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GENERAL BOARDS => Introductions => Topic started by: tri3forme on March 25, 2014, 03:12:42 AM
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Hey everyone, just joined this forum today. Although I love cheese, I'm still a cheese making virgin. I was on vacation last week in NM and went to this wine/cheese shop and was so inspired by their cheese varieties that a light went off in my head that it was time to start making my own cheese. It's always been something that I've wanted to do and I guess you can say that this wine/cheese shop was the launching pad of my new hobby. We(the family) stopped at a home brew/cheese making shop in Austin during our drive back home and picked up a cheese making kit and will start my first batch this weekend. I'm no stranger to food as I've gone made it through culinary arts school, chef'd and sold food as well. I'm not in the food industry anymore but still love to spend time on the weekends preparing fun meals and inviting friends over. The cheese making process seems pretty simple yet all kinds of things can go wrong.....at least that's what I gather from the limited research that I've done. We'll see. I've enjoyed perusing the forum and there seem to be a lot of knowledgable folks on here so be prepared for a lot of questions from me(http://)
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Welcome tri3forme, you are going to have fun!
A warning; Some kits are rumored to be better than others...what is in yours? And how do you plan to age out your cheese?
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This kit makes 8 cheeses....cheddar, Gouda, cottage cheese, Parmesan, Monterrey jack and 3 others. I'm going to begin with the easiest of course. Do you think this kit will be satisfactory? I feel like I'm already over my head and haven't even begun! Man, that gets me excited:-)
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I've never used a kit but I have bought gear and supplies from NE Cheesemaking, plus they have a lot of valuable info on their site.
Good luck and keep us posted!
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Rickie Caroll is actually pretty good at introducing people to cheese making. So your kit is a good starter kit for sure.
Welcome to the boards and have fun making cheese!
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There are a lot of beginner cheese makers who started with that kit 8)
If nothing else you will learn allot about cheese making or you will say to heck with it :o
Have fun, take pix, and post them OH and welcome to the forum ;D
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Thanks y'all. Just curious......how many cheeses does it take to finally get a good handle on the processes?
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:-\ all of them? uuummmmm infinite?
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Thanks y'all. Just curious......how many cheeses does it take to finally get a good handle on the processes?
I've done over 100 cheeses and I'm still learning ??? Once you've mastered your technique along with your equipment, things get a lot more consistent.
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Thanks y'all. Just curious......how many cheeses does it take to finally get a good handle on the processes?
Its best expressed as a formula.
X = ((K/L)*M)
K = no. of cheese of any type
L = no. of cheese of this type
M = months since your last make of this type.
N.B. the number is not static as it constantly shifts. It's like that...
Seriously, I'm 10 cheeses into it. I'm know more than I did at the start and simultaneously, far less. Welcome to cheese...the great equalizer.
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Ha! Good answers! Not what I was hoping to hear but was kind of expecting. :)
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Hi tri3forme. A few years ago I bought that same kit because when I googled "cheese making". Ricki's site came I thought I'd give it a go. I'm not sure what she put in that kit but it was either some cheese narcotic or an aphrodisiac because I was hooked. But it didn't take long for me to realize how nuanced cheesemaking is for the "little guy", but as you said it just made it that much more challenging. There is a lot of good information on cheesemaking.com, but I would also highly recommend Mary Karlin's "Artisan Cheesemaking at Home", and sometime in the future "Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking" by Gianiclis Caldwell. Not to mention perusing all the great info here on the forum.
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John, thanks for the kind words. I ordered "Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking" the other day so hopefully it'll be waiting for me by the front door when I make it home from work. I had read on Amazon that there were some recipe issues with Mary Karlin's book and that you had to go to her website to find the corrections which is unfortunate since there were also a lot of positive reviews on the book. If I'm following a recipe, I don't have the knowledge to realise whether or not something's been left out and with all the time invested to create cheese, I decided to go with Caldwell's book instead but I'm glad to see that was on your recommended list too....makes me feel better about my choice of books.
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The "corrections" issue is a problem with Karlin's book. I can't remember what I was making but I saw an error and after much looking found the the corrections pdf (http://artisancheesemakingathome.com/pdfs/ACMH-CORRECTIONS.pdf)on her website. I printed the corrections out and keep them with the book so that problem was solved. Other than that her book is great especially for the new-and-learning cheesemaker. Caldwell's recipes are more for the intermediate in my opinion as she goes into much more depth than Karlin's book. Also, most of her recipes are for a "generic" type like "A Basic Tomme-Style Cheese" and "A Simple Piquant Pressed Cheese". I understand why she does this (probably under the influence of Pav ;D) but it can be somewhat confusing to a new cheese maker.
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John,
thanks for that pdf.....I may have to get that book afterall.
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You may also want to add to your "book wish list "The World Encyclopedia of Cheese". You can get it at Barnes & Noble for $80 (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-world-encyclopedia-of-cheese-julie-harbutt/1002929965?ean=9781859676158) :o or pick it up on Amazon's as a used book for $5.00 or so. It's a great reference and "look-up" book with some very interesting recipes and wonderful
cheese porn pictures.
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Hello and welcome to the forums.
I seen that cheese making kit just prior to joining this forum today and the reviews are all good for the product. Also it looks like it might be a toy with all of the colors and I know my daughter will go crazy just to open it up ha ha.
Cheese, I've seen lots of documentaries on the subject, looked online and read books etc and I think it was simply the amount of time that it takes to get a great aged cheese that kind of put me off until now since I'm much older I can do this for a lot of reasons.
One super important detail one should never miss is sterilization in making cheese, or any dairy product. It may look clean but you must never ever take it for granted and so I would completely boil water on everything possible before you start. That should help eliminate a lot of problems.