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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => EQUIPMENT - Forming Cheese => Topic started by: webmaster on April 29, 2008, 12:12:30 AM
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Howdy Reg and all, picture below is my homemade Cheese Press #1:
- 4 Inch Diameter PVC Pipe From Home Depot hardware store that I drilled lots of tinny holes in bottom 1/2.
- Upside down saucer to rest PVC pipe on and rise curds above drained whey.
- Old large saucepan/soup pot to catch whey in.
- Muslin cloth pulled up around sides and then laid over top of curds to hold curds while being pressed.
- "Double" 1.5 liter glass wine bottle as weight to press the curds.
Problems are:
- Saucer kept some of whey inside ridge circle.
- Top of presses curds had outline of folded muslin, need flat follower.
- Wine bottle was not enough weight.
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Webmaster's Cheese Press #1 - Upgrades:
- Used muslin cheesecloth sheet sewn into triangle shaped bag with flat bottom and drawstring.
- Made wooden follower from small round wall plack from local Hobby Lobby store and sanded down to fit press tube.
- Put small piece of muslin under follower to keep wood away from curds.
- Used four "bells" from ends of hand dumbells as weights, about 19 lb / 9 kg.
- Tied sock around top weight to hold in place so that doesn't slide off.
Problems are:
- Used muslin bag made to hang curds, need to make one specially to fit the press so that no outline of seam on bottom and less bunching around sides.
- Put weights in screw hole side up so easier to remove by screwing in the "bar" when inside press tube.
- Need more weight than provided by dumbells ends.
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good morning WM. the cheese press i have is home made the the idea came from one of the websites i ran across. the mold is just a clear plastic tube that is 4" in diam. the follower is a quart mason jar that is 3 3/4" in diam
will take a photo of the setup and post at a later date. off to work but will check back in tomorrow
reg
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after reading my post above it is apparent that the post is pretty vauge. the pressing tube itself has a piece of plastic installed at the bottom that was cut out of a 3/16" cutting board that rests 1/4" up off the bottom of the press by means of wooden dowels. there is room on the sides so that the whey can pass by and drain out.
the top also has a piece of plastic cut from the same cutting board and is the follower. on top of that goes the quart mason jar.
been having trouble with photo bucket and using this old computer but in the next week or so will be up and running with more horse power so will be able to post some photos of the press.
reg
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Thanks reg, good idea on using polyethelene cutting board, as easy to clean-sterilize vs my wood follower. FYI you don't need photo-bucket, just transfer pictures to your PC's harddisk, then resize and attach them to your post, I made a FAQ on how to do this posted here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=51.0).
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Reg, with pictures it is much easier to understand, much thanks and much better than my temporary setup. I like your design as flexible for different amount of weights, size and number of presses. I also like the clear plastic tube as nicer to see the cheese "in action" ;).
Questions:
- I used white diameter PVC water piping from local Home Depot hardware store, but largest diameter and shortest section I could buy was 4" x 3 ft. What is your clear tube mold made out of, what type of store/where did you buy it, and can you get larger diameters as I'd like to make ~25 x 8 cm / ~9" x 3" disks of cheese ?
- My pressed cheeses have many lines up sides and on top (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=84.0) from sheet of cheesecloth that curds are pressed in. On the picture of the cheese you'd pressed (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=92.0), it has very smooth sides and top. How do you achieve this?
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hi CH. that clear plastic mold i have had for years and to be honest i would have no idea where it came from, its an old hamburger press.
i'm serarching for some 6" and some 8" PVC pipe now. i know a few people in the construction business so i don't think that will be to difficult to aquire. you could more than likely find those sizes and bigger at commercial plumbing outlets. ask for cut offs from jobs
as far as the smooth sides on the cheese they were wrapped in old sheels and pillow cases. not as rough as cheese cloth
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Following is reg's email and pictures on his new large mold:
John, here are a few photos of the 8" mold I made this morning. It took all of about one hr to do. Picked up the 8" pvc pipe at a construction site yesterday. The forman there gave me about 4' that was headed to the scrap bin. Next week they are working with 6" pipe and he told me to come back then.
The second photo is the first pressing of caraway gouda.
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Reg, very nice large 8" diameter mold, looks bigger in picture.
Questions:
- Is the base made from a clear piece of hand cut plexiglass and roughly how thick?
- Do you have the same thing for a follower?
- Do you fold the cheesecloth over the cheese curds or place follower first and then fold cloth or just leave cloth hanging over sides while pressing?
- On pictures above with smaller mold you've had up to two 10 kg/22 lb boxes of water as weights, do you think that weight would shear off your three small 1/4"/0.5 cm dowels that hold the base above the expressed whey?
- When you use it for first time, let us know if th plexglass weight bows under all that weight on the curds and you get a slightly rounded cheese 8).
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afternoon Cheese Head
Questions:
Is the base made from a clear piece of hand cut plexiglass and roughly how thick?
Do you have the same thing for a follower?
Do you fold the cheesecloth over the cheese curds or place follower first and then fold cloth or just leave cloth hanging over sides while pressing?
On pictures above with smaller mold you've had up to two 10 kg/22 lb boxes of water as weights, do you think that weight would shear off your three small 1/4"/0.5 cm dowels that hold the base above the expressed whey?
When you use it for first time, let us know if th plexglass weight bows under all that weight on the curds and you get a slightly rounded cheese .
yes the base in 1/4 " clear plexi, the follower is the same but without holes.
the curds are put into the mold with the cloth already in. after the curds are put in the cloth goes over then the follower
as of yet have never sheared off the dowels, can't imagine that happening but you never know.
have already used the mold twice and the plexi stays flat as a pancake. check out the photo of the caraway gouda in the making cheeese forum
hope that helps some