember that lots of folks use to make their own cheese. so you can too.

if you have a source for raw milk and a big stainless steel pot you're halfway there.

good luck!

 

[Bethanial]

Just went to a cheese-making workshop this weekend, and he RAVED about Ricki Carrol's book. He did say, after making/selling/teaching cheese-making, he's not been able to get the 30-minute mozzeralla (his standard recipe) made in less than 1-1/2 hrs, though. So just know that somebody who's VERY experienced and had gobs of practice hasn't been able to get it done in 30 minutes. He also recommended the book, but not the beginner's kit (unless you're just totally desperate for the supplies) - his experience it's cheaper and easier to get the stuff separately.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

you when to a WHAT?

ok then.. start a thread - what happened? what did you learn? did you make anything there? well? well? come on baby share the wealth

 

[freemotion]

Yep, dish!

I started with Rikki's book, and it does give a lot of excellent information, but it was quite intimidating. My biggest problem with it is that I would read a snippet of important information in the general section, then when I was making cheese, have a vague memory of reading something that applied to whatever problem I was experiencing...but I couldn't find the passage later. It was key, but not indexed or put in an area that could be found again without re-reading the entire *#&@%^ book.

It would've been far more helpful to have ALL the goat's milk stuff in one place.

Remember that most books are written as if the home cheesemaker needs to be a miniature model of the commercial cheesemaker. Not so. All the recipes are written for pasteurized milk, and call for citric acid and calcium chloride. I know my great-great-grandmothers did not have access to these ingredients!

Rikki Carroll has an intermediate workshop and it is an hour's drive from me, but it is based on cow's milk. I can't see paying $350 and losing a weekend and not learning about the problems with goat's milk. I called and talked to the teacher last year, asking for goat's milk classes.....nada. Waaaaah!

 

[patandchickens]

Just went to a cheese-making workshop this weekend, and he RAVED about Ricki Carrol's book.

But did he say how many of the competitors' books (comparable audience and subject matter) he'd actually *read*? While there are at LEAST three or four good ones out there, they are not NEARLY so widely known...

Pat

 

[CrimsonRose]

So far all I can make is mozzarella and ricotta... made it with store bought whole milk cause I don't have access to Fresh... got my recipe from searching 30min mozzarella

I have a hard time pulling the mozzerella to make it stringy... so manytimes I'll pull it some then squeeze out even more moisture so that once it's refridgerated you can crumble it... I know total failure in cheese making but it sure does taste good and is great on salads! I do the same with the ricotta and squeeze out most of the moisture out and it's more of a soild cheese... I like this texture better... seems to keep a tad longer too with less moisture...

 

[savingdogs]

So far all I can make is mozzarella and ricotta... made it with store bought whole milk cause I don't have access to Fresh... got my recipe from searching 30min mozzarella

I have a hard time pulling the mozzerella to make it stringy... so manytimes I'll pull it some then squeeze out even more moisture so that once it's refridgerated you can crumble it... I know total failure in cheese making but it sure does taste good and is great on salads! I do the same with the ricotta and squeeze out most of the moisture out and it's more of a soild cheese... I like this texture better... seems to keep a tad longer too with less moisture...

Where did you get the recipe? I'm dying to try cheesemaking and don't have access to raw milk yet.