Hello from the UK

[ukdavid]

Hi
I would just like to say Hello from the UK

We have been making everything from bread to sausages and butter and everything in between for years, except Cheese,

We made our first simple soft cheese last week and are hooked. I am not sure why we have never tried before. But, better late than never, I guess that it just seems to not have caught on here in the UK. There is nowhere within 40 miles of me that has the equipment for sale for me to do it myself. I ended up having to buy it from the net.
We have ordered up a couple of moulds to try making hard cheese (I also have Home cheese making by Ricki Carroll to help me along), starting with Cheddar. So I think I will be needing advice along the road.
 I remember 50 years ago when I first started making bread, it seemed an impossible task and I junked more bread than I ate but now it comes second nature to me now, in fact I teach people how to make it themselves.

Now I am back in the classroom.

David

[Tiarella]

Hi David and welcome.  I am new here too and can say that I think you'll love the amount of support depth of answers you'll find here.  You'll also probably hear that Ricki's book is perhaps not the best because she is often calling for her own culture packets whose contents are rather a mystery.  I think you'll find more accurate recipes on the forum here and also some book recommendations.  her format can be user friendly but there are typos in the ingredient quantities and not much help in choosing cultures if you're not using her packets......which are a lot more expensive than buying commercial artisan cultures.  somewhere on this forum is a list of sources by country.  Have fun!

[ukdavid]

Thank you for your welcome Tiarella

Good tip about the book, I would love any recommendations on good books and I will certainly dig deeper into the forum as a whole.
I will have questions that I will need to ask, in fact I can think of a couple right now. I suspect the answers are somewhere on this forum, I will try to wrinkle them out before asking.

Regards

David

[Tiarella]

Hi David,
Someone once posted that to master a particular cheese it is recommended that one read all the threads on that variety, all the way back.....to learn from others' mistakes.  An overwhelming thought to accomplish in entirety but certainly possible to do partly at least.  There are 22 pages of posts on one thread on making Tommes! Some good stuff there.  I haven't had much luck with the forum search engine finding me what I need but google search will pull up forum posts if I search there and that's easier......allows me to search with longer, more detailed phrases.

The two books I've seen mentioned most are "Artisan Cheese Making at Home by Mary Karlin and Ed Anderson
and 200 Easy Homemade Cheese REcipes by Debra Amrein-Boyes

I also seen Peter Dixon's online recipes recommended.  Folks often post links to them or you can do a search.  He has a website that I'm forgetting at the  moment. 

And go ahead and ask your questions if you can't find the answers.  There are a lot of very helpful people here.  I really appreciate that a lot!  Also, I bet if you can't find some ingredient or mold you need that someone here will ship to you or help you find it.

[ukdavid]

Sorry for the delay in responding to your post, unfortunately when you're getting up to start your day, my day is just ending.
Thanks for the advice, I have ordered 200 home-made cheeses from Amazon, and it should be with me in a few days.
I have spent a few hours looking at the site, and am amazed at the amount of knowledge that is contained within its portal. I would like to say a big thank you to all those unknown (to me) people who have taken the time out to share their cheesemaking experiences.
Autumn has arrived here in the UK, with the biggest flooding in the North of England that has been seen for many years. At least I will have a new hobby to delve into over the dark winter period.

Thank you for your help.
David

[hoeklijn]

Welcome to the forum from the other side of the North Sea, neighborhood of Gouda to be exactly. Do you have access to raw milk there? Moorland and Ascott  are good webshops in the UK...

[ukdavid]

Hi Herman

thanks for your reply. Yes, I do use ascott, in fact, I have just received an order I put in a couple of days ago. I'm not sure where we can get raw milk here, but I'm happy to use pasteurised for the time being. We are very near Harwich and often sail to Belgium, France and the Channel Islands in our boat so not that far away from you.

Regards David