Simple DIY Cheese Press

[MacGruff]

Every so often, someone comes on this board asking for either a source for a cheese press, or for plans so they can make their own. Here is my contribution to this topic. This is a super-simple press that I made using common materials that can be found at most any hardware store and with very simple tools.

I took three planks of wood. I used Oak because I like the look of it, but Pine is much cheaper. I drilled four holes in each ones that are large enough for a small PVC pipe to fit through. I added a stand on the bottom of one of them and glued the PVC pipe to that one. The other two have slightly larger diameter holes. I finished all the wood with food safe polyurethane (many coats!!!)

When it's time to use the Press, I put the mold with a follower on the bottom plank, Thread the next plank on the PVC pipe and rest it on the follower. Place up to three milk cartons on the shelf, and repeat as necessary. For weight, each one gallon milk carton - when filled with water - can weigh up to 8 pounds, so the whole contraption can take me from 1 pound to 50 pounds of weight which is more than enough for my cheese making!

The enclosed link/picture shows a Gouda I just make yesterday with two milk jugs. As you can see, the press is on my kitchen counter with a large tray underneath it to catch the seeping whey. I have a slight shim on the bottom wood so that it directs the whey toward you - the viewer.

https://imgur.com/a/HAwMtf9

[mikekchar]

Yeah, you can also buy some bricks or paving stones very cheaply if you need more weight than that (which won't happen very often unless you are making very large cheeses).

People *significantly* overestimate the amount of weight they need on their cheeses. Traditionally Gouda is pressed with only a little more than its own weight.  They had wooden molds.  You can think of it kind of like an acorn.  You have a round shape where the cheese goes in and you have a cap.  You put the cap on the cheese, turn the whole thing upside down and then balance it on the handle of the cap.  The cap is actually resting loosely on the top, and so when it's upside down, the cap pushes the cheese up to the top of the mold and whey drains out through the gap between the cap and the mold.

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Hopefully, you can see the mold on the top on the outside.  The cheese in the middle.  The cheese is sitting on the lid.  The lid is sitting on the handle.  The only weight is the weight of the cheese itself and the weight of the mold (which, being made of wood, is not very heavy at all).

Getting the cheese to drain well and to close well, is more about timing than it is about weight.  The higher the pH, the easier it is to close the cheese.  You also don't want to close it before it has finished draining, so you have to close it slowly.  Virtually every recipe that includes weights that I see uses *way* too much weight as far as I can tell.  I think it is instructive that Caldwell refuses to give weights in her recipes -- because the amount you press depends on they cheese on the day.  A recipe writer can't tell what that should be.

[MacGruff]

I agree Mike. That Gouda started out being pressed in its own whey under its own weight, then double its weight. The picture to demonstrate the press was taken for the final press and just before I brined it overnight.

BTW - it's now drying and will go into my cheese cave tomorrow for a month or so before tasting.