Well, as I am enthusiastic about my newly arrived wax, I had to try the first one with what I had. I made 2 goudas (440g and 460g) with my Ikea molds. As suspected, they have some "character". I made a wooden follower that I was so tight I had to push it rather hard to get it through the rim. The problem was that a wooden follower swells when in contact with whey, which caused a problem. Next will be hygienic plastic.
In the end my follower was so tight there were not enough room between the rim of the mold and the follower with my cheesecloth in between (it didn't slide even under pressure), so I ended up having to fold all of the cheesecloth under the follower. This leaved a bit uneven surface no matter how nicely I tried to fold it. I thought I could maby have a plastic follower that I could put directly on top of the curds, hoping to have an even surface. How do others do this?
John, I asked plumbing around, but most stuff would cost me way more than ready molds ordered from US or UK. Only the cheapest sewer tubing is close the desired price range and I'm dubious about using that. I don't know many places here that'd sell that stuff to private people. I have considered CD cases. I have two sitting on my desk as we speak. Hmm... anybody else tried this?
DeejayDebi, no Home Depot here. You can apparently get Everything from HD. This is not the first time I've been envious of having one nearby
MrsKK, holes in the container are 8mm and the mold itself is 115mm in diameter. I think I also am rather happy with these for now, at least until I can scrape together some more money to put into cheese stuff. (Hopefully soon, I'm almost out of starter cultures!)
Anyway, here are my very first hard cheeses, made with my self-made press in Ikea cutlery bins. Two goudas on their way to air drying.