[Polyanya]

I have been milking my first freshner through the winter (she's stopping now) and making little goudas a couple of times a week. I love the whole dairying thing and am thinking of carrying on with cows milk from the Shetland dairy.
I'd love to know if anyone else makes cheese - what type, how often etc? 

[SallyintNorth]

We weren't able to do much last year, but the year before we had got into a good routine.

It took me ages to stop trying to get precise temperatures to make specific cheeses.  Eventually dawned, and I realised that all these regional cheeses arose from people just making what happened naturally in their locale.  So I stopped forcing the issue and let what happened happen

The cheeses vary slightly depending on the weather, what the cows ate, etc.  I like that!

We made a basic unpasteurised soft cheese every day as follows :

Before milking, get the saved whey out of the fridge so it's at ambient when you get back.  (Ambient 18C minimum.)

2L of milk straight from the cow (filtered but otherwise untouched; still warm from the cow), plus the whey saved from yesterday (now at room temperature) into a pan, stir, leave to stand for a few minutes (while you do your other just-back-from-milking jobs, so about 20-30 mins), add rennet, stir, cover and leave.

Yesterday's pan (or this can be done in the evening of the same day, whatever suits), skim off any unset creamy stuff, pour off some whey for tomorrow's starter into sterilised jar into fridge, cut the curd, heat to 42-45C, stir gently, drain (save whey for pigs), rinse with cold water, strain.

Now cut roughly and leave to drain for a few hours. 

I don't add salt but some do add cheese salt at this stage.  Let it drain some more after adding salt.

Add other flavourings if required.

Leave as is for cottage-style cheese cheese or pack and press in moulds for a soft cheese tomorrow.

For the cottage-style cheese, we found that draining the curds fairly well and then stirring in a bit of unprocessed thick cream (or the unset creamy stuff off the top of the cheese if you had some and saved it) made the best approximation to a nice cottage cheese like Longleys.

The very first batch, we used the basic cheese culture from Goat Nutrition.  After that we just used the whey from the day before.  If we started to get odd flavours, go back to a fresh starter.

I am hoping that now we are up to full strength, we can start to make some semi-hard cheeses too - maybe get something akin to a Sharpham Rustic.

[SallyintNorth]

Then we make a quick and easy "squeaky cheese", can be used like halloumi so makes a great veggie option, but is a fraction of the work of a pukka halloumi.

We tend to use skimmed milk as the cream gets lost in the processing anyway.

Heat milk to nearly boiling. 

Heat off, add white vinegar, or lemon juice, or an acid of your choice.  Add 1tbsp at a time, and stir, until you get curds forming, like scrambled eggs.  (Pic attached)   

Strain and wash (whey to pigs). 

Hang in muslin / cheesecloth.  Catch whey for pigs.  At a point before it starts to get solid, but when the whey dripping has slowed, add flavourings if you want. 

When stopped dripping, or nearly (may be the next day), squeeze it hard into a solid mass.  Form whatever shape suits you for cutting.

Can be frozen.

Can be cut up and stored in flavoured oil, or brine. 

Cooks like halloumi.  We usually sprinkle with herbs and pepper before frying, or throw cubes on top of halved cherry tomatoes and sliced onions then cook in oven.


We basically make this as a milk storage option when we are not keeping up with Hillie's output!  It reduces the volume massively (like about 4-fold), it stores in oil, brine or the freezer, and everyone loves it

[SallyintNorth]

Does the Shetland Dairy homogenise their milk?  I guess that will change the outcome, but I don't know in what way. 

How were you making your gouda style cheese?

[Anke]

Favourite is Belper Knolle, best soft cheese ever - and it can be made in short bursts over several days.

https://cheesemaking.com/collections/recipes/products/belper-knolle-recipe

[Dan]

Your squeaky cheese sounds like paneer, Sally. That's our easy go-to cheese, and makes a lovely mattar paneer.

We've tried all sorts - paneer, camembert, gouda, cheddar, cheshire etc. With varying degrees of success, but like Sally says it's weather / temperature / cow dependent and that's part of the fun.

In 2018 I made more cheddar than anything - Blizzard had a dead calf so she was getting milked twice a day yielding up to 20 litres per day. I've settled on ageing hard cheeses in vac-packs. Have tried lard and bandages, and wax, but vac pack has produced the best results - I think the size of cheese we can make in our wee press is too small for traditional bandaging - it just dries out too much.

[SallyintNorth]

Your squeaky cheese sounds like paneer, Sally. That's our easy go-to cheese, and makes a lovely mattar paneer.

Oh, I'm glad; we actually call it paneer but i wasn't sure if it was authentic, so didn't refer to it thus in my post

[Zyg]

We have been making various cheeses from unpasteurised goat milk. The milkers are all pregnant now so nothing doing at present.

I had a few attempts at making cheddar which was edible but a bit sharp - I'm not sure why! We only had 4 milkers last year so it took us a few days to get enough milk for a small (1kg) cheddar. Ricotta made from the whey was always successful and it made a nice Polish baked cheesecake - I liked it but it was a bit too goaty for others!

I made some mozzarella once - stretched it too much so it was a bit firm.
Haloumi was probably the most successful - this was the proper, boiled in the whey, type which was firm, squeaky, kept well and fried up nicely.

I'm looking forward to making cheese again, later this year, once the kids are born and weaned.

[Anke]

In 2018 I made more cheddar than anything - Blizzard had a dead calf so she was getting milked twice a day yielding up to 20 litres per day. I've settled on ageing hard cheeses in vac-packs. Have tried lard and bandages, and wax, but vac pack has produced the best results - I think the size of cheese we can make in our wee press is too small for traditional bandaging - it just dries out too much.

Yes I find using wax coatings doesn't always produce great results either, my batch size for hard cheeses is normally 10 to 12 ltrs.

Dan - which vacuum packer did you buy and how easy is it to get additional bags?

[Polyanya]

Lovely to read this thread - but my time expired whilst I was writing a long response this morning (had to go and check if some lambs had jumped a fence) so when I came back to writing it had logged me out 
Sally your recipes sound good - the gouda I make is this one https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/recipe/cheese-recipes/gouda-cheese/
and I have a lovely little gouda shaped mould that I got from Goat nutrition on ebay. The milk in Shetland is pasturised, I can't buy raw milk in Scotland but I'd be happier buying commercial milk from Shetland than anywhere else. I've also made squeeky cheese (paneer) just like yours and make tons of chevre.
Anke just looked at the Belper Knolle - it looks amazing - have you made some?
Dan do you use a cheese cave at all like a wine chiller or something? I haven't got one yet so am just using a large tupperware in the fridge. Would like to try using beeswax to dip cheeses into.

[SallyintNorth]

I think pasteurising will affect the flavour but not disastrously so.  Homogenising, however, will affect the chemistry, so could change the texture and all sorts.  Mind, you maybe would lose less of the fat and wouldn't need to top-stir! 

Anyone tried using shop-bought homogenised milk?

[SallyintNorth]

Thanks for the link, Polyanya.  I feel some experiments coming on later this year... 

You say you make "tons of Chevre", which suggests it's a fairly straightforward recipe?  Care to share that one?  (Remember to copy and paste your text into a note or something so you don't get timed out! )

[Dan]

Yes I find using wax coatings doesn't always produce great results either, my batch size for hard cheeses is normally 10 to 12 ltrs.

Same here, and we get about a 10-12% yield with cheddar, so about 1.5kg cheeses.

Dan - which vacuum packer did you buy and how easy is it to get additional bags?

We got this one about 4 years ago and it's still working well:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-James-Function-Reusable-Domestic/dp/B00JB9K4RA

I use it for curing bacon and ham too, much more reliable and less work than traditional dry or wet curing.

The plastic comes on a roll, and Lidl sell it very cheaply from time to time. Just have to check the width - I bought a very narrow roll once and it wasn't very useful! And we try to re-use the plastic - have found sterilising and drying thoroughly that it does reseal effectively, at least once or twice.

[Dan]

Lovely to read this thread - but my time expired whilst I was writing a long response this morning (had to go and check if some lambs had jumped a fence) so when I came back to writing it had logged me out 

Quick tip on this - when you log in, tick the 'Always stay logged in' box, and this won't happen. The forum has a default of 60 minutes, you can also change this when you log in.

Dan do you use a cheese cave at all like a wine chiller or something? I haven't got one yet so am just using a large tupperware in the fridge. Would like to try using beeswax to dip cheeses into.

We've got an old fridge as a cheese cave, with a temperature controller on it. The fridge comes on when the temperature gets above a certain level. It's this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Temperature-Controller-All-purpose-Thermostat-Calibration/dp/B00KYL3W32

Very easy to install and setup.

[Anke]

Yes I find using wax coatings doesn't always produce great results either, my batch size for hard cheeses is normally 10 to 12 ltrs.

Same here, and we get about a 10-12% yield with cheddar, so about 1.5kg cheeses.

Dan - which vacuum packer did you buy and how easy is it to get additional bags?

We got this one about 4 years ago and it's still working well:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-James-Function-Reusable-Domestic/dp/B00JB9K4RA

I use it for curing bacon and ham too, much more reliable and less work than traditional dry or wet curing.

The plastic comes on a roll, and Lidl sell it very cheaply from time to time. Just have to check the width - I bought a very narrow roll once and it wasn't very useful! And we try to re-use the plastic - have found sterilising and drying thoroughly that it does reseal effectively, at least once or twice.

Thank you, I will investigate.