Northern Utah new cheesemaker

[tecla]

Hey everyone, I started learning to make cheese in November last year. We're using raw milk from a local farm. I'm located in northern Utah in suburbia, but our family has a goal to obtain our own homestead one day and have a dairy cow or two in addition to other livestock, and try our hand at regenerative grazing methods in the mode of Greg Judy and Joel Salatin.

My setup so far:

• 3 gal and 5 gal pots
• Wine/beverage cooler as a cave with water pans for humidity
• Brisket knife for cutting curds, and I made a couple of custom curd cutter harps from maple and SS wire for horizonal cuts (1/2" and 1"
  versions)
• A boatload of forms, cloths, and mats from NECM
• A dutch style press I built from hunks of walnut wood I had around

I'll post pics of the harps and the press.

I started learning from David Asher's book, and I like his approach, but I've had a few failures that have driven me towards using DVI cultures rather than kefir. I use a lot of NECM recipes, and I've tried to not bug Jim too much, but I'm really grateful for his feedback. I got Gianaclis Caldwell's book and have been soaking that info up recently too.

Here's a quick log off what I've done and how it went:

Blue: Used a LyoPro mold, made it a flatter wheel. It was okay, but I'll try again with PV and a taller wheel, and get it in the foil wrap and in the fridge quicker after the blue appears.

Pepper Jack: I didn't dry out the curds enough, so it had late acid and got a little crumbly and tangy, but everyone loved it. I used smoked/dried peppers from my garden.

Goat milk tomme: It got infected by the blue, and I didn't close the rind well enough. It was decent, but also too crumbly.

Ibores: It yielded way too much curd, so we probably didn't cook/dry the curd enough, and it got fairly acidic. Again, I used my own smoked/dried peppers for the rind, it sure looked pretty! I had lots of fans of this one, but it was too acidic for me.

A Gouda and another pepper jack: both of these looked great, got waxed, and then had late blowing. Gas smelled like rotten eggs, so my guess is clostridium. I'm feeding them to the chickens, at least I get tasty eggs from them.

Butterkase: This is probably my best success. I didn't put a geo powder into it, and the blue in the cave took over on the surface, so I had to really keep on the rinds of the two wheels. Using kefir as a culture produced a slight aftertaste that I didn't 100% like, but all in all they were really quite good. My kids devoured our wheel, if that's any indication. Will do again with DVI cultures to dial it all in.

Clothbound cheddar: Again, we kefir as a culture. 4 gallons of raw milk. I used purified tallow for the cloth binding, and I think my cloth was too loose of a weave or there weren't enough layers, or tallow is just too permeable, because mold got under the cloth. I pulled it off and scraped the surface, wiped it with vinegar and salt water. At two months (today!) we cut into it, and based on how strong the rind smelled I thought it might not be good, but I was wrong. It's pretty good! Definitely still has that slight kefir aftertaste, but it's not acidic, definitely tastes like a decent mild/medium cheddar, and the kids were chowing down on it. We're pretty happy with it despite the issues.

Hispanico/manchego: I did one that was okay, but too acidic for my tastes. I just did a new one yesterday with my daughter helping that we think will turn out better, used MA4002 for the culture and a tiny bit of Holdbac LC. It's drying now and will go into the cave ASAP.

I've learned a ton already, and the failures have not been in vain. I've now got a good collection of DVI cultures for cheeses going forward. I've also started tracking pH with the most recent cheese make so I can get a feel for how that's supposed to work.

I got burned by the clostridium infections, so I'm getting more diligent about sterilization and also using a tiny bit of Holdbac LC especially for the washed curd cheeses. I talked to the farmer and they said they were definitely not feeding silage or anything like it, so I think the clostridium is coming from my kitchen.

In any case, we're having lots of fun learning!