Making

Cheese Making Homepage

Cheese Making Steps

Basic Principles
Milk:
◦ Types
◦ Processing
◦ Yield
◦ Products
Acidification
Starter Cultures:
◦ Function
◦ Manufacturers
◦ Manufactured Products
Lipases
Colourants:
◦ General
◦ Annatto
Acids
Coagulation
Calcium Chloride
Rennets:
◦ Animal
◦ Plant
◦ Microbial
◦ Fermentation
Milk Additives
Curd:
◦ When to Cut
◦ How to Cut
Salt:
◦ Function
◦ Types
◦ Salting Curds
◦ Salting Rinds
Pressing Curds
Brine:
◦ Making
◦ Using
◦ Maintaining
◦ For Preserving
Turning Cheeses
Ripening
Rinds:
◦ General
◦ Natural
◦ Ash

Defects

General:
◦ Coagulation
◦ Surface
◦ Body
◦ Aroma
◦ Flavour
Specific:
◦ Blue Mould
◦ White Mould

Equipment

Books
Cheese Caves
Cheesecloths
Hygrometers
Mats
Miscellaneous
pH Meters
Scales
Vats (Stockpots)
Thermometers

Salt Types

This page is divided into the following topics:

1. General
2. Iodized Salt
3. Recommended Salts

General

Chemically there are many types of salts, the ones used in cheese making are common household eating salt, a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl) and is essential for human and animal life. Salt is usually produced from sea water or ancient seabed rock deposits and manufactured into different forms:

• Raw sea salt which is bitter due to magnesium and calcium compounds and thus is rarely eaten. These are common in bathing additives and cosmetic products.
• Refined salt such as table salt which is ~99% Sodium Chloride.
• Refined iodized salt where iodine is added to help reduce the chance of iodine deficiency in humans.

Iodized Salt

Many table type salt, especially in western countries contains iodine to prevent iodine deficient diseases in humans. However, iodine will retard or kill the growth of the cultures in cheese and thus should not be used in cheese making.

Recommended Salt

Popular retail grocery store non-iodized salts that can be used in cheese making are:

• Canning or Pickling Salt.
• Kosher Salt, normally large crystals.
• Cheese Salt, lighter flat crystals rather than the dense sand type crystals found in table salt. Flaked salt is preferred for direct salting cheeses as it melts easily and does not easily bind together, thus assuring even distribution throughout the cheese. Flaked "Cheese" salt is often not readily available in grocery stores. Note, there is no advantage to this salt when used to make brine.