Home Cheese Making

I love cheese. I love it so much that I learned to make it for myself. The process had a little bit of a learning curve to it but once i figured out what the milk was doing and what each step was supposed to look like, I starting really having fun.

So, how does one go about making some cheese? First step is to get yourself some fresh cows milk. It has to be fresh because the process of homogenization ruins the butterfat and prevents the cream from separating. You just can't make a good cheese with store bought milk. Pasteurizing your milk for safety will not damage your end results in any way and give you a little piece of mind, not to mention ensures the safety of your end product.

What else do you need to make cheese besides milk? A good digital thermometer, some cheese culture, some rennet and a cheese press. I'll tell you how to whip up an inexpensive do it yourself press at the end of this post...

Now, you have fresh milk. 2 gallons is what you need for this recipe. it's Colby cheese and is it ever good.

Put your 2 gallons of milk in a stainless steel stock pot. You don't want to use aluminum, it reacts with the culture and rennet. Enamel pots and all clad both work if you don't have stainless steel. Using your digital thermometer and a low to medium heat, slowly warm your milk up to 86 degrees. Add your culture(measurements differ from culture to culture) and mix thoroughly, top stirring as well as full stirring to make sure the cream is well mixed with the culture. Cover the pot and allow to sit at 86 degrees for 1 hour.

Now stir your cultured milk well, making sure your milk is still 86 degrees. Add your diluted rennet(per instructions for rennet type) making sure to mix well for even distribution. Cover the pot and allow the rennet to set for 30 minutes or until curds give a clean break.

Cut the curd into 3/8" cubes and stir gently. let the curd sit for 5 minutes.

Heat the curds by 2 degrees every 5 minutes until the temperature reaches 102 degrees. Stir gently to keep the curds from matting. Maintain the curds at 102 degrees for 30 minutes while stirring gently.

Drain off the whey to the level of the curds. While stirring the curds, add cold water to them until the temperature reaches 80 degrees. At 80 degrees, allow the curds to sit for 15 minutes. Stir every few minutes to prevent matting.

Pour the curds gently into a colander and allow to drain for 20 minutes.

Break the curds into thumbnail sized chinks and add 2 tablespoons of cheese salt or fine ground sea salt. Mix into the curds gently but thoroughly.

Place your curds into a cheesecloth lined mold and press at 20lbs of pressure for 20 minutes.

Remove the cheesecloth, turn the cheese over and redress, press at 30lbs of pressure for 20 minutes.

Repeat the redressing process but press the cheese at 40lbs for 1 hour.

Again, redress the cheese and press at 50lbs for 12 hours.

Remove the cheese from the press and allow to air dry a rind at room temperature for several days or until the wheel is dry to the touch on both sides. Turn the wheel a few times a day during drying to ensure it dries evenly. Once the cheese is dry to the touch you may wax it for aging. At least 2 layers of cheese wax applied with a non plastic (plastic bristles melt)bristled pastry brush.

This cheese is also very good eaten fresh. I allow my cheese to dry for 2 or 3 days depending on the humidity and place it in the fridge for another 3 days to develop a smooth flavor and eat it. Cheese here almost never makes it to the waxed stage.

the cheese press is a simple construction. I used 1" thick, 12" wide pieces of board cut 12" long and simply drilled holes in each corner. I used stainless steel all thread rod with washers and nuts top and bottom to hold the press more steady. I used pvc pipe for the cheese mold, cut a wooden chaser to fit inside it and sit on top of the cheese wheel, a 3" piece of pvc to put the pressure on the cheese wheel. The top piece of wood is held steady by washers and nuts on top. Lightly set against the wood so as not to change the amount of pressure the bricks on top are applying. I learned quick that without the nuts on top of the board, the cheese did not press evenly and caused the bricks to shift and fall off. The all-thread was not enough to hold it on it's own.

This isn't a perfect design and I have tons of ideas on how to improve it but it is an effective press and is easy and cheap to whip together. A good starter press without having to put a whole bunch of money into it and still have good cheese. I am actually still using this press plus another one just like it.

To achieve the weight I need for each stage of pressing, I use a combination of bricks and weight bench weights. The free moving top allows the weight to be evenly distributed and it always stays the same as the cheese presses. Just don't forget to move the top nuts down every now and then or your bricks will fall off!

You will also need some sort of catch pan under your cheese press. As the cheese curds presses down into a cheese wheel, it expels whey. I use an old lipped cookie sheet under mine. Use one that you won't be using for baking anymore as the whey is actually quite acidic and will rust up the cookie sheet and eat the non stick coating off.

Oh, I almost forgot... I can't help you find fresh from the cow milk near you but I can help you find the cultures and rennet to make cheese with. Visit Steve at the cheesemaker.com. the link is on the right sidebar!

Another Sweet Kick

I had a rough night, didn't sleep real well expecting the employment call to come in today. It didn't, I don't know why right now. So, I spent the late morning brushing horses and thinking about what I was going to make for supper. I decided on making a meal with some of the venison and beef scraps I have in the freezer. So, while that was thawing out, I ground up some wheat, some corn and a handful of oats to make some fresh cornbread and a couple sweet breads. I dug out some of the dehydrated bannanas, ground them up for some nanner bread, pulled out some dehydrated blueberries and got them soaking and worked up my batters. I should have checked how many eggs I had before I started, now I don't have enough for breakfast. Guess I'll have to make pancakes. As you can see, the sweet breads don't hardly get cooled off before they get sampled around here. I jumped the gun on the cornbread and pulled it out of the pan before it cooled completely and it broke on me. Oh well, it still tastes good.

Now I've got my meat scraps all cut up and browned in a pan of olive oil and chopped onion. When the meat was nice and browned, I pulled the meat out, added a couple cups of beef stock and a couple shots of lemon jiuce, brought that to a boil and poured it over the meat to simmer for a while on the stove. After about an hour of simmering, I'll add some home grown barley and parsley to it. when the barley softens up, I'll serve it over flour dumplings and home made egg noodles.

Lazy Sunday

I got to fiddling around today and ended up grinding a half a barrel of feed for the chickens. While I was doing that, half paying attention and reading Mother Earth magazine, a mouse ran across my hand! So, I spent the rest of the grinding time vaccuming in the grinding room and cleaning up the mess I found from a couple evil little mice. It seems, they found themselves a nice home in the futon mattress I had folded up under the work bench. they chewed half the stuffing out of it and generally made a mouse mess. There's a cat in the grinding room now. Hopefully the cat will catch the mice right away and leave the chick in the brooder tank alone.

It's been very cold here, the ground is pretty hard and the horse paddock is a lumpy mess. the old mare has been in the barn for more than a week and my paint mare just went in tonite. The little paint mare has been acting a little peculiar so in the barn she goes. Can't have her sick on me out in the rough, cold paddock. Plus, inside, I can keep an eye on how much she's eating and drinking. That will help me to know if she's really sick or just moody.

Not much else has been going on around the farm, just the every day cooking and bread baking. Too cold to get much done outside and no work yet. We thought we had a cattle sorting job this weekend, it would have given us a little more fuel money. The man did not feel well so the cattle sorting job got postponed until later this coming week. That's alright tho, it just gives me more time to bake a pie or some cookies!

It's a New year, New Start

Well, here it is, Happy New Year. As we do every year, we stayed at home and I cooked, we played games together and rang in the New year as a family. Apparently, we were disturbing the peaceful sleep of our kittens...

Everything is frozen outside so morning chores took just a little bit longer. It appears that my cute and cuddly stock dog has decided to entertain herself by chasing my ducks. Bad dog. I have not decided how to break her of this new habit yet since it's instinct for her to chase and herd and she's obviously bored.

Over at my pal M.D. Creekmores site, The Survivalist Blog-Daily Survival Blog, M.D. has written an E-Book which he is sharing for free. I have already downloaded myself a copy and read thru it. Well done M.D. and thank you for the gift! Visit M.D. Creekmore and download a copy of his book for yourself. It covers water, food, basic gear, big out bags, survival guns, urban survival, medical and has a whole section on resources.

On this day, I have been filled with hope (and tears of gratitude) for this new year by the kindness of a few readers. The glory goes to God for sending me such Angels in my time of desperate need. God Bless you and keep you.

It's official, there's just 45 days until I can safely start my seeds. I am looking forward to this new season with much anticipation. I have several things I'm going to try for the first time including growing some cotton and wolfberries(the Goji). I look forward to this year with much anticipation and excitement. Think of all the cool pictures I'll have!

I have lots of chores to do today, grinding corn and setting out some warm feed for the chickens to help them lay eggs in this cold weather. I learned that tip from a chicken feeding thread over that the American Preppers Forum. there's a link on the sidebar for it. Cool place with lots of useful information on it. Plus, it's so cold out, the rabbit water bottles are freezing a couple times a day. They need fresh water to help them keep warm like all critters do. So, it's water bottle patrol until this cold snap breaks.

Have a wonderful day!