Cheese makers of the world unite!!

[Ananke]

Wow! I am totally impressed especially as you don't keep cows! Do you blog/youtube your cheese making as you obviously have skills which fellow small producers could benefit from. Do you recommend any reading apart from the Wiki page?

Thanks, I was really quite impressed myself, first time I'd tried a Swiss style cheese. I'm quite a newbie at cheesemaking but I did consider videoing some of my makes as I couldn't find many UK videos, not sure how my broad Glaswegian accent would go down mind you

I tend to use the forum attached to that wiki page

CheeseForum.org » Forum - Index

like this forum, there are lots of really helpful people there, although I did find these experienced guys were a wee bit too technical at times for people just starting out but it did force me to do a lot of reading.

Here is another forum link for the cheese in the picture

Culture Question

[Ananke]

Wow! from me too .What a wonderful achievement. So you should be bursting with pride and joy.It looks absolutely delicious.Yum.

Thanks two brews, it tasted amazing. I had planned to mature half of it for a while longer but this lot devoured it in a couple of weeks.

[Jakejakeyjakejake]

Do I need to buy mesophillic starter to make cream cheese or is there an alternative ?


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[Alison]

Do I need to buy mesophillic starter to make cream cheese or is there an alternative ?


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I just make cream cheeses with milk and lemon juice.

[poly]

Love cream cheese. I've used buttermilk and live natural yoghurt and both do well, possibly prefer the buttermilk.

[poly]

ps good thread, just having a good read

[Jakejakeyjakejake]

Love cream cheese. I've used buttermilk and live natural yoghurt and both do well, possibly prefer the buttermilk.

Are they really soft cheeses using lemon and live yogurt I want to make roule style so would need to not be to runny lol


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[poly]

I've not tried using lemon juice, only with a drop or two of rennet. If it works pretty much the same as rennet this might suit;

This is taken/based on Katie Thear's Neufchatel Cheese,
2 1/2 litres of full fat milk (shop bought)
2 tablespoons of live yoghurt (not low fat types) or 1/2 a pot of buttermilk
1 drop veg. rennet dilute this in a little water while you

Warm the milk to 21C and add the yoghurt, gently stir in and leave for 20 mins.
Add the rennet and again gently stir in. Cover and leave to ripen and set, overnight works well or anywhere from 12 to 18hrs should be ok.
Line a colander with cheese cloth and ladle in the soft curds. Make a bundle with the cloth by gathering up 3 corners and then wrap the 4th corner around the others and tie. Hang up to drip, when no more drips place back in a colander still in the bag with a plate on top and then a weight, couple of tins whatever. Place the colander in a bowl to catch any liquid and leave overnight.

Next day - remove cheese from the cloth place in a bowl adding salt to taste, mix well. Then add any herbs, chilli or garlic whatever takes your fancy. Store in the fridge, I usually put mine in airtight containers.

I've not made a roule, but adding garlic to the above mix and then shaping it into a log or oblong and rolling in dried herbs works well.

[Alison]

I just warm up full fat milk (probably could use others but never tried and surely cream cheese needs a bit of cream ). Then add lemon juice, a drop at a time until it curdles (stirring all the time). Leave it to settle for a short while then put all the curds in a muslin bag to drip for a while. It tends to be about the consistency I want after about 45 to 60 mins. Can then use as you want. Can also use vinegar but I find you can taste it too much even if you wash the curds before eating. You get the hang of how long to leave it to drip drain and can roll, shape or add herbs etc as you want.

[poly]

That sounds a lot easier than what I've been doing

[Jakejakeyjakejake]

I just warm up full fat milk (probably could use others but never tried and surely cream cheese needs a bit of cream ). Then add lemon juice, a drop at a time until it curdles (stirring all the time). Leave it to settle for a short while then put all the curds in a muslin bag to drip for a while. It tends to be about the consistency I want after about 45 to 60 mins. Can then use as you want. Can also use vinegar but I find you can taste it too much even if you wash the curds before eating. You get the hang of how long to leave it to drip drain and can roll, shape or add herbs etc as you want.

I'll try both and do a taste test


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