New Cheese Maker - General Questions

[yeri]

Hello cheese maker. I'm new and i never take a cheese making class because i can not find any of that kind of class at my country, so i really blank About cheese making, so i hope you guys can help me about this silly problem of mine, i hope i can try to make my first cjeese soon, guys at my home i only have 1 refrigerator And this refrigerator is already used to store vegetable and other stuff also, can i just put cheese to aged mixed up with my refrigerator? Or i will need special refrigerator just for my cheese?

[susanky]

I am also new to cheesemaking but can at least get you started with this.  Your regular refrigerator is too cold to properly age cheese.  Some say that if you must can find a drawer that stays a little warmer than the rest of the refrigerator but it is not ideal.  So most have a dedicated space and keep it 50-55 degrees.  This can be done with the help of an external thermostat that you plug the refrigerator into, like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/KegWorks-Freezer-Temperature-Controller/dp/B0002EAL58/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289740725&sr=8-1

Humidity is also an issue.  That is a problem I have not yet solved so we will have to wait for others to chime in.  You can do a search or look under the section on 'cheese cave' and you will find lots of information.
Susan

[Cheese Head]

Hi Yeri

From your other post I see that you are located in Indonesia, great country.

Using a fridge as a "Cheese Cave" for aging cheeses is very common, in fact we have a Board just for Cheese Caves, filled with ideas.

While not ideal, you can store vegtables and cheeses in same fridge. As Susansky says most thermostat's on household fridges do not enable them to go warm enough for ideal common cheese aging temperatures of 13-15C / 55-60F, thus as Susanky says many people buy an external thermostat (several in the Cave Board, I've also seen some on Ebay.com which ship from Hong Kong etc to anywhere worldwide). But before buying one I'd try turning your fridge up and see how warm you can get it, just in case you have a better thermostat.

I currently live in Houston and in summer we are very very high humidity, similar to Indonesia. When operating my fridge as cheese cave at that warm a temperature my problem is excess humidity resulting in pooled water that I have to periodically mop out so that it doesn't grow mold etc. Humidity is of course only a problem for aging unsealed cheeses, if you wax or vacuum bag then not an issue.

FYI there's a thread here on starting with minimal equipment, and another here on aging Swiss Types at colder temperatures.

[yeri]

Many thanks guys, honestly it's a little bit stressful learning to make cheese here in jndonesia, there is so limited source here in my country. But this forum with the warm comunity make me so motivated, i will absolutely ask more here and tell my experience here also. Thanks guys

[KosherBaker]

Welcome to the forum Jeri.

I don't know anyone on this board that has taken a class on cheese making. Most people here are learning, or have learned from cheese making books, Internet and of course this forum.

[morfeo]

Hi what you can do to age your cheese if you don't want to buy a new fridge is to place the cheese on the upper part of the fridge that usually is the warmers place the temperature there is usually 50 depending on the fridge (50 this is too cold to age the cheese but is better that noting).
For the cave you can use a container with a couple of holes on the lid for the cheese to bread, and to control the humidity just buy a hygrometer and place it inside the container and if you need humidity just add a  damp paper towel away from the cheese. Also check the bottom drawers on  your fridge some times they have their own temperature controller (mine has it).

And if you want to spend some money you can check on ebay, they have very cheap wine fridges around $50, the only problem is  to get it shipped to Indonesia, but I'm sure that you will get a good deal there too.

Good luck with your cheese and let me know how it taste.

[yeri]

thanks for the info guys,
i allready order the rennet and the culture from www.cheesemaking.com i hope the package come soon, since i can no wait to make my first cheese,

guys, do i need to sterilize the fridge also?

[morfeo]

I did'nt do it on mine.
I will love to see what the masters think about it.

[KosherBaker]

thanks for the info guys,
i allready order the rennet and the culture from www.cheesemaking.com i hope the package come soon, since i can no wait to make my first cheese,

guys, do i need to sterilize the fridge also?

You don't necessarily need culture to make cheese. Plenty of us start with soft cheeses that do not need cultures and are perfect learning tools as well as delicious to eat.

I did'nt do it on mine.
I will love to see what the masters think about it.

The overwhelming majority of people on the boards do recommend sterilizing the fridge. This could be as simple as mixing some warm water with baking soda or something more involved if you have things "growing" in your fridge. Also whatever the cheese will rest upon will have to be sterilized further to prevent contamination as much as possible.
It's hard enough to keep the bad mold off the cheese as it is, you want to eliminate as many sources of it as you possibly can.

[MrsKK]

I didn't take a cheesemaking class, either, as there weren't any available in my part of Wisconsin when I started making cheese.

I do teach cheesemaking workshops now, though, and am finding a great demand for them.  Enough that I plan on teaching a workshop every other month from September through May.

What kind of cheese are you planning on starting with?

[yeri]

Hi karen, wow thats is a huge jump, from know nothing then now teaching, that is cool. i plan to make mozarela and the next is chedar, i hope there is no obstacle. lol

@kosherbaker: how can we know if the cheese is contaminated, i never see the good mold, so i don't know the difference, is it a different taste, or a different color of mold growing?

[KosherBaker]

@kosherbaker: how can we know if the cheese is contaminated, i never see the good mold, so i don't know the difference, is it a different taste, or a different color of mold growing?

Well, there are only 2 types of molds that we may want on our cheese. Penicillium candidum and Penicillium roqueforti. Both of these have very specific visual attributes and both must be introduced to the cheese by us the cheese makers. I would say that everything else is unwanted.

[yeri]

Rudy, just like you said, that most of you guys here start with soft cheese that don't need any culture, what's the name of the  cheese that you mean, and can you give me the recipe? thanks before

[KosherBaker]

Sure. Now there may be a more complete list in the archives but from the top of my head here they are:
1. Yogurt - Read this board for Recipe(s) and discussion
2. Cottage Cheese - Recipe
3. Neufchatel - Read this board for Recipe(s) and discussion
4. Queso Fresco - Recipe
5. Ricotta - Recipe

Feta is also a good beginner's cheese however, it does require a culture, whereas, Mozzarella can be made without a culture but it is definitely not a beginner's cheese. If you can get access to goat milk Chevre may be a good beginner's cheese as well, however, it definitely requires a culture.
The links to recipes are the ones I use personally and that have worked for me. There may be better ones and of course the users on this board make all the recipes better through their discussions and clarifications of them.

[yeri]

Thanks rudi for the recipe, i just bought a digital temperature And i put it at my fridge for a few hour and the number show me 8 degree celsius, is it okay to age the cheese at that temperature?