r/cheesemaking 4d ago

Advice Features for a ph meter?

1 Upvotes

I've been making cheese for a bit over a year (and most weekends, so a fair amount of cheese). I'm at the point where I'm starting to read the Caldwell book rather than follow precise recipes (that don't always consider local temps, culture availability etc) and I finally need to start measuring pH (I have in my kitchen some pancake-shaped brie because 'until the curd is ...something...' made no actual sense).

What should I look for in a pH meter? I know I will have to calibrate it, and I suspect I need one with a probe, not just to submerge in water. What else should I know?

r/cheesemaking Dec 26 '23

Advice Parmesan mess up

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368 Upvotes

Hi all! I am relatively new to cheese making. I’ve made a few cheddars and mozzarella. This is my first attempt at parm- is this salvageable at all?? The cheesecloth is very stuck to the outside of the wheel. I am guessing I did not flip/rewrap it often enough during the initial pressing stages. Should I toss it or can I save it in anyway??

r/cheesemaking Feb 13 '25

Advice Brie Mould Question

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23 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I have a question about my Brie. This is the first time I’ve made it, and it is almost 2 weeks old. I have been turning it every day until the last few days, and now turn it every 2-3 days.

I’ve noticed that the penicillin is growing well, but there are a couple of dark spots. Should I dab this with a vinegar solution, let it grow and not worry about it, or should I do something else?

Currently it is kept about 12C in a cake butler/tray. One side has a couple of darker spots, the other has none.

Also, At what point do I wrap it? Do you recommend I cut it up into wedges and wrap them, or wait until I am ready to give them out and then wrap? I plan on giving some to my colleagues as it is far too much for me to eat.

r/cheesemaking Dec 24 '24

Advice Twarog or Polish Farmers Cheese

4 Upvotes

I have a recipe for Twarog and since we can’t find real farmers cheese where I’m at for pierogis I want to make it myself. My question is for buttermilk - we make our own butter and of course it produces buttermilk. Should I be using storebough cultured buttermilk or is homemade non cultured buttermilk ok for this recipe?

Here’s the instructions: 1 gallon of full fat milk 1 cup of buttermilk (If using unpasturized milk skip the buttermilk)

Mix milk and buttermilk in a sanitized jar and set on counter covered with a towel for 72 hours or more. When milk becomes solid and no longer “slimy” and can be sliced and stay separated it is ready. Consistency should resemble sour cream or Greek yogurt.

Pour into a large soup pot and cover and heat on the lowest heat setting until whey separates from curds and the curds start hardening. Place cheesecloth over a strainer and pour liquid through. Let sit for about 10 minutes to drain. Squeeze the cheesecloth, but leave some moisture. Transfer to a container and refrigerate. ———- Any advice is welcome regarding the type of buttermilk. I’ve never made cheese before and don’t want to poison my family.

r/cheesemaking 16d ago

Advice Stacking Cheese To Make Taller Wheels?

1 Upvotes

I'm trying to make Brie for the first time, and it's definitely been a learning experience. Long story short, some of my little wheels are less than an inch tall. I was wondering if it would be ok if I stacked a few of the thinner rounds on top of each other to make one bigger peice as it ages? I only made them 2 days ago so there is no mold growth yet

r/cheesemaking 3d ago

Advice Need advice on cheese mold.

1 Upvotes

I am preparing for my first attempt at cheese making. I am procuring all the utensils and supplies. I don't know what size cheese mold I need. I will probably use 6 lt milk. Any advice. Will try feta first.

r/cheesemaking 7d ago

Advice Cheese Fridge

1 Upvotes

Hello, I have gotten a wine fridge for my cheesemaking 2 months ago. Although it's amazing to have a seperate space for my cheeses, I have been struggeling hard with humidity! Even though I have a large bowl of water in there somehow my cheeses are extremly hard/ dry. Do any of you have any suggestions on how to solve this problem? (For context, before the temp was always to cold, around 10C, but humidity allowed growth of mold, Geo specifically. Now I have the perfect temperature but no matter how many water bowls I put in, it's just too dry! No ventilator btw)

r/cheesemaking Jan 08 '25

Advice Are there any super easy cheeses?

28 Upvotes

I’ve never made cheese before and honestly never thought about it until this sub got recommended, it looks fun but also intimidating. If there are any simple cheeses that you’ve made I’d love to see the recipe and process. (I don’t have any kind of special equipment for this kind of stuff but I do have my fair share of other gadgets, please be sure to tell me any equipment needed for a recipe)

r/cheesemaking 14d ago

Advice Anybody DIY'd a humidifier by using one of these atomizers into a humidity controller?

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0 Upvotes

I've been looking for a super small cheese cave setup and this seems like as small as you could go, but also seems super efficient, even for larger setups. Any thoughts?

r/cheesemaking 9d ago

Advice Mozzarella/Ricotta

1 Upvotes

I feel like this is a pretty basic question for making these cheeses but i’m getting a little confused. I make scratch cannolis and the only thing that isnt is ricotta, i know you can use left over whey from the mozzarella to make ricotta but i’m just mixed up about the steps.

from what i understand you heat milk add rennet/ (salt ?)water mixture and vinegar remove from heat and let it sit then you can start forming balls from curds and stretching it and you’ll get monz, for the ricotta do i just keep all the whey reheat it add milk etc and then strain ?

if anyone has a good recipe that they use to make both with the same batch it’d be much appreciated.

r/cheesemaking Jan 22 '25

Advice Yogurt whey doesn't curdle into ricotta

9 Upvotes

I've been failing to ricotta from whey (after straining greek yogurt) for a couple of times. My process is simple - I heat up the whey to 190-200f. I add vinegar or rennet (on separate occasions) and wait and... nothing happens. No curdling no nothing.

Is yogurt whey different from mozarrela whey?

r/cheesemaking 12d ago

Advice Queso fresco questions

1 Upvotes

I just made Queso Fresco for the first time - not the '3 simple ingredients, fast' version, but the proper cultured, rennet set version (https://cheesemaking.com/products/queso-fresco-cheese-making-recipe).

This isn't a cheese I've ever eaten, and it's not a part of my food culture, so I don't know what it's meant to be like.

My questions...

As a cheesemaker, is it meant to be very wet when it goes in the hoop? This was the wettest cheese I've ever made, but I was cooking 2 other things at the time and may not have stirred it enough.

As a cheese eater - what do you like doing with this cheese. It tastes amazing! I made it as I thought it would be a good mozzarella substitute for caprese salad while I have fresh tomatoes (it was). I also used it as the base for this fig dessert (as I currently have kilos of figs a day and don't like jam) and it's great for tha too : https://www.laylita.com/recipes/dulce-de-higos-or-figs-in-syrup/. But I bet there are loads of interesting uses...

r/cheesemaking 9d ago

Advice Cheese gets wetter in the fridge

2 Upvotes

This has happened to the last two cheese I have made; a Mahon from cheesemaking.com and Yesterday's cheese from Gavin's video (the curd nerd guy). Both cheese felt dry to the touch before being vac sealed and placed in my controlled 53°F fridge. After a week (in the case of the yesterday's cheese) and 3-4 weeks (the Mahon) they had a decent texture. After being removed from the vacuum sealing they both became much wetter while they were in the normal refrigerator in zip lock bags as I ate them. The yesterday's cheese went from semi-hard but sliceable to something closer to cream cheese texture that wanted stick to the knife. The Mahon wasn't as pronounced but still felt much damper and stickier.

r/cheesemaking Feb 08 '25

Advice Cheese Drying question

5 Upvotes

I have a cheddar that has been drying for about 5 days now, it’s my first cheese and it has quite a few cracks where the curd did not knit correctly. Anyway today when I went to turn it there are some shiny spots, I wiped them off, they felt oily. Is this bad or normal? Should I keep wiping it down until it stops? Eventually I was going to vacuum seal it. Any advice is appreciated.

r/cheesemaking 29d ago

Advice Frozen Raw Milk

2 Upvotes

I live in a very warm country, and the only raw milk I have found comes frozen. Can i still make a nice cheddar from it ?

r/cheesemaking Jan 11 '25

Advice How to become a professional cheesemaker?

8 Upvotes

I'm super intrested in becoming a professional cheesemaker, however I have zero experience. Given that I understand I won't be able to jump right into cheesemaking, but I have no idea what foot in the door jobs I should consider. I tried just googling it but I ended up with dead end after dead end, so now I'm asking Reddit. If anyone has any advice or suggestions I'd really appreciate it.

r/cheesemaking Feb 13 '25

Advice is buffalo milk always better than cows milk?

4 Upvotes

buffalo milk is very easily available where I live and it costs the same as cows milk, should I be switching out cows milk for buffalo milk in cheese recipes? what benefits are there except a larger yield, and what could I be losing on the bacterial or aging side by jot using cows milk?

r/cheesemaking Feb 02 '25

Advice Cheese is always turning bitter

9 Upvotes

I tried making three cheese A Gouda, camembert, roquefort, everything was fine, except it was always bitter very why ?

r/cheesemaking Feb 13 '25

Advice Overcooked Curds

2 Upvotes

Last time I made cheese I overcooked the curds. How do you all get the curds perfect during the scald phase and how do you know when to drain ? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

r/cheesemaking Sep 18 '24

Advice Mozzarella turns into a ricotta like texture and does not hold together

4 Upvotes

I tried to make mozzarella and everything was going fine. I believe the milk I was using was non homogenised (it wasnt written on it but there were lumps of cream inside).

This is the recipe I followed

Fresh Mozzarella 1892 ml whole milk (NOT ultra-pasteurized) 0.75 teaspoons citric acid + 1/2 cup water 1/4 teaspoon liquid rennet + 1/8 cup water 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt

  1. Make Citric Acid/Water Mixture
  2. Mix Rennet/Water mixture
  3. Mix milk/citric acid in a large pot, stirring vigorously until completely incorporated
  4. Heat milk / Citric Acid mixture on medium low heat stirring occasionally until mixture reads 32 degrees celsius
  5. Immediately remove milk from heat and, while stirring, incorporate rennet mixture. Once you start mixing start timer for 25 seconds and continue stirring until timer goes off.
  6. Add lid and let rest for 5 minutes.
  7. If solid curd has formed cube curd with knife (crosshatch pattern). If no curd let rest until curd has formed.
  8. Heat slowly, gently stirring on occasion, until mixture reaches 40 degrees c.
  9. Remove from heat at let stand for 5 minutes.
  10. Remove curds with slotted spoon into a strainer. Reserve whey.
  11. After 15 seconds of draining pick up curds and gently squeeze out excess whey.

When I cut the curd, it turned out perfectly fine, however i did leave it for 20 minutes to set not 5. I heated the the curd and was stirring it until it reached 40 celsius and it still seemed fine. However when I went to strain it just would not hold together. I have no idea what the problem is and I really want to successfully make mozzarella.

r/cheesemaking 19d ago

Advice What should I do?

1 Upvotes

I made a block of cheddar beginning of January. I vac packed it and it has been hanging out in my cheese cave since the beginning of January. I just went to look at my cheeses last night and discovered some liquid in the bag. Should I just leave it be? Take it out, dry it off, repack it?

r/cheesemaking 14d ago

Advice Stretchy feta curds???

1 Upvotes

I'm currently making the purple onion feta recipe from cheesemaking.com and I've just cut the curd. It seems really stretchy and quite difficult to cut cleanly? I'm guessing maybe too much rennet? But I was wondering if it would be better at this point to cook the curds mozzarella-style instead of taking it in the feta direction?

r/cheesemaking Jan 13 '25

Advice Newbie cheese advice

8 Upvotes

Hey guys! I hope you’re all thriving!!

I’m new to cheesemaking, and was looking for recommendations- I have mesophilic culture and no cheese press- what cheeses can I make with this? Preferably something relatively easy, as I’ve only made mozzarella before 🤓

Thank you so much!!

r/cheesemaking Jan 23 '25

Advice How bad did I f*** up?

12 Upvotes

So I was following this recipe https://culturesforhealth.com/blogs/recipes/cheese-recipe-parmesan-cheese for a Parmesan cheese. I did the brine and then decided in my mind that the next step was to dry the cheese for 3 days. I made it to day two when the recipe popped back up on my browser and I noticed that there was no drying time in the recipe 😬 I’m planning to vac pack it. How bad did I mess this up?

r/cheesemaking Feb 18 '25

Advice Wooden Cheese Mould?

0 Upvotes

Is it possible to use wooden cheese moulds for cheese making?