Hi everyone- from Melbourne, Australia

[lycon]

Hey everyone

I'm so pleased to have found this site, I absolutely love seeing the pictures of other peoples home made cheese! I am reasonably new to cheese making although I did make a couple back in 2013 before getting a bit to busy for it. I would like to share what has been my first project since then.

I made this 'Farmhouse cheddar' from a recipe in Home cheese making by Ricki Carroll on the 23rd of November and dried it for 4 days before waxing. Evidently this was not long enough and it has suffered from some excess liquid breaking through the wax coating. After searching on the fantastic forums here I decided that today that I would remove the wax wipe it down with brine and dry the cheese for longer.

As you will hopefully see in the pictures below the cheese appeared fine and there was actually not that much liquid inside the wax.

I'm hoping to eat this cheese at Christmas as the recipe indicates that it should be ready after a month so I will let everyone know how it turned out then!

[Stinky]

Really quick important warning: Make sure it's humid, like covered with a damp piece of cloth or something, or you will get huge cracks.

That aside, I'm assuming you're making it with plain p/h grocery store milk?

IME, the time estimates on some of these recipes are a little on the optimistic side. Try it then, but don't be sad if you have to reseal it and age it a few more months.

It's best to wait around three weeks before waxing or vacuuming. Basically the aging bacteria that work during that period need airflow, and if you seal it up too soon you're going to have an inferior product.

[lycon]

Thank you so much for the helpful advice! Yes it was just with plain old p/h store milk. I also made a duplicate the following day so that I would have one to age a bit longer. I have not had the same problem as I dried it for 6 days. However I am now contemplating opening that one up and letting it breath for the initial 3 weeks as you suggest.

Thanks again!

[Stinky]

Mkay, so with that milk the quality's going to be worse. It's abused a lot more than fresh milk out of a cow. If you follow a normal recipe, you're going to end up with too high of moisture. Try, when you make cheese next, raising the floc factor a little bit and cutting the curds smaller. This'll allow for greater structural integrity by letting the curd mass gel stronger, but then you cut smaller so it releases enough moisture. Also, after cutting start by letting it heal for 5-10 minutes, then jiggle for 5, then start slowly stirring, etc. and you'll have much less shattering.

Also along that line for a nice curd cutter for a round pot cut a length of wire the diameter of your pot, drill a hole through a dowel and stick the wire through, and mark every 1/4, 1/2, and 1 inch. slide it down 1/2 inch, rotate 180º, slide it down another 1/2 inch, rotate, until you've hit the bottom. Then use a knife to go vertically. You get really nicely sized even curds.

[OzzieCheese]

Yahooo ! another Aussie !!!  See, I told you we were taking over ---- hehe!

Welcome to the forum - there are some great cheese makers and indeed wonderful people ready to share with you all they have learnt.

-- Mal

[lycon]

Thanks for the warm welcome Mal and thanks for the continued advice stinky! I shall be making another cheese this evening and I think it will come in handy.

I will be making something along the lines of a cheddar I think, once I have a few pictures and a basic write up of the process I will post it in the relevant location. This one will be a homogenised milk ($1 AUS/L from woollies) cheese, but I am thinking for my next one I will invest in some lovely homogenised milk from http://lalatteria.com.au/milk/ there cheeses are amazing so it leads me to believe that the milk must be equally as good.