Hello from Taiwan

[SlowRain]

Hi.  I'm SlowRain, a Canadian expat in Taiwan.  I've been teaching English as a second language (ESL) here for sixteen and a half years.  My cheese-making experience is almost nil.  So far I've made what I think qualifies as a paneer, a queso blanco, and a queso fresco.  Raw milk and rennet are hard to find here, so it may take me some time before I go down that path.  For now, I'm mostly interested in fresh cheeses.

My other hobbies are books and movies, roasting coffee, rum, the Middle Ages, fountain pens, and traditional wet shaving.

[mikekchar]

You can mail order rennet.  You should be able to get it shipped to Taiwan.  The main issue is to find non-UHT milk, however  if you have made queso fresco, then I'm guessing you are alright on that front.  If you want to experiment with an aged, acid formed cheese (which I now know should be called queso seco), check out my page here: https://mikekchar.gitlab.io/mistem-cheese/  The longest I've aged one is 3 months and it was really delicious.  I recommend using a normal fridge to age it as it's hard to maintain at cave temps (it never forms a proper rind, so it's hard to keep clean).  It's also ridiculously good as a blue cheese if you can find yourself a tasty blue mould to inoculate it with (my wild blue is luckily quite yummy, but this is apparently quite rare).

[SlowRain]

Thanks. There's very little UHT milk here, so that's not a problem. I'll check out that queso seco.

I should also add that I've been making my own yogurt for three years now, so I'm not completely new to this sort of thing.

[mikekchar]

You're in good shape then!  I'm in Japan (also used to teach EFL, but returned to IT work on contract as it is better paying ;-) ) and have to mail order everything.  It's a pain (especially since I can't get a credit card until I get permanent residence... Hmmm... I should get on that... I have to beg my wife :-) ).  I made acid formed cheeses for almost exactly a year.  It was quite fun and you can make some nice cheeses that way.  Rennet cheeses are more fun, though, I have to admit.

[SlowRain]

Yes, you know my situation exactly then.

Is there an online store (sorry, not Amazon) that is a good deal for people making cheese overseas?  And, have you had to use any local substitutes for certain ingredients or equipment?  For example, I'm using tofu cloth instead of cheesecloth.

[awakephd]

SlowRain, welcome to the forum!

[mikekchar]

I bought my initial stuff from Gavin Webber's site, LittleGreenWorkshops -- mostly because I wanted to throw some money his way.  I bought a mould with it and the shipping was insane.  I think I paid 1/2 for the goods and 1/2 for the shipping.  However, they were well packed and although somewhere along the way *someone* seems to have tried to run it over with a truck, everything arrived in good condition.  I'm going to buy a few more things from cheesemaking.com next, I think.  I just need cultures and the shipping seems to be about $13, which is not *so* bad...  Again, I'm trying to spread the love a bit :-)  I've enjoyed Gavin's videos for a long time and I really, really appreciate all the great recipes (with detailed photos) on cheesemaking.com, so giving them a bit of cash seems like the best way to encourage them to continue.

It's funny you mention cheesecloth...  I'm actually using a steaming cloth.  It's really coarse and very loose weave, but it works surprisingly well. I also bought some cotton fabric from the sewing store, but I like my steaming cloth better.  You *might* be able to get calcium chloride locally.  It's used for making pickles crisper.  I thought it would be easy to get here because Japan has a very strong pickling tradition, but alas I've been unable get it.

When I first started, I didn't have any cultures either, so for a thermophilic culture I used "Bulgaria yogurt": https://www.meijibulgariayogurt.com/  I know Meiji sells milk in Taiwan, so possibly you can get it.  I really like this culture for cheese.  The only downside is that throws some polysaccharides so the cheese tends to get pretty slimey in the first week or so.  For a mesophilic culture I actually cultured it from cultured butter (sometimes called "Normandy Butter" or "Irish Butter" since those are the two main areas with a tradition of using cultured butter).  I got a brand new container of butter, took a tablespoon out (having sanitised all my equipment first!) and put it in a 500ml glass jar of milk.  I brought it up to 32 C to melt the butter and then held the temp at about 25 C for a day and a half.  I was rewarded with full fat buttermilk (which is essentially a mesophillic yogurt).  I recultured *that* again (to make sure it was full strength) and then put it in a sanitised ice cube tray and froze it.  That then went into a double bagged freezer bag.  When I want a buttermilk culture, I put 2 cubes in 500 ml of milk and hold it at 25 C for about a day.  It's worked really well.  (Funny thought: At first I was thinking, "Oh I hope this butter isn't pasteurised"... And then I thought, "How could you pasteurise butter?  It would melt!"  Which made me realise that I definitely could culture the buttermilk culture from butter).  As you have have been making yogurt, you'll know the drill.  Just remember the thermophillic is high temp and mesophillic is room temperature.

Also, when I was making the acid formed cheeses, I wanted a hoop to use as a mould.  I cut the top and bottom off a plastic 500ml soda bottle and poked holes in the side (inside out) with an awl.  This makes a surprisingly good hoop.  You just need a bamboo mat at the bottom for it to drain.  I usually put the bamboo mat on a maturation box, my cheese cloth over that and the hoop on the cheese cloth.  Then I ladle the curds into the hoop.  The whey drains into the maturation box.  I fold the cheese cloth over the top of the hoop and put another bamboo mat on top of that. This allows you to flip the cheese easily.  Anyway a 500ml soda bottle is exactly the right size for 1 liter of milk with an acid formed cheese if you want the height and width of the cheese to be about equal.  A beer can will slot perfectly into the hoop, so if you fashion a follower from a piece of plastic, you can use it to add some weight.  I started making another hoop from a 1.5L soda bottle, but I got tired of it and figured I might as well splash out for a proper mould.

One other thing, which I can't do in Japan, but I noticed in the UK...  At a halal butcher I saw they were selling lamb stomachs.  So... presumably you can get rennet from there (assuming they include the right stomach).  You are probably unlikely to be able to find that in Taiwan, but you never know...  In Japan, tripe is really, really popular, but I've never seen calf stomach whole.  I should ask my butcher, just out of interest.  Probably not cheaper than importing rennet, but it still might be interesting/educational.

[River Bottom Farm]

[quote author=mikekchar link= (Funny thought: At first I was thinking, "Oh I hope this butter isn't pasteurised"... And then I thought, "How could you pasteurise butter?  It would melt!"  Which made me realise that I definitely could culture the buttermilk culture from butter).
[/quote]

Butter is pasteurized in its milk/cream form then separated and churned. Cultured butter is made the same way but meso cultures are added to the cream once separated and then ripened before churning.

[SlowRain]

Thanks. You've given me a lot to think about. Admittedly, I'm not up to speed on the science or terminology yet, just the basic steps of making yogurt & acid-based cheeses. I'll check out those websites you mentioned. They seem like good resources.

I may have misspoken when I said "tofu cloth". The package seems to indicate it's for making that radish "cake" they often eat here at breakfast.

Thanks, everyone, for the welcomes and extra information.

[mikekchar]

Ha ha!  I bet you have a similar cloth to mine, then :-)

[SlowRain]

For a mesophilic culture I actually cultured it from cultured butter (sometimes called "Normandy Butter" or "Irish Butter" since those are the two main areas with a tradition of using cultured butter).  I got a brand new container of butter, took a tablespoon out (having sanitised all my equipment first!) and put it in a 500ml glass jar of milk.  I brought it up to 32 C to melt the butter and then held the temp at about 25 C for a day and a half.  I was rewarded with full fat buttermilk (which is essentially a mesophillic yogurt).  I recultured *that* again (to make sure it was full strength) and then put it in a sanitised ice cube tray and froze it.  That then went into a double bagged freezer bag.  When I want a buttermilk culture, I put 2 cubes in 500 ml of milk and hold it at 25 C for about a day.  It's worked really well. 

If I want to make ricotta, can I use this method to make my buttermilk?

Also, we have a cheesemaker here in Taichung.  He's an American who has started up his own business called Dida Creamery.  I've bought a few cheeses from him before.  He offers mozzarella classes every now and then, but they don't carry any of the ingredients to sell to people making it at home.  Anyway, I went to see their store again today.  I still don't have a source for raw milk (I don't think they're allowed to sell to the public), but I have some leads for low-temperature pasteurized milk.  His wife is friendly and helpful, so I may have a knowledge resource there.

EDIT: I have to correct a comment I made above.  I assumed the milk was not ultra-pasteurized because I didn't see "UHT" on the cartons.  That's because it's in Chinese (duh).  It turns out I'm using ultra-pasteurized milk for making yogurt, I just never thought to look at the info on the carton before.

[mikekchar]

Yes, you can make buttermilk that way (or at least  I have ;-) ).  Sounds like you are on the right track to get everything going!

[SlowRain]

And I may have found a source of HTST milk.  Now I just need rennet, citric acid, calcium chloride, and litmus paper.  But that'll all come slowly.

[mikekchar]

Ricotta doesn't need rennet, calcium chloride or litmus paper.  In fact, you don't need calcium chloride unless you are using rennet. 

[SlowRain]

Yeah, but I know a guy coming back this fall who used to work for a brewery and is into making kefir & yogurt, roasting coffee, etc.  I'm going to hit him up for some rennet, as I know him well enough (he's bringing me a grain hand mill, too).  I'm going to try to work my way up to mozzarella (and use the whey for ricotta), but I don't know a good progression from where I am right now.  Any suggestions?

I picked up some citric acid and calcium chloride today, too, so I'm getting a few things in order.  I never thought to ask at the shop about litmus paper, though.  If I can't find that locally, I'll have to get him to bring me some.