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In cheese making is that critical to be within a degree or two?  I am talking about the whole process from warming the milk, to washing water to final pressing temperatures.  The reason I ask is I make cheese in the home kitchen with a large pot on the stove top with or without a water jacket and it is very hard to be exact.  I can understand 5 degrees or more but 1 or 2 degrees, not really sure.  Does it also depend on the type of cheese your making?

Andy

adalton, strive to hit your marks, but don't freak out about the temps.  Yes, you may lose a bit in reproducing the same consistent results every time, but if you're within a degree or 2, you're in the ball park. Like you mentioned, 5 degrees is a bit of a stretch. Your acidity could develop faster or slower depending on if you've gone over or under your temp mark.  Do your best, and keep making, you'll learn the nuances of your equipment.

Do take good notes of just what temps you do reach, though, as there are slight differences in results.  You may find that you really like cheese made with a certain variation and want to replicate it.

I have always said that the hardest part of cheesemaking, is heating water.

It is amazingly hard to manually hit a specific target temperature, and keep it there.
Let alone manually walking a temperature protocol up 3 degrees ever 5 min, for 45 min.

Advice I give to new cheese makers is always, practice your heating protocols on pots of water.