Hello from hill towns of Western Massachusetts of US

[Tiarella]

Hello All,  What an amazing forum of helpful and gracious people!!!  I've always grown a fair amount of my own food and made a lot of soft cheese as a teenager from my Jersey cow.  In fact for a couple of years I made cheese twice a day.  My mom made the hard cheeses and although she always followed the directions in her book the cheese came out great but not the one she was trying to make.  She'd attempt Gouda and get Cheddar, etc until I began to suspect that someone had played a joke and switched the recipe names all around!

I currently have a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats that are giving me a fresh milk for my cheese experiments. I also have sheep, rabbits, and chickens to round out the protein part of my diet and grow vegetables, fruit, nuts culinary and medicinal herbs and LOTS of flowers since my main work is producing flower essences and shipping internationally. 

I have 3 batches of Brie finished,2 Caerphilly rounds aging and a Parmesan in brine for a few more hours.  I was elated at the Brie success but I'm scared of ruining the Parmasan.  The pressing was inventive and I couldn't flip and redress it on normal timing because I had to be gone from the land for several crucial hours.  Yikes I hope I didn't blow it!  I'll try again.  I've been reading a lot of the boards here and am so impressed and a bit intimidated at the level of detail that seems necessary to make really good cheese.  My engineer dad is designing and building me a press so I'm psyched about that.  Blessings, Kathrin. (my screen name Tiarella is one of my favorite woodland flowers here. )

[puttertat]

I'm hoping your cheese is forgiving  in your timing issues!  I'm also just a little jealous that you have goats.  I live in a subdivision now, and can't keep animals.  In a past life I had horses, and had I realized then that I could make cheese I'd probably have bought a cow and some goats as well.  Thank you for taking the time to post in my intro 

[Tiarella]

It's true that goats are a lot fun and definitely add some pressure to making cheese often.  I waver between, "Oh darn, there's not enough milk to make a ------", and, "Oh darn, I have to make cheese again today!"  I made a 3 1/2 gallon wheel of something that is mostly following a couple Manchego recipes but I don't know if I'll be able to call it that or not.  How do people hit all the time markers (or pH markers) unless they are getting up in the middle of the night.  I can't start a cheese until after morning barn chores (which are over around 10 am) and then I'm engaged in the pressing stages of needing to flip and redress the cheese and all at a time that conflicts with evening chores.  Then the long press ends around 1 am and the cheese needs to be put into a brine solution for x amount of time.  Yikes!   And it seems like I'll need a pH meter to really be able to reproduce good results.  I also should create a little form for tracking all the making details so that when something goes wrong, or right, I have a chance at reproducing it.
   Maybe you and your daughter should try a simple soft goat cheese....one of those that hang after coagulating.  I've been loving that as dessert.  I take some from the fridge, put a little in bowls and stir in just a smidge of maple syrup and then pour fresh fruit over it.  Lately that has been blueberries but we're heading into blackberry season and that is yummy too.  Actually, strawberry season was very fine also!!  I think you get the drift.  Our peaches are almost ripe and those will be a great addition.  Imagine peach sections, blackberries and maybe even a further drizzle of syrup (mostly for looks, I think I like it stirred best) over nice soft, gently-sweetened homemade cheese!  You can also add salt and herbs for a cracker spread.  I bet she'd love spreading it.  I'm imagining her with a little plate with a dollop of soft cheese on one side and one of those tiny spreading utensils and a little pile of crackers.  (my kids are grown now but had endless tea parties and loved pouring and amending their own cups of tea, all on a lipped cookie tray so that the spills didn't matter.)

Oh, and I had never heard of Caerphilly cheese either.  Www.littlegreencheese.com. Has a tutorial on that, both photo and video. He has other ones also and is a good source if you want to avoid the complexities of pH, flocculation times, etc. Caerphilly sounds like a softer almost cheddar-like cheese with only a 3week ripening time.  Another reason to choose it.  Keep me posted!  I'm going to try to attach a pic of my Brie cheese but I'm on my iPad and am not sure if it will work.  Later: guess I can't do attachments with this.

[Boofer]

Welcome to the forum, Tiarella. Pretty name.

Wow! What a free-flowing stream of consciousness!    You obviously have a lot going on.

Looking forward to reading more from you about your adventures in cheesemaking.

-Boofer-

[Tiarella]

Thanks, Boofer!  What a nice welcome.  Ummm, the stream of consciousness can be attributed partly to sitting on the kitchen daybed, pre-milking chores cup of tea in hand,bleary-eyed, tapping away on my iPad.  I'm not so good at formatting thoughts when on the iPad.  Maybe someday I'll get better.

i've read many of your posts and learned a lot. (and need to read a LOT more!)  Maybe you could weigh in on the musings I had while milking this morning.  I notice a lot of very carefully watched/controlled attention to pH, weights, temps, etc. and a part of me is very impressed and intimidated but wants to learn more about that and start using some of those parameters.  Another part of me quails at the thought of that level of detail and wants to use my more easily accessed ability to use my "gut sense" of when something is "right" or "ready". 

I think I may have to follow more details first....at least that's one way to approach this.  Or maybe I'll need to "tune in to my inner cheesemaker" and see if I get smarter about all of this.  ; >  I did add a flower essence combination to yesterday's Manchego and I did a little something I'm not sure how to name......ummm, maybe similar to doing "hands on healing" only the hand was over the pot of curds.  I have been a healer for decades although I don't usually do hands on.  It was fun to feel how hot my hand got while holding it in the air above the curds.  And now I'm wondering if what I've said will get me written off as a strange person far from reality.  : >  But really, I shovel manure a lot and stay pretty grounded!  I love power tools, driving tractor, flowers, exquisite food, and lots of non-strange things!  I just happen to have developed my intuitive sense more than most.

So I guess, rambling aside, I'd love to hear what you think about detailed specifications versus "gut knowing" of when to do what in the cheesemaking process.  What is your experience?  Do you do both?  Thanks again for the welcome!

[Boofer]

Starting in with anything the first few times and not knowing a whole lot about the particular process involved... it's good to have a mentor to guide you through what you don't know. If you don't have a personal guide, at least a source of solid information and milestones is helpful.

I have done a few different cheese styles since I started making cheese. There's no mentor sitting in my back room. What I have found invaluable are the bedrock opinions and information I have found here in the forum. I've screwed up a bit of milk over time, but I've also learned a lot and created some memorable dairy delights. What I have learned, among many things, is that a pH meter may be useful initially until you develop a "feel" for what the milk and the cultures you've added are telling you. (I know, I know, Jeff...for me, it's true!  )

I have also found that repetition helps you to hone your skills and fine tune your process. Repeating the same recipe as close as you can helps a lot. The nature of the milk changes with the seasons and the animal feed, so being able to repeat the recipe and achieve similar results can be a big confidence builder.

The cheese make detail that you talk about is somewhat similar to processes demanded in baking, brewing, cooking, etc. There are certain steps and things to watch for at certain key times for each of those skills. With that in mind, it's essential to know and follow the steps required to achieve suitable outstanding results. You'll see threads that discuss pH markers for key points for different cheeses. Similarly, there are flocculation factors for different cheese styles. And also, different amounts of pressure (psi, pounds, kg/cm x 2) that must be brought to bear for different cheese styles. All of these help to produce a superlative product. Neglecting or ignoring them may relegate the cheesemaker's efforts to the "not gonna eat that cheese" pile.

A few folks here may say I also shovel a fair amount of manure (remember the Naughty Corner, george! ), but I just think of it as a form of my own free thinking.

-Boofer-

[Tiarella]

Hmmm, well if you lived near me I'd give you lots of milk to "screw up"!  : >  Okay, much as I sorta didn't want to hear it, it does make sense to be able to measure pH.  Do you have a favorite brand of pH meter?  (price being a major factor given that I must feed many hungry  (and loud) mouths up at the barn.)  And I saw a photo of a cheese you made (can't remember which one) and it had some color mottling like my Caerphilly cheeses.  It's an orangish color that looks like it's between the curds sort of.  One I washed off thinking it was b. linens and not wanting it to go crazy. 

Also, let me know if I am taking advantage of your kindness but here are a few things I haven't yet found on the forum.  If you can point me in the direction to find them I'd appreciate it.  If not, that's fine too.  I'm sure you're busy making cheese which is way more fun than giving direction.
1 - a handy chart showing mold size and amount of batch milk that will likely be a match for that.  (found chart but it didn't give curd/milk amounts)
2 - a place where pH for different stages of different cheeses is given.  (yup, I assume there is not one right answer but even an idea would help)
3 - best place to find low price cheese mats. I bought some by the foot but they are a bigger mesh and melt and distort when I steam them.
4 - a handy chart of cultures and what they are good for.  (I have slow internet and flipping back and forth endlessly reading and rereading culture descriptions gets old after an hour or two.)
5 - is there a place where everyone posts their favorite sources for various equipment?  I see tons of threads but wonder if that info has been collated and made available the way some of the other info has been.  As a voracious reader, even I am overwhelmed by the forum much as I want to suspend everything else in my life and just soak up the info.
6 - a place that gives info with photos on what options one has when faced by the various things that happen to aging cheese.  Mold care, etc.
7 - chart of psi and pounds and mold sizes, cheese types, etc. to help me through the maze of misinformation or incomplete information in recipes.

Okay, I better not ask for any more ideas....don't want to fatigue you!  Your advice to make the same cheeses multiple times makes sense but some of the ones I'm making will take many moons to be ripe.  The Brie was perfect as were the soft cheeses but the hard cheeses are an unknown outcome as of yet.  Sounds like I'll maybe want to save for a vacuum bagger system for aging also.  sigh......do you also feel like there's something else to buy or have you gotten to a sweet spot of having most of what you need for equipment?

Off to the barn now.......maybe I'll attach a Brie photo and maybe someday the hilarious jury-rigged system I rigged to press my Caefphilly.

[Tiarella]

Wow, the second Brie photo looks horrible.  Looks okay on my computer but it's an iPad photo so I can't expect much I guess.

[george]

Tiarella, for many of your questions, check out the Library board - https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/board,68.0.html

I'm pretty sure the pH chart is there (or was it a PSI chart?  Boofer can help on that one, I remember he had a question about it at some point).  There is a bunch of other good stuff there also - not all your questions have a consolidated answer on the forum, but many of them do.  Otherwise you just kinda have to play with the search function.   

Also for info about various cheeses, etc. (your example of what to do about mold, etc.), there are a bazillion Wiki articles - with many pictures - on various subjects.  Start here and be prepared to get lost in the reading:

https://cheeseforum.org/articles/

(Boofer, can I come out of my corner now?)

[Boofer]

Oh...head spinning..must..sit..down....

Wow, you ask a lot of questions! But that's good! As my stalwart associate, george, has so kindly advised, there are a lot of answers to be had when you use the search function. It can be daunting. Please allow me to pull up a few tidbits to get you going down the path.... 

Reputable and reliable places to acquire cultures, equipment, etc.:

• The CheeseMaker
• Glengarry Cheesemaking
• The Dairy Connection
• New England Cheesemaking Supply Company
• Danlac Canada
• Ullmer's Dairy Equipment

There are a lot more, but I have used all of these and they are good.

I have also bought moulds from member iratherfly at very reasonable cost. You can PM him.

I have attached a few of the many items I've saved in my Cheese\Process folder. Unfortunately, some do not have the creator's name attached. I apologize to the respective owners of those documents. You may wish to chime in and gain your rightful credit for the service you have rendered to the forum.

Sailor posted an excellent thread here on making Mother Cultures.

Some folks have suggested small refrigerators such as this one or this one to act as their "cave". The fridge should not have the tiny freezer compartment inside so that you have more cheese storage area. The fridges are used for ripening/conditioning your cheeses. I have two such fridges and they perform well. They are normally coupled with a controller to maintain a warmer temperature than what your regular refrigerator can provide. Here is an example of such a controller.

I use an ExTech ExStik PH100 pH meter. Other folks use the next step up, PH110. Mine seems to work well for me. I had some initial problems with it (maybe just me) and it does occasionally make me wonder, but for the most part it does its job.

I am at the point where I have the equipment and environment in place to allow me to create my dairy inspirations.   I'm not sure The Little Woman would permit much more.

Thank you, george. No, you shouldn't be in the corner. You're a sweetheart.

-Boofer-

[Tiarella]

Thank you to Boofer and Stalwart George!  Thanks for all the links to tasty morsels of much needed info!  I had found some of those things and have verily tried that search feature with uneven results.  Sometimes I searched for something I knew was available because I'd found it before only to get a "nothing available" response from the search engine.  I figured this stuff was available somewhere because this forum is such a treasure trove of help and support and very cool folks.  I had forgotten the wiki part and had forgotten how many different categories were available on the articles pages.  I will spend some more time there.  I have a dear friend visiting for the next few days so I may not have much chance to get lost in the forum unless he's busy doing business calls.  I guess mostly we'll be talking about soils, agricultural projects, greening the deserts of Africa, etc.  It'll be fun.  I hope we remember to eat and I sure hope I remember to turn my cheeses!

I do have a wine fridge I got to use as a cave.  It's going to be full awfully soon at this rate.  I haven't yet found some flat racks for it and the wavy bottle racks lessen the amount of head room for each rack.  I have 2 Caerphillys  (Caerphillies?), 1 Parm-like and 1 Manchego-like cheese there so far.  I guess I'll do another batch of Brie soon and then most of the shelves will be pretty full.  Maybe I better make taller and skinnier cheeses to maximize shelf space!  ; >

Tried to look at the pH meters but got a message that my Ip address is not authorized to view those pages.  Not sure what that means but I guess I'll search some other way.  Boofer, it's probably good you have some limits set by your lady.  I may need to ask my sweetie if he'll pretend to set some limits for me too.  Making cheese takes so much time when there's the animals to take care of, always in the middle of an important part of the cheesing process.  I've found myself wondering who will be more offended if I'm late; the cheese in the press or the goats and sheep waiting for dinner.

I will dive into all the info.  Thanks SO much to both of you for your gracious helpfulness!
-Tiarella

[Tiarella]

Ooh, meant to pass on a link to the Brie blog post that got me started.  Check it out.  It does lack some details and amounts but those are asked for a received in the comment section.  It tuned out some very nice Brie for us. 
http://makingsenseofthings.info/2010/12/how-to-make-brie-cheese-at-home/#comment-2095

Also, has anyone wondered if the cross-stitch plastic matting is food grade?  I haven't seen anyone comment on that.  I wonder about it's BPA content, etc.    I wonder too about solvents used during the  manufacturing process, something I know nothing about.  Comments?  I got some matting by the foot at the Cheese Connection but it melts together when I steam it to sterilize.  Maybe I need to lessen the steaming time, eh?  I liked the mats I got from Cheesemaking.com but they are expensive! 
-Tiarella

[Boofer]

Also, has anyone wondered if the cross-stitch plastic matting is food grade?

Sorry, I forgot to mention the crafts store cross-stitch mats. Not much mention has been made of the food-grade status of the mats, but I believe a lot of folks here (including myself) use them.

-Boofer-