Sanitizing! ...I read about cheese making stressing the importance of cleanliness and sanitization. I know that one way to ensure this is through steam or boiling. I was wondering if you knew of any powdered sanitizers available that would be appropriate for the home market. I've made beer before at home and have used sanitizing powders in that process, but I've read very little about such a process for home cheese making.
The simple solution is clorox... 1 Tbs /Gal will be your basic sanitizer ..
Since I am also a beer maker I use iodophor as well ... BUT most health inspectors will only accept clorox
Pasteurizers ...I'm a beginner in cheese making and am now learning about pasteurization. Is it a requirement if I want to sell my cheese? What type of pasteurizer would you recommend and why?
You will need to pasteurize anything being sold before 60 days according to Federal law Your state Inspector will set the rules you need to go by and this will determine the type of pasteurizer you need. We do sell pasteurizers on our web site but only for small milk volume .. 2 Gal batch
I am finding it hard to stop the milk from overheating. Each time I have tried the milk has curdled.
Use a water bath and make sure you turn the heat off well before your temp is reached In handling milk, you need to be patient since the various components and enzymes in milk are sensitive to very small changes
How does one maintain the 100 degree temp in the sink without causing large changes in the volume of the water? Is it better to provide the indirect heat by keeping the pot containing the curds in a larger pot of water?
You can easily keep the proper bath temp by removing some of the cooled water before adding fresh hot and always use boiling water You will find it much simpler to keep the water temp constant by using the pot within a pot of tempered water
Altitude and boiling temp! I've recently moved to Colorado where water boils at 201F instead of 212F. How will this affect cheese making temps, especially those that you bring to 200+ at sea level.
No cheese I have made has come close to boiling, we are dealing with active life forms here. If you are thinking in terms of Ricotta make sure you keep the temp in the 185 range and that is plenty hot enough You should have no problems making cheese at altitude. Just think about the mountain cheese of Europe being made at hi elev for hundreds of years
Cheese yield! I am interested in making cheese at home. I would like to know how much cheese by weight a gallon of milk makes. I realize that it probably varies depending on the softness or hardness of the cheese. So, let us choose two; Cheddar, which is a hard cheese, and swiss, which is softer. How much cheese do we get for a gallon of milk?
Your yield will be about a pound per gallon the cheddar/swiss comparison is not quite accurate, since they are both considered to be hard cheeses
Differences in Recipes? I noticed that most of the cheese recipes have the exact same ingredients so how can they taste different.
It is the small variances and timings that make cheese very different. Since there are many steps in making cheese each one of
these can be used to make the cheese w/ a different quality.
I have made 2 cheeses using the same recipe but 2 different milk sources. They both had very different moisture and texture characters even though I made the exactly the same
You have brought up a very good point here by making the same recipe using 2 different milks and observing the differences in the final cheese.
It will take a very experienced cheese person to make the same cheese from these 2 milks.
The differences in protein, fat, etc. will cause a cheese to set firmer, drain slower, develop more acidity etc.
The process can be controlled by altering the amount of culture and ripening time , amount of rennet, how large or small you cut, the rate time at which you heat it, how much you stir it, and when you remove the whey.. All of these will determine the final cheese.
So .. You should not be surprised by the outcome. Enjoy the process and in time you will become a better cheese maker. I can see you are making the observations that will move you along that path.