Hi I'm from Griffin, Georgia USA. I started buying cheese equipment two years ago, made some mozzarella a couple of times and butter several times and just tried my hand at stirred-curd cheddar about 2 weeks ago. I make home brewed beer, home made soap, lip balm, have two honey bee hives. I have A Cheesemaker's Journey by Mary Jane Toth as my guidebook. One thing I have an issue with is a cheese cave. I have a small apartment refrigerator I am using at the moment with the temp control as low(warm) as it will go without cutting it off. It doesn't say anything about it in my book, but I got an email from a company I had bought a couple things from and they had some tips in it, saying you should turn waxed cheese over every day for the first two weeks, then every other day for two weeks and then once a week to keep whey from building up and rotting the cheese. Mine had already been in the refrigerator 11 days before I started turning it over...will it be ok? How long would I have to wait before I could take a tiny piece out to check it?
Also I am interested in what would be involved selling cheese. I keep rotating in my mind about starting my own business and some how incorporating my honey, soap, lip balm, butter and cheese into the mix... I am wondering about what would be involved as far as, do you have to be inspected by the USDA as far as cleanliness etc? I saw someone selling Amish cheese, jams and jellies from a wagon and wondered how that worked.... could you do it out of your home, have to have a separate processing building?
Welcome to the Forum. A well drained and pressed cheese should not contain any whey. The reason for flipping a cheese every day for the first several weeks is to both distribute the moisture in the cheese and to make the wheel more or less symmetrical. A new cheese that is not flipped may develop "elephant's foot" (use your imagination). After a couple of weeks you can switch to every other day, then a couple of times a week and finally weekly. As the cheese ages it dries out some and becomes more rigid.
Selling the cheese you make is very complicated to do legally. Your best source is to search the Georgia Department of Agriculture's website and look for a dairy and creameries unit. The USDA gets involved usually through the state agriculture department. Some states are helpful others are not. The major problem is that the USDA has little "relief" for the little cheesemaker compared to the big boys - the regulations are the same. You have to essentially do what they do so the "meter" starts showing big dollars fast. Realistically, you are likely looking at an investment in equipment of a minimum of $50,000 with a laid-back state agricultural department and over $100,000 with rigorous one. This does not count the cost of the facility, aging room, show room, etc.
I took a brief look at this in Washington State last year and tossed in the towel. Our state is big in dairy and we have an Ag Dept that pushes the concept of artisan cheese making. They even have two day seminars on it! But, the seminar is on regulations and only coincidentally on cheese making. They will meet with a prospective cheese maker and go over the design pointing out what is necessary and what is not. They also will work with the prospective business during construction. This is a big help but does not avoid the high costs.
Interestingly, a restaurant may make cheese in their Dept of Health approved kitchen and sell it for consumption on the premises. Apparently, the Ag Dept bows to the Dept of Health on this one.
Kern, that is an interesting distinction. (Loophole? Swiss Cheese hole?) So the solution is simple: just start your own restaurant -- bound to be cheap, right? And specialize in cheese ... ! :)
thanks... wow well to start I probably already have an elephants foot. My cheese press is tall, maybe 12 inches? and about 6 inches round, then I had a spot where the curd tore slightly, so it sagged on one side. :) When would be the earliest I could take a piece out to check it? Here is the cheese press I have: http://www.sausagemaker.com/TSM-Stainless-Steel-Cheese-Press-p/24-2210.htm (http://www.sausagemaker.com/TSM-Stainless-Steel-Cheese-Press-p/24-2210.htm)
I was afraid of that! Govt red tape! I merely just wanted to make a little to sell at farmers markets and such....and as far as restaurant, what about a "cafe"? Probably be the same? Maybe have cheese, breads/bagels/fruit and drinks, sweet desserts and things like that...not that I would probably go that route.
I have been unemployed since the first week in January and have back problems that is making it hard to find something else, so I was trying to figure out something I could make/do on my own.... I wonder how the Amish folks sold their cheese I saw. They changed the farmers market completely, and I haven't been able to go, so I don't know if they are still selling their stuff.
BeeFarmer, I should have said this in my previous post: welcome to the forum!
I am sorry to hear about the back issues -- as I am crossing into the upper 50's, it is quite annoying how various parts of my body seem to be informing me that they are getting old, creaky, and sore. :(
On the farmer's market: I wonder if there is any sort of loophole there that allows selling products that otherwise would require a lot more red tape -- ??
On when you can try the cheese: Any time you want to. But a cheddar is likely to be disappointing at best until it gets past 3 months or more. Since you waxed this, you can strip off the wax, take out a plug with a "trier," sample the inner end of the plug, and put the rest of the plug back to continue aging; then re-wax. Don't try to strip just part of the wax off and rewax just that part -- far better to strip it all and rewax the whole thing. (Don't ask me how I know ...) But even better and more convenient: consider investing $60-100 in a vacuum sealer. I resisted going this route for some time, thinking the traditional wax must surely be better. Finally I bought a fairly basic FoodSaver unit ... and oh, my, what a difference -- it does a far better job of what the wax is supposed to do, sealing up the cheese against mold or other invaders. But unlike the wax, it is easy to see if, for example, whey is weeping out, and provided you left a little extra on the bag, you can open the bag, sample/dry/whatever, and then re-use the bag to reseal it. My crock-pot full of cheese wax has been sitting unused ever since.
On the cheese press that you have, a couple of comments:
1) Depending on the size (volume of milk -> size of finished cheese) that you are wanting to make, and the type of cheese that you are wanting to make, I think you will want to get some other molds. For example, if this produces a perfect 2-gallon make cheddar style cheese, you're going to get something that is way too tall for the diameter if you double the recipe.
2) Looks like this depends solely on the screw pressure, i.e., no spring involved? The screw will allow you to exert a great deal of pressure (e.g., for the final stages of pressing a cheddar), but it is not so good as far as a) steady pressure -- as soon as the curd compresses a bit, the pressure will decline, and b) knowing how much pressure you are applying -- particularly in the beginning, you do not want to put too much pressure on, lest you seal the rind with whey trapped inside.
Of course, it matters not what press you use or mold you press it in or whether you use wax, vac-bag, lard wrap, or natural rind -- all that matters is that, in the end, you like the cheese you get. So we will be expecting a taste test report, preferably with pictures! :)
Quote from: awakephd on February 15, 2016, 12:33:53 AM
Kern, that is an interesting distinction. (Loophole? Swiss Cheese hole?) So the solution is simple: just start your own restaurant -- bound to be cheap, right? And specialize in cheese ... ! :)
Last night I took Elizabeth to a valentine dinner at a local restaurant in our small town. This place has the best food in town and they really try to do quality and be unique. We've gotten to know the owner and she knows I make cheese. See urged me to get my food handlers license from the state. With this I could come into their kitchen and make cheese that could be sold and consumed on the premises (cheese platter, Belper Knolle shavings, for example.) The ingredients would have to be delivered to the kitchen commercially and the cheese made and aged on the premises. Under these circumstances the Department of Health has regulatory control. They could call in the Department of Agriculture but I doubt that this would happen sans selling wheels of cheese at the counter. So, the practice would fall under food preparation regulations. The owner is particularly interested in short aged, pasteurized milk varieties: Cams, Belper Knolle, Reblochon, etc.
thanks awakephd! Oh! I already have a vacuum sealer, in fact my first went out and I bought a new one last year and haven't hardly used it... I didn't know you could use it instead of wax.
Yes, the cheese press has a spring. But I used it incorrectly on this first cheese and bent the support bar that is 1/4" steel and had to contact the company for another part. I also have a "press" I bought and the lady that runs the store told me I could use weights like from weight lifting sets... I checked and the only ones I see are expensive. Actually I have a set, but they are heavy plastic coated and would be easy to slide off I think. The press/mold I have is this one: http://www.leeners.com/cheese/store/tomme-cheese-press.shtml (http://www.leeners.com/cheese/store/tomme-cheese-press.shtml)
Haha! yeah, I made some pretty ugly mozzarella, I thought I was going to make strings like string cheese, but it wasn't like that, but it tasted good. But my dad is a cheddar lover, so I am sure he is waiting to see the end result of this too!
Yes, you are exactly right on both counts: you can put weights on that mold (that you linked to) for pressing ... and they will easily slide off. Even if you use weights with a rough, non-slippery surface, they can come crashing down, putting a dent into the hardwood floor you installed with great care and labor not so long ago ... oh, sorry, had a bit of a flash back there. :( The problem is that it is nearly impossible to keep the weights perfectly balanced; as soon as one side of the cheese dips just a bit, the weight begins to shift, causing the cheese to slant even more, and sooner rather than later, boom! Down come the weights.
Also, the amount of weight you can successfully put on such a mold, without an actual press, is relatively limited. The weight is applied directly, with no mechanical advantage to multiply it -- so if you need 200 lbs to press a stubborn-to-knit cheddar, you have to pile 200 lbs. on top. (Please don't try this at home -- see above.)
One solution is a screw-type press, such as you have, with or without spring(s) to help even out the pressure. Another (and generally simpler) solution is a lever-type ("dutch" type) press. Do some searching on this forum and you'll see all kinds of designs, some of them quite simple to make. There are also one or two folks who sell very nice lever-type presses that they make; the Sturdy Press is one that come to mind -- very elegant, clean design. These are often designed to use a jug of water as the weight -- a gallon of water is ~ 8 lbs., but after going through pulleys and the mechanical advantage of the lever, you can wind up with as much as 200+ lbs. on the cheese. And if you want to go crazy, some disturbed person has posted plans for a compound-lever press that can, theoretically, go up to 1200 lbs! (Though I have never tried it above 900 lbs... :))
On the vac sealer -- as I said, this has quickly become my favorite way to store my cheeses. I generally wait two-three weeks before sealing one, to give it plenty of time to breathe and to develop a nice rind; that may require some brushing and/or wiping with white wine or vinegar+salt or some such to keep the mold at bay along the way. Sometimes I have deliberately invited some b. Linens to set up shop, let it go for three weeks or so, and then bagged, stopping the action of the b. Linens but keeping some of the complexity of flavor.
I would readily admit that vac-bagging is not the most artisanal way to store the cheese -- and entirely wrong for some cheeses that really require a natural, well-colonized rind (e.g., bloomies, tommes, etc.). One of these days I'm going to try a lard-and-cheesecloth wrapped cheddar to see how much more flavor it has. But for most of my cheeses, the convenience of the vac-bag wins!
Sounds like you got a lot of experience in Chevy Chase cheese molds? ;D Heck, I had even considered putting a piece of cloth over a piece of ply wood and set it on the plastic mold and then set a concrete block or two on it! haha! Well, I don't have any money to spend right now, so I will stick with the stainless steel one... I don't plan on making any huge wheels of cheese anyways... (wheels? hmmm, I wonder if I could use a truck tire as a mold and....) ???
Well, if you use a truck tire, you have to be sure you get one with the proper type and number of plies. Otherwise, your cheese will not be pliable ... :)