Beginning

General Questions    Procedures    Measuring Acidity

General Questions

Cheese is produced from milk due to the activity of special dairy bacteria and the action of rennet. These act on the proteins in milk, causing them to coalesce into a gel-like curd which is the beginning of cheese. Cheese may be made from almost any kind of milk – goat’s, sheep’s, powdered dry, skim, 1%, 2%, etc.. (See Milk.)

1. How is home cheese making different from commercial?

Home cheese making differs from commercial cheese making in scale and in the need to produce exact duplicate products day after day for retail markets. Commercial cheese makers employ the same raw ingredients as home cheese makers, but their knowledge and experience is much higher. (Also, they must follow local certifications and regulations.) If you wish to sell your cheese, we suggest you start making simple cheeses, do as much reading as you can and visit cheese makers in your area.

2. How do I start making cheese?

We always encourage people to start with a small investment and proceed from there. For this we have developed several kits for the home cheese maker. Our Gourmet Home Dairy Kit is the absolutely easiest way to start because the cheeses are all soft, requiring no aging. Also, our Fresh Goat Cheese Kit has very simple recipes for cheeses which do not require aging.

The popular Basic Hard Cheese Kit is a good way to start if you would like to begin making hard cheeses. (You will need to order wax for the aged cheeses. One or two pounds will be enough to get you started.) This kit contains a mold for forming the cheese. All you need to do is find a jar lid or plate that fits inside and a little weight to place on top. (We do not recommend that beginners buy a press until they have made a few batches this way.)

Value-wise, our best deal is the Starter Special, which includes the Mozzarella Kit, our book, Home Cheese Making, and a DVD of Ricki teaching Cheesemaking 101. If you are a person who learns better by seeing things demonstrated than by reading about them, the DVD will help you enormously. In it, Ricki teaches her beginner workshop which always sells out (at $150 per person).

You will find free recipes and newsletters with loads of information on our website, as well as most of the equipment you will need. For those who really want to jump-start making cheese at home, we offer beginner and advanced workshops.

3. Is there anything perishable in the Starter Special?

No. The Mozzarella Kit has ingredients with a very long shelf life. The rennet is in tablet form and will last at room temperature for up to a year. If you put the tablets in the freezer, they will last up to 5 years.

4. Can your products be shipped overseas (2 or 3 weeks to a hot climate)?

Yes. We have been shipping to all parts of the world for over 30 years. We have tested our cultures and rennet by storing them at room temperature for up to two months and they are fine. Two or three weeks in a warmer climate is comparable to this, and they will survive. However, if you are shipping to a very hot climate, it is always safest to pay extra for faster shipping.

5. I live in a country with limited refrigeration. Can I make cheese?

Of course. Cheese has been made for centuries in every corner of the globe.  If you have limited refrigeration, we would suggest you stay with some of the fresh cheeses and most specifically the Mediterranean or Central and South American style cheeses. They depend on high acid and/or salt for their preservation and they are consumed quickly as fresh cheese. Examples are Mozzarella, Feta, Queso Fresco, Queso Blanco, etc.

6. I would like to order the Goat Cheese Kit, but I am a vegetarian. Can you switch rennets for me?

Yes. We will be happy to switch the rennet in the Goat Cheese Kit to liquid vegetable rennet. Just remember to use half the amount of rennet called for in the recipes because the vegetable rennet is double-strength.

7. I purchased my kit from a local store, where it wasn’t being kept refrigerated. Are the cultures still good?

Our 30 Minute Mozzarella Kit can be stored for long periods at room temperature with no ill effects. Our other kits will survive up to 2 months at room temperature. We try to explain to our wholesale customers that the kits with the live cultures need to be refrigerated. Most shops keep them cold and replace them as they sell off the shelves. We recommend asking the store what their policy is.

8. Which of your products are for goats and which are for cows?

All of the cultures and supplies we sell can be used with goat’s, sheep’s, or cow’s milk. The same is true for our recipes. Some cheeses are traditionally made with goat’s milk, so we have put them in a separate section of our book (p. 181, Home Cheese Making.)

9. I have noticed some differences between the recipes in my kit and the recipes in your book.

Yes, there are variations in the recipes between our book, our pamphlets and our website. This is something we have had to live with since there is so much variation in the quality of milk, the ingredients and the processes producing similar cheeses. (These are not recipes as in baking.)

Think of this as going to several cheese makers and seeing how differently they all make similar styles of cheese. In the end, you will still get the same delicious product.

The milk you see on your store shelves is quite variable and different milks require slight changes in process. Recently, due to what the milk processors are doing to the milk (high temperature heating), we have added additional steps and tips to some of our recipes. Since we cannot reprint the booklets that often, it is important to check with the website recipes for the latest information.

10. Many of your recipes have the same ingredients in them. What makes the cheeses different?

At first glance, it may seem that different cheeses are made the same way. However, the differences in the cheeses are due to very slight variations in the process. Cheddar and Colby, for example, are very similar as they start out.  However, in the Colby, there is a step where water is added to the curds, causing it to be a cheese with more moisture than Cheddar.

Other factors which determine the outcome of the cheese include the amount of culture, the ripening time , the amount of rennet, the size of the cut curds, the rate time at and which the milk is heated, the length of time stirred, and the way the whey is removed. Minor changes in any of these areas can have a dramatic affect on the final product.

11. Are any of your products Kosher?

We are dedicated to providing Kosher products whenever possible. Unfortunately, there are not too many available to us. However, all of our large culture packs are Kosher as well as most of our mold powders. Our liquid vegetable rennet was Kosher originally, but it was re-packaged without supervision.

12. I live at a high altitude. Will I have to adjust the recipes?

No. Since we are not reaching boiling temperatures, no adjustments are needed.

13. Why can’t I use chlorinated water?

Chlorinated water will stop the enzyme action of the rennet. If you don’t know whether your tap water is chlorinated, call your local water department. If it is chlorinated, you may choose to buy distilled water or spring water, or you may filter your tap water. (Most filters remove 97% of the chlorine from your water, which is enough for cheese making.)

14. Can I make cheese without salt? If not, why do I have to use flake salt?

Our 30 Minute Mozzarella and Ricki’s Whole Milk Ricotta are two cheeses that do not require salt. All of the soft cheeses may be made without salt, also. Salt is added to these simply for flavor.

The hard cheeses and mold-ripened cheeses do require salt. Salt is used in cheese making, not just for flavor, but to slow the bacteria down and prevent overly acidic cheeses. Most cheeses finish with about 1-1.5% salt by weight.

You may use any salt you wish, but be sure to get one where the only ingredient is salt. (Iodized salt will interfere with any bacterial ripening, so we suggest using one that is non-iodized.) Most canning salts qualify. For brines, any non-iodized salt will do.

The difference between our flake salt and any canning salt is the larger crystal size. This ensures that when dry salting, the salt doesn’t dissolve too rapidly.

15. Can I use the cheesecloth they sell at the grocery store?

No. Do not buy the open weave cloth in a grocery store, because after all that good work you have put into your cheese making you will lose it through the large holes in that type of cloth.

We make sure that all of our cloths for draining cheese are finely woven and will protect your curds from going down the drain. Our cheesecloth is used for lining molds and for draining curds during hard cheese making. Our butter muslin is used for draining soft cheese curds.

16. How much cheese can I expect to get from one gallon of milk?

Your yield will be approximately one pound per gallon for the hard cheeses and two pounds per gallon for the soft cheeses. The amount of butterfat in the milk will affect this. Sheep’s milk for example, is 9% butterfat, so the yield is much higher.

17. Can I double or triple your recipes?

Yes. You should be able to increase amounts of culture and rennet proportionately. The times and temperatures should be close to what the recipes call for. Brining time is simply a matter of scale - increase proportionate to cheese volume. (As in life, nothing works perfectly, so you may need to tweak the recipes a bit. We recommend keeping good notes.

18. Can I make cheese with beer & wine in it?

Beer or wine is often used:

1. in washing curds - as in Gouda or Colby cheese. Each curd will take on the color of the wine or beer, as in the stout and porter washed cheeses.

2. in washing the rinds with beer.

3. in making Tomme au Marc where the final cheese is stored in the skins and seeds from wine pressing.

19. Can I make smoked cheeses?

Yes. There is a lot of information about this online. The smoking done for cheese is always a cold smoke. The smoke is usually generated in a separate chamber and then cooled before entering a box with the cheese in it. On the industrial level, the cheese is smoked at 40-50F. At home, it must be kept below 84F, or the butterfat melts and runs out.

For a quick fix, some folks add liquid smoke to the milk when making our 30 Minute Mozzarella. Add 1 or 2 teaspoons per gallon right after adding the citric acid. We don’t recommend doing this with any other cheeses.

20. Can I make whey protein from liquid whey.

Unfortunately, this would be a wasted effort. Even larger cheese makers cannot justify the energy needed to dehydrate the whey. Primarily, it is done by large operations that consolidate whey from many large plants.

1. How do I sanitize?

When making cheese, we are using specific bacterial cultures to ripen our milk. We want to avoid contamination of this milk by unwanted bacteria so that the bacteria we have chosen can do its job.

Surface areas - We recommend using chlorine bleach- one tablespoon mixed with a gallon of water makes a basic sanitizer. Before you begin to make cheese, wipe down your counters with this solution and sterilize your utensils in boiling water for 10 minutes (or run them through the dishwasher on the hottest cycle).

Pots & pans - The residue on your pots is called milk stone, which builds up over time. The best way to find a cleaner for this is to do a search for milk stone remover online. Also if you have an agricultural store nearby, ask them for an acid based detergent for dairy use. Normally, alkaline based dairy cleaners are used to remove fat and proteins but the calcium deposits of milk stone need an acid cleaner. Most dairies use the alkaline cleaner every day and the acid cleaner once a week.

Cheesecloth – Before first using, it is best to hand wash your cheesecloth in cold water with a neutral detergent to get out all the sizing and process debris. This also keeps the proteins from setting. From then on, either hand wash or machine wash in hot water. Make sure you rinse well.

2. How do I maintain my milk at the appropriate temperature for long periods of time?

The kitchen sink is the best choice for this. The easiest way to keep a pot or vat of milk up to temperature is to put it into a sink full of hot water. As the milk begins to warm to target temperature and the bath begins to cool, drain some water from the sink and add some of your boiling water to keep the differential at about 10-15 degrees. Then, as you get within 7-8 degrees of your target, reduce this more. Always keep the final bath 2-3 degrees above the milk temperature.

3. How do I raise the temperature of my milk 2 degrees every 5 minutes?

Temperature control can be a bit of a trick to work out in the beginning. To increase the temperature slowly, add some boiling water to the water bath so that it stays about 5-10 degrees warmer than the milk temperature. Fortunately, this slow heating is only for the first 10-15 minutes. Once the curds have released a good deal of whey, you can heat much faster.

4. How do I calibrate my thermometer?

It is a simple matter to check your thermometer and readjust it. Underneath the head is a nut which can be held with a wrench while you turn the head. This will move the dial.

You can use a medical thermometer as a gauge to check your thermometer. Target a temperature of 90F by bringing a container of water (tap is fine) to this temperature and using this as a comparison to check the cheese making thermometer. If it is a few degrees off, just turn the little nut under the dial to read what the medical thermometer reads. It’s a good idea to do this often (we calibrate ours every month or so.)

Measuring Acidity

1. Why do I need to measure acidity?

The cheese making process is largely a matter of acid development - measuring the initial acid to make sure the milk has not developed too much acidity and then monitoring the rate of acid development during the cheese making process. Most cheeses have a target acid development profile that defines the style. Hence, acid monitoring during the process is a very good idea. This can be done as Titratable Acidity (TA%) or pH.

Home cheese makers do best to measure pH because it is consistent from batch to batch. For further information, see How To: Acid Testing. In our advanced workshops, we cover this extensively. Also, American Farmstead Cheese by Paul Kindstedt will give you greater insight into acid and pH measurements for different cheeses.

2. What is the best way to test pH?

In our book we mention pH papers, but since it was last printed, we have stopped selling them. They became very expensive and our customers had marginal results with them. They are only accurate within a range, and most folks prefer more exact measurements.

We now sell three products for acid testing. The easiest to use is our pH Mini Lab. It comes complete with: meter, 3 calibrating solutions, batteries, a case and instructions. It is the best meter we have found.

The Acid Testing Kit and the Advanced Testing Equipment measure the total acid % via titration (TA). The pH Mini Lab (meter) measures Hydrogen ion activity (pH). We have found that the pH meter is much easier to use and the most accurate.