Wet Behind the Ears and Its Not Whey

[Lennie]

Hi I'm Lennie and I'm from Hannibal MO.  My wife bought me Ricki Carroll's Home Cheese Making and Tim Smith's Making Artisinal Cheese for Christmas.  She knows I like hobbies, and she loves cheese!  Great gal.

Anyway, I am a biochemist by training and an analytical chemist by trade so I udnerstand a little about enzymes and pH measurements.  I was a cook for seven years during high school and college so I know my way around the kitchen and have a good sense of what works and what doesn't.  I also brew beer and make wine so I have the beverages to go with some good cheese.  From these hobbies I understand the importance of a good forum and this one looks to be full of good info and helpful people who won't mind answering stupid newbie questions.

I'm hoping to learn to make decent cheese.  I ordered some supplies from Ricki Carroll's website: rennet tabs, blue cheese culture, direct pitch cultures for mesophilic and thermophilic cheeses, some good cheese cloth and a small mold.  I am hoping to start with some nice cheddar and then try my hand at a Blue or Stilton.  I'm going to make my own press since I do woodworking as well.

Wish me luck, I know I'm going to need it.

[DeejayDebi]

Good luck Lennie. I to brew beer. If you can al-grain brew you will find the techniques for making cheese easy to follow. Patience and attention to temperature are already learned.

[Lennie]

I've been doing all-grain for a couple of years now.  My specialites are pale ale, Belgian dubbel and an orange peel wheat.  The worst habit I've developed from brewing is to "wing it" as far as recipes go.  Seems like attention to detail and following insstructions closely might be more important with cheesemaking.

[MrsKK]

Hey, Tom, welcome to the forum and to cheesemaking.

I tend to wing it myself and have learned some good things through doing so.  What I can play with and what I can't.  If people didn't experiment, there would probably only be about three types of cheese out there - hard, soft, and very, very sticky cheese from aging the first two types for years on end (i.e., lost in the back of the fridge cheese).

I do recommend that you follow directions closely for the first few batches, at least, so that you get the hang of proper technique.

[FarmerJd]

Welcome to the forum!

[Cheese Head]

Hi Lennie in Missouri USA, welcome to this Forum, sounds like you have better a better background than most of us for this hobby! Suspect you and other bio types like linuxboy & Sailor will lose us in your language .

Books are great but being able to ask and help other people is whey better .

Good luck, and have fun!

[Tea]

Good morning Lennie and welcome to the forum.  Looking forward to your input.

[Gürkan Yeniçeri]

Welcome to the forum Lennie, and I think you will do just fine with this cheesemaking hobbie thanks to your wife and this forum of course.

BTW, there is no stupid question, it is how we learn, isn't it.

As a starter , my first cheese was feta and I learn't great deal out of those experiments and they were all edible. Wouldn't cheddar be a little hard as a first cheese? May be not thinking about your background.   

Good luck with the cheddar and most importantly have fun...   

[DeejayDebi]

I've been doing all-grain for a couple of years now.  My specialites are pale ale, Belgian dubbel and an orange peel wheat.  The worst habit I've developed from brewing is to "wing it" as far as recipes go.  Seems like attention to detail and following insstructions closely might be more important with cheesemaking.

To a certain degree that's true. Add more grain to beer won't hurt it and might even make it batter but adding more starter or rennet to cheese can make it bitter, crumbly or dry. Nothing wrong with mixing it up a bit though once you have an idea what it will do for you though.

[Lennie]

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

Deb I'm learning fast to follow directions.  I added a little extra acid to my mozz and got a big bowl of thick cottage cheese for my efforts.  Great looking curds though!  Baby steps.

[DeejayDebi]

If you have a microwave you might try nuking the "cotage cheese" on high for about20 seconds and kneading it for awhile. Try this at least 6 times before you start to see anything. If the curds start to come together you have be able to save the cheese. It seem to work mos of the time if you are patient enough to keep doing it over and over again. Oh and wear rubber gloves it's hot!

[Lennie]

I waved it several times last night but I'll give it another go, I don't see eating the batch as it is.

I'm making another right now.

[DeejayDebi]

If it's really wet you might want to drain it first. I have had friends and make soggy oatmeal looking stuff that we recovered my nuking repeatedly. One took over 20 nukings!

[Lennie]

Yes this stuff is like a cream soup, I've nuked it several times now and its still soupy.  The whey isn't separating though, its just a creamy liquid.  MAybe that means I didn't cook the curds long enough to get all the whey out?  I'll keep nuking but its going to be awhile before this becomes thick.

[DeejayDebi]

Sounds like you didn't cook the curds enough. You did have curds but did yo cook them after cutting?