Share Some of Your Clean Up Tips

[qdog1955]

  Let's face it-----we spend a huge amount of time cleaning and sterilizing every thing used in cheese making----how about sharing some of your do's and don't s----you may have tips that could be very useful and time savers for other members----and don't think "well every one knows that" we often miss the simple things.
  I'll start off with soaking and rinsing your used cheese cloth in cold water----that works much better than hot water----so I assumed that soaking my vat and utensils in cold water would keep all the cheese particles from clinging---turns out that real hot water worked much better for me.
Also found out that 3M brand cleaning pads ( you know---the green ones that aren't supposed to scratch your good cook wear) well, let's just say my brand new, expensive, shiny vat, now looks more like brushed aluminum ---still usable, but would have preferred the shiny chrome look. Yes your right, I should have known better!!
  So, do you have any special tools? Soaps, solutions, concoctions, ideas that can help out the dreaded clean up phase----please share them.
Qdog

[qdog1955]

How do you like this---I'll be the first to respond to my own post
  When I created my cheese room in my basement, I installed a large laundry tub for clean up---but as my vats and equipment got larger, the old faucet didn't quite make the grade, so I fond this gizmo on Amazon and it has made my clean up SO much easier and lot's cheaper then new faucets.  Rinse Ace 3037
Here's a couple pics.

[Al Lewis]

I use diluted chlorine bleach to clean my cave.  As for everything else, I run it through the dishwasher on "Hi-Temp" wash and "Sani-Rinse" just prior to use and right after.  Needless to say my equipment, if you could call it that, isn't very large.

[qdog1955]

Funny you should mention the bleach----once again we are having trouble finding the old fashioned Clorox regular bleach----since all their new stuff says not to use for disinfecting and to use the Regular Clorox----found one 1/2 gallon bottle a month ago and that's it----can you still get it in your area? 

[Al Lewis]

Yes, no problem here.  You should also check into some of the generic ones. Just follow these guidelines.... "Bleach is very caustic and emits potentially lethal fumes, so it should never be used full-strength. When using bleach as a disinfectant, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend using a 1:10 solution."

[Danbo]

Good subject to discuss!

Your idea with the hose on the tap is very good. I have something similar - it's just build into the tap. I have my little cheese lab in a small room in the basement.

I was lucky to get a free used dishwasher that goes up to 70 degrees Celsius. I wash all my equipment at the high temperature. The upper basket can even be removed and replaced by a spray nozzle to enable washing of my larger equipment.

Before I make cheese I wash down the kitchen, disinfect all my equipment using a StarSan solution and wipe the surfaces in the kitchen using StarSan. I also fill up a spray bottle with the StarSan solution so that I can disinfect equipment later that I might have forgotten. The vat is finally flushed with boiling hot water (after the StarSan) to get rid of any StarSan residues. I do not use chemicals for my cheesecloth - it's boiled.

I wash my hand often and if I have to really get my hands on the curd, I use hand sanitizer (strong alcohol).

It takes a while to get ready but it's also quite meditative to clean and prepare the kitchen for cheesemaking.

:-) Danbo

[Danbo]

I also use Chlorine/bleach but not very often.

By the way (you probably already know): Do NOT ever mix Chlorine/bleach with anything other than water. It can result in very toxic fumes and cause serious lunge damage.


StarSan and Chlorine are to be kept far away from each other!

[Kern]

Funny you should mention the bleach----once again we are having trouble finding the old fashioned Clorox regular bleach----since all their new stuff says not to use for disinfecting and to use the Regular Clorox----found one 1/2 gallon bottle a month ago and that's it----can you still get it in your area?

Al Lewis and I live in Washington State and I've never heard of anyplace here that has banned it.  Incidentally, all chlorine bleaches are mixtures of caustic soda (NaOH) and chlorine (Cl) to make sodium hypochlorite diluted to about 6%.  There aren't many plants in the US that do this so any generic blend is going to be essentially the same as Chlorox - maybe with more dilution, however.  So, use whatever is available so long as it says that sodium hypochlorite is the active ingredient.

[qdog1955]

Thanks Kern----have been looking at the store brands----but it gets confusing--- none of them list the percentages of sodium hydroxide or sodium hypo.  and it seems that Clorox has increased the lye % in some of their products and maybe that is why they changed the disinfectant aspect?
  It's kinda of scary---during the Ebola scare they were recommending using Clorox, and I wonder how many people read the label, not knowing a certain product may no longer work----my wife and I were not aware that our laundry bleach wasn't disinfecting.
  I don't use much bleach----I think there are safer and better products for food handling-----but sometimes I want strong and inexpensive.
Qdog

[Al Lewis]

We had someone at work come down with mercer and they sent a team in to scrub everything down with, you guessed it, diluted chlorine bleach.

[steffb503]

The only reason Clorox is safe to disinfect is that none of the other companies bothered to get the certification.
Chlorine  bleach is chlorine bleach.

[John@PC]

Sodium percarbonate is a good (and safer) replacement for household bleach.  Mixed with water it turns into peroxide (so you can use it to gargle with if you want  ).  Years ago I bought 10lb. from chemistrystore.com, used it along with a little bit of tri-sodium phosphate to clean my roof (the run-off doesn't damage shrubs), get mold off my lawn chairs, clean my walkway, clean my boat and I still have a couple of 2 lb. jars left.  It's the same stuff as oxy-clean, just more concentrated.  I use 1 Tbs. per gal. tap water but once it's diluted it will loose effectiveness after three or four hr.  Here's some more uses and formulations. Note that it is not as potent as chlorine bleach from what I read but is still strong enough to sanitize.