Cheese-making

[lindsay]

Picking up on @Brazo 's "other lockdown hobby", I thought I'd start a thread on this as it intrigued me. Does anyone else do this?
I googled and it seems there are a lot of resources online and cheese-making suppliers of kits and paraphernalia and ingredients. It looks like something I'd like to have a go at too.
So, any advice and guidance @Brazo and anyone else?

 

[Brazo]

Picking up on @Brazo 's "other lockdown hobby", I thought I'd start a thread on this as it intrigued me. Does anyone else do this?
I googled and it seems there are a lot of resources online and cheese-making suppliers of kits and paraphernalia and ingredients. It looks like something I'd like to have a go at too.
So, any advice and guidance @Brazo and anyone else?

I found this ebook very useful as the recipes are far more comprehensive than what you and I’d recommend you watch his you tube videos! He has a very calm manner and is very relaxing to watch!

My Cheese eBook - Little Green Cheese

Keep Calm and Make Cheese – The Beginners Guide To Cheese Making at Home Have you ever wanted to make real cheese at home, but didn’t know where or how to start? Well look no further, as this book makes it easy for the beginner to jump right in and make cheese. Keep Calm and […]

www.littlegreencheese.com

This is a good source of supplies:https://www.cheesemaking.co.uk/

 

[Brazo]

So a few phone snaps of my ‘batch’. These are now finalising maturity at around 5c, they spent 2 weeks at 13c to grow their coat of white mould.

 

[lindsay]

They look pretty healthy and nice. Please let us know in due course how they taste.
How did you maintain temperatures whilst preparing - I'm thinking of where you need to keep it around 30-32 degrees for some while?

 

[Brazo]

They look pretty healthy and nice. Please let us know in due course how they taste.
How did you maintain temperatures whilst preparing - I'm thinking of where you need to keep it around 30-32 degrees for some while?

Typically you make at room temperature and currently this is perfect in the 20c+ zone

then you age/mature around 11-13c depending on recipe, this can be done by using a fridge with a separate electronic thermostat.

then you store at normal fridge temps.

 

[lindsay]

I just watched one of the videos, it looks pretty straightforward so I think I'll get myself a kit and have a go!
Just imagine, home made cheese with home-cured ham (another idea I picked up on t'interthing)

 

[F1.2]

Mmmm Cheese , I will keep a eye on this thread , Not sure it's for me as I live alone and dought I could eat large qttys of cheese before its's bin time , Or do they last months ?

 

[Bebop]

I’ve found myself watching some videos on making mozzarella and ricotta.

I’m normally not all that interested in food, but I have used my old yoghurt maker in lockdown. I’ve bought a bread maker (used to hand bake sometimes), and tomorrow I’m going to have a go at pasta. I think this is the lockdown effect [emoji4]

 

[sirch]

Had a spell of cheese making a few decades ago, it's pretty straight forward but you need a lot of milk if you are going to press it into a hard cheese so handy to know a farmer

 

[Brazo]

Mmmm Cheese , I will keep a eye on this thread , Not sure it's for me as I live alone and dought I could eat large qttys of cheese before its's bin time , Or do they last months ?

Soft cheeses such as the above camemberts will have a relatively short shelf life once ‘mature’ but this is just a test batch to determine maturation times. Once complete I shall launch straight into an even bigger batch and give some out to friends and family.

Then I intend to make some blue cheese and then try my hand at hard cheeses, starting with a ‘Cotswold’.

We have plenty of neighbours who will take the excess production and @sirch plenty of farms nearby and I know all the farmers!

 

[Mr Bump]

I've brewed some supermarket cider "hard" style after getting some good recipes from a mate got a batch up to 7.8%

 

[Marc]

Cannot believe that this thread has been going for over a day and nobody has posted this!

 

[sirch]

That's because we all know that we are blessed

 

[Brazo]

So an early taste test! 3 weeks from make date. 4 is ideal but I’ve been a bit like a kid at Christmas and couldn’t wait!

Good news is they have ‘worked’ and taste like a Camembert. Still needs a little maturation but I’d say it’s a personal taste thing.

Didn't take long to polish off!

 

[lindsay]

It certainly looks the business Mark - well done!

 

[sirch]

Looks great!

 

[nog]

Had a spell of cheese making a few decades ago, it's pretty straight forward but you need a lot of milk if you are going to press it into a hard cheese so handy to know a farmer

Back in the day -well over 2 years ago- I used to make hard cheese (Cheddar) daily production about 800k litres, roughly 10 litres of milk per kg so about 80,000 kg a day

Edit- needed to add a 0

 

[Brazo]

Four weeks in now and tastes a lot more mature and insides more yellow!

Just a cross section today, cheese is a little lopsided as some curds broke off when demoulding this one.

And another batch of 12 were produced this week and now ageing.

 

[F1.2]

Looks like you are good at this

 

[lindsay]

oooh, that looks nice, mmmm.

 

[Brazo]

Looks like you are good at this

Well hopefully getting better! The week 4 Camembert does taste great but It’s a little over aged around the edges and underaged in the middle. I’ve researched better ageing conditions for this next batch so am hopefully of a more consistent texture all the way through.

 

[Brazo]

Just going to update this thread....

So the second batch of Camembert were much better than the first. Three significant changes. Much better milk supply, addition of calcium chloride and far better temperature controlled ageing.

I’ll attach the pic below and you can compare them to the pics above.

I have also produced some ‘blues’ which worked well first time And had a go at pressing a hard cheese - a ‘Cotswold’.

 

[Bebop]

Just going to update this thread....

So the second batch of Camembert were much better than the first. Three significant changes. Much better milk supply, addition of calcium chloride and far better temperature controlled ageing.

I’ll attach the pic below and you can compare them to the pics above.

I have also produced some ‘blues’ which worked well first time And had a go at pressing a hard cheese - a ‘Cotswold’.

Wow - those look amazing!

 

[andya700]

They look excellent, I am a bit of a "cheese monster".
The things you make during lockdown.
We had a bumper crop of blackberries, so decided to make some Creme de Mure, using blackberry juice, water, a little sugar and Aldi vodka. Tasted a bit after bottling and it was seriously tasty. It has been down in the cellar for twelve days, so a couple more days and we will give it another try.