[confusedwhippet]

Anyone out there making there own cheese? Just looking to try my own and was wondering if there is anything I should be aware of

thanks

[dan_golding]

Hi there,

I have literally just started making my own cheese after being shown how to do it last Thursday.

I did buy a fantastic book from Amazon about making cheese and it's got the recipes for every cheese you can think of (incl cheddar, parmesan etc)

I've started making goats cheese as there is a local goat farmer here and I can get 5 litres of goats milk for less than €3

My "training cheese" from last week is now edible (it only takes 7 days) and it is absolutely amazing - so much so, that before coming on to this forum tonight, I've been on ebay and other sites looking for my own cheese press!!!

[Wildman]

Hi Dan, What was the name of the book you got?

[Still Dreaming]

I can recommend Moorlands Cheesemakers www.cheesemaking.co.uk .  They sell starter kits for hard and soft cheese right up to boxes of 50 packs of culture and 5 litre containers of rennet.  We've used the soft cheese starter kit and it comes with comprehensive instructions and the cheese produced was fantastic.  But then it always is when you make it yourself! 

[Tweedle]

I made an attempt at making my own cheese last year. I haven’t had a chance to get back to it as we moved onto our acreage and there always seems to be something to fix or replace or.....

   I think it went pretty well, but I learned a lot 1st and foremost make sure everything you use is sterilized... other wise months down the road you will have to toss it out. I never bought any of the fancy cheese presses I just made my own out of pvc pipe coffee cans and some scrap wood.  I got a couple books but the best information I found was from a website. FANKHAUSER'S CHEESE PAGE http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html  But being me I refused to start at the beginning and jumped right in with cheddar and blue cheese. Then on to mozzarella.

This is where the story gets a little scued. The mozzarella came out beautifully, both me and my wife agree on this point. The cheddar came out ok but next time I would age it longer as I love good sharp cheddar.  The kids loved it in there Mac and cheese.
now... the blue cheese is where the controversy comes in.  I purchased the blue cheese inoculation from a reputable source and made it following the directions. When it was ready I thought it smelled wonderful but I could not convince anyone in the family to try it so I dove in. The next day and for the following two weeks I was doubled over in agony had a fever of 106 C. and was shaking and could not keep food down and only small amounts of water.

I would like to state here that the cheese and the sickness had nothing to do with each other, and my wife (who is poking me in the ribs right now) would like me to say that it was the cheese. By the time I was able to leave my bed the cheese and all my instruments for producing the stuff had disappeared. My wife is convinced that is was the dreaded cheese. Lol we will never know as I don’t like doctors and refuse to go unless absolutely necessary.

So all in all it is a lot of fun and a truly delicious endeavor just make sure you clean sterilize you stuff. I have been secretly amassing my cheese making supplies again and will be giving it a go again very soon.