Need Help With Cheesemaking

[pamela]

ok, going to check milk now.

ok, I'm back.
it says homogenized pasteurized grade A whole milk.

I've made the farmer and ricotta cheese from it, and yogurt, but not hard cheese yet.
both times I've tried cheese with rennet have been failures.

p.s.
just wanted to say thank you for trying to help me make cheese.
You guys have been a big help and it is appreciated.

[unrepentantcowboy]

My wife Leah has been making mozarella for some time now, but we've yet to try an aged cheese. Too hot during summer months to cure the cheese.

I need a storage device that'll maintain a 55 degree temperature.

I thought about building a well insulated small room and setting it up with an airconditioner, but I'm afraid the energy costs would be too high.

Someone told me there's a way to convert a refridgerator so that it will cool to the proper temperature.

I think a root celler would stay fairly close to temperature for aging in winter months, so I may try that.

I'm told that raw milk cheese must be aged a certain amount of time before it's safe to eat (either eat it fresh or age it for a minimum period of 60 days).

[Dystopia]

Hi Newbie here, just wanted to add my 2 cents, I've been using Ricki's book for a couple months and gave up on the tables and got some liquid rennet also found a great blog http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2009/10/homemade-cheese-queso-blanco.html and she describes her version of queso blanco plus has some great recipes if your into Tex-Mex

[commonsensical]

Pamela, I didn't see this in your list of the steps you followed (from D. Fankhauser's page). Might be what your cheese-making attempts were missing?

"For store-bought milk, because Pasteurization removes calcium from solution, you may need to add a small amount of calcium chloride to aid coagulation and form curd which does not fall apart when you stir it. The desired concentration of CaCl2 is usually specified as 0.02%. This would mean adding 3.6g CaCl2 to 5 gal of pasteurized milk. My measurements indicate that 3.6g of crystals = ~3/4 tsp. Thus 3/4 tsp crystals/5 gal = ~0.02%. You should completely dissolve the CaCl2 in about 1/4 cup water before adding it to the milk. Add it slowly with thorough stirring."


http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese_course/Cheese_course.htm

[pamela]

oh heck!!
thanks, I'll bet that's it!
I have not had cheesemaking success! I was about to call it quits but will try and find some calcium like that and give it a try!
thanks!!!

[commonsensical]

Don't feel bad...I'm a cheesemaking chicken, and I have my own cow! A jersey, no less!!

It's far easier to sell all the milk she produces than to attempt cheesmaking (for me at least), but I'm determined to try again when my new cow freshens in Dec/Jan and my milk supply increases.
 

[pamela]

Lord, what I wouldn't give to have me a little milk cow!
I miss milking, it was one of my favorite chores. If I lived close to you, I'd help you with your milking chores! 

[unrepentantcowboy]

I got a third cow. Milking two Jerseys once a day, a gaggle of calves get the rest.

Leah has been making farmhouse chedder for almost two months now. We have two cheese presses and at least fifty pounds or better ageing.

We should know how it turns out in about two weeks.

I like the sharp stuff best, so it'll be a few more months before we know how that works out.

[justanouveaufarmer]

I got a third cow. Milking two Jerseys once a day, a gaggle of calves get the rest.

URC, can you expound on how you're doing this?  Either here or on a new thread?  I'd like to hear the details, like how many calves you have on them and do you rotate the 3 cows or milk the same 2.  I'd like to do the same thing only with just 2 cows. 

Thanks!

Justy

[unrepentantcowboy]

The cows I have are good about taking on calves. I seperate the calves from the cows every evening. I milk in the morning and then let the calves and the cows run together during the day. One of the cows makes only a small amount of milk--it's been awhile since she calved and she didn't take when exposed to a bull (before I got her) so I'm letting one orphan calf get her morning milk as well.

I recently bought a freezer and an external thermostat to cure the cheese. You plug the thermostat into the socket, set the temperature and run a probe into the freezer, then plug the freezer into the external thermostat. Keeps the freezer at 55 degrees.

If you live in the right climate, a properly built root cellar would probably stay at the appropriate temperature for curing cheese. Might have trouble in these parts during the summer heat.

[culinarius]

Thank you Goatlady, and everybody else.  Cheese is one of my very favorite foods, but I don't have it as often as I'd like because I don't care for processed or factory cheese and good artisan cheese is expensive.  I've always been hesitant to make cheese, but now due to this thread I'm much better informed, less intimated and really pumped to make  Goatlady's cheddar.  Getting raw milk is not a problem for me (I drink it daily).
I'm so excited.  BTW do I need to buy a cheese press, or will household utensils make do (and how would I go about that)?

[Wishful]

You will need some sort of press for hard cheese.  Here is just one of many links to a home made press:  http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese_5_gallons/Cheese_press/PRESS_SETUP_00.htm.  Have fun with it!

[culinarius]

Thank you.  I have all the stuff too!

[motherearth]

So,
How about an update from Pamela and URC ?!

 

[unrepentantcowboy]

Leah makes cheese just about every day. We've sampled the first of the aged cheese. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but I think it was because I didn't have a place to keep the stuff at a steady temperature for aging. That has been remedied.

Making fresh cheese is relatively easy. Making aged, hard cheese is an art. Most that do it well make one kind and one kind only and have worked a long time to refine the process.