Cheese making ideas

I thought you all might like to see something I made. Yep, it's a cheese press and it cost a whole bunch less than one you can buy. There's one thing I added that doesn't show in the pictures, I added a washer and nut to each threaded rod on top of the pressing board. I had no problems keeping the board level at low weights, but when I added the 50lbs for the final press, the cheese would randomly shift and throw the bricks off. So, I used the washers and nuts on top of the board to help keep level while it's pressing and keep the pressure on the cheese uniform. I also learned that the cheese will squeeze out the bottom on the cylinder if it isn't wrapped in cheese cloth. Since cheese cloth is so expensive, I'm using unbleached light weight Muslin from the fabric store to drain and wrap my curds in.

I got the parts from the local DIY place and just drilled my holes. I used 4" pipe for the cheese mold, 3" for the presser pipe, cut a slightly smaller than 4" wood circle I cut with a jig saw to press with and the wood is 12"x12"x 1" thick untreated pine.

So, here we go, a low cost cheese press so we can all make cheese! Now all you need is some starter culture and some rennet...

Stay safe and keep prepping!