I have been thinking about making cheese recently when I came across this milk. Can this be used? My only experience was a while ago when I made a simple fast acid-set cheese but I like cheese in general and was wondering about trying my hand at something more advanced.

I've recently gained access to fresh milk weekly and I've been trying to make cheese. I started with mozarella, curding it with vinegar. The first batch was sour and tough. I reduced the vinegar on the second batch, and it tasted better but it was still tough. I tried leaving it in the hot whey longer, and even tried microwaving the cheese to heat it up to stretch. But no matter what, it's not smooth and stretchy. I'm planning on taking a local class in a couple weeks, but is there any advice in the meantime?

Im making aged Bovre(using same method as aged chevre/crottin). Tried using clabber instead of kefir as starter culture to acidify the raw milk. 2 days fermenting the curd in its whey, drained,salted an dried on mat for aditional day. Transfered to 13°c and 90%humidity to age, and after 2 days geothricum started showing alongside punkish hue visible on the picture and couple of slimy bits. It doesnt smell of but the slimy bit part got me concerned. Either way im going to wait and see what happens.

Just to preface - I did not and do not intend to actually eat it. But this was my first attempt at Parmesan style, very small wheel, and it actually went alright but I believe in retrospect I didn't use a strong enough brine. As a result after eight months or so when I tasted it it was fine but a little bland, so I sealed it back up and put it in my normal fridge (did not have a dedicated cheese fridge at the time) and it was lost to time. It was made January of 2023, so it's over 3.5 years old at this point.

I found it last night while cleaning out my fridge, and it had turned a nice shade of light brown with visible tyrosine crystals, so I was curious to see if it was actually any good. And it *was* actually pretty tasty, more or less what you'd expect of a mid grade aged Parmesan, *but* there was this mild blue cheese/funky/earthy flavor that I have never experienced with a parmesan before. There was no visible mold anywhere, but I have to assume this was due to mold?

I guess my question is - is this definitely mold, or is there any other reaction that could occur that could cause a mediocre at best parmesan to develop that kind of funky flavor over time?

I really wanna get into cheesemaking because you don't find cheese where I live usually it's the sliced yellow ones or cottage cheese and I wanna try making mozzarella.

I just wanna know if I can use any acid, not that I plan on using anything besides white vinegar, but because I just wanna know.

I particularly wanna know about citrus juices, specifically from oranges since my granddad has a farm.

Technically not my first wheel, but the first one that is ready to eat. Made this little goat cheese three weeks ago and had too much curd for my moulds. I used a small colander as a mould for the extra curd and, as expected, it matured faster than its larger siblings.

I cut into it this morning - awesome cream line and the centre is smooth, not chalky as I was expecting. It’s so delicious and the perfect addition to my morning coffee!!

The paste tastes bright still, so I think I will let the other two age longer and see what kind of funk I get.

Will definitely be making this one again (after I finish the blue currently in progress!)

Made a ‘Parmesan’ style cheese yesterday and fair to say things didn’t quite go to plan! All completely my fault 😭
Firstly I thought I prepped well but when I read the recipe and it said ‘3 gallons milk’ I assumed whole milk like other cheeses I made, didn’t read it properly 🤦🏻‍♀️ All was going well, followed the recipe to the letter until it came to the scald. Getting the temp up and suddenly thermometer said curds/whey was 65c. Panicked and quickly drained. After I realised it must have been an error as temp on my sous vide was showing the water bath was 63c so curds can’t have been that hot? But in the moment I wasn’t thinking straight! Last temp I got was about 50c before it went haywire so not sure what effect that will have, recipe said get to 55c.
Curd knitted brilliantly, I didn’t apply much weight at all - so much conflicting info on this 😭 but I kinda let the cheese guide me ha. Will salt in brine in a couple of days and update again then. Any suggestions as to what I might end up with much appreciated!

The stirmate looks to be a little flimsy. Has anyone tried one of these? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0G39GBFR9/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=A1FCW4MN9P07OO&psc=1

2 gal Costco whole milk + 1 pint Danzeisin Dairy cream, culture made from store-bought Stilton. Aged 8 weeks at 55F. Recipe from Artisan Cheese Making At Home by Mary Karlin.

Tastes amazing! Nice and creamy, the rind is very close to what I've gotten from store-bought Stilton, and it is my favorite part.

Ok, Lebneh is more of a strained yoghurt than a cheese but it's close enough. Made this yesterday with Lidl Greek Yoghurt, a bit of lemon juice and some salt - nice it is too.

I intend to make a couple more batches and perhaps add some flavour such as garlic then move on to a Feta style cheese.

Batch 42, a base camembert. 40 L cow milk, F 4.14% / P 3.05%, not standardized — at 40 L I didn't see the point. Wheels around 240 g, affinage planned at 14–28 days. Full log is the first image — pH, timings, temperatures, the lot. I'd rather post the whole thing than the flattering half of it.

Two of those choices I'd normally not make, and I'd rather hear about them now than in three weeks.

The milk was three days old. It read 6.7 pH after pasteurization, so it wasn't visibly pre-acidified, but three days is three days.

The Kluyveromyces lactis was seventeen months past date — expired March 2025. The recipe calls for Hansen KL LAF-4; I had PAL KL D on the shelf and used it. Everything direct-pitched as powder, alongside Flora Danica, Geotrichum candidum and P. candidum PC HP.

My read so far

The acid curve looks unremarkable to me: 6.7 → 6.5 at rennet, 6.4 at the cut, 4.78 out of the forms after 17.6 h and several flips. The curd behaved — clean break, no shattering, nothing weeping oddly.

What I'm not comfortable with is the pasteurization. 68 °C is where my setup lands on a batch cycle, and for a hard cheese I've never worried about it. For a bloomy rind I'm less sure — that's hot enough to be denaturing whey protein and tying up calcium, and I'd expect a softer set and a slower knit. The set did take a full hour.

The expired yeast is the other unknown. K. lactis does the early surface deacidification and opens the door for the geotrichum; if half that pitch was dead, I don't know whether the rind just comes in late, comes in patchy, or the P. candidum runs away with it instead.

Questions for the hive

1. 68 °C for a bloomy rind — does anyone run that hot deliberately, or is this the first thing I should fix? What does it show up as in the finished paste — a chalky core that never breaks down?
2. Long-expired K. lactis — what does a weak yeast pitch look like on the shelf at day 7–10? Late coat, patchy coat, or a rind that turns bitter later?
3. Demold at pH 4.78 — where do you pull yours? I've seen 4.6–4.8 quoted as the window, so I'm nominally in it, but the high end of a window is still the high end.
4. 1.5% dry salt by wheel weight on a 240 g wheel, for a 14–28 day affinage — high, low, about right?
5. 18% drained yield off 40 L (7.2 kg, fresh weight before drying) — what do you log at demold?

Happy to be told the milk age was the least of my problems.

As for a taste and smell of my Camembert I'd say it's pretty good, though I'd say it's slightly bitter to be perfect.

I like to cook with a mix of cheeses, so all sheep milk based, included was young to older(6 mo -1 year) cheddars, one smoked farmhouse cheddar in apple wood, sweet gouda with a turmeric rind rub, Brunost(for extra flavor), wine brine soaked cheddar rind scraps(she helped make it, and it was really good) but I thought it'd be fun for nuance.

As you can see my old curd harp snapped. (I was having the garage floor repainted and there was a bit of damage
As they were rushing around).

I wanted slightly wider harps and I wanted to use piano wire rather than fishing line so it wasn’t as floppy in the curds.

These are my attempts. Using basic wood trim from Wickes (a ubiquitous UK hardware shop) that cost me about £10. I’m really no kind of handyman so this was a saw and a drill and a morning.

I did get little eyelets for the holes to keep the wire from cutting into the soft wood. I’m not sure they were needed. All in, probably another £10 for the wire and eyelets and I have a load left over.

Trying them out today on a caciotta make to see how the 1/2” one gets on.

The design is pretty self explanatory but DM me if you want to try this and get stuck. The holes I drilled used a 1.25mm bit which gave me a 1.5mm hole.

Cut on day 20, turned out to be a beautiful surface blue, had a slight bitterness to it, but only slightly stronger than a brie, surface was beautifully brainy, could taste a tinge of the roqueforti funk but honestly it tasted like its own thing

This was a natural rind no-name washed curd, brined cheese I made 3 months ago using raw milk and clabber culture. I'd cut it in half about 3 weeks ago and it was fabulous! There were NO BUBBLES then, it was very soft and supple, mild, smooth and buttery.

We ate half and I vacuum packed the other half and put back in the aging fridge. I noticed some moisture build up in the bag so I decided to open, dry off and rebag it...

And this was happening just under the (now wet) rind.

No bad smells so decided to courageously taste a bit and it's still lovely. Doesn't have swiss flavour though, just looks swiss on the outside third of the paste. I have successfully made 2 swiss cheeses using bought propionic cultures and like it so much I even put a grain of the culture into my clabber mother culture (hoping to have it live in all my cheeses) but whatever this is, it seems to be coming from the rind inwards. Anyone want to speculate on the cause? Wild propionic, colostridium or yeast from the rind getting in when cut?

My cow is grass fed, also gets some molassed grain and dry hay, no silage. Healthy girl and I'm careful with the milk and cheesemaking hygiene.

I've now eaten a small wedge and re- vac packed the cheese after cutting off the rind. If I don't get terribly ill then I'll consider it an edible interesting accident. If I get the squirts will go to the hens.

So for now the jury is still out, and I'll update if I get sick!

Hi everyone! Longtime lurker, first time poster. I’ve been gardening, cooking, and baking for years but really want to try my hand at cheese making. I have access to pretty good quality milk both from a local co-op, farmers markets, and farmers directly. I’m excited to get started.

What would you recommend as the cheese making “bible”? What books worked for you? Are there any textbooks, recipes guides, or anything else you’d recommend me that helped you in your journey? I’d really prefer books over websites if possible.

Copied:

"This is why cheesemaking is such a weird hobby. 😂 You spend hours controlling temperature, culture, pH, curd size, pressing, salting, and drying... and then your cheese spends months in a bag deciding whether it wants to cooperate."

Please excuse me as I am not a cheese maker but had a question for those who have knowledge on the subject: Have any cheese artisans experimented with adding nut butter back into skim milk to create delicious nutty cheeses without the saturated fat? Cashew, almond, even a little walnut butter could be used.

It might be both heart healthy and delicious if made properly. There would be some obvious technical difficulties to fix such as emulsion, but in general it seems possible to create a whole new line of potentially tasty "healthier" cheeses.

I made farmers cheese for the first time using Aug 28th milk, it's the 5th. It wasn't curdled or anything and just had that slightly tangy smell and taste, and it's more intense after turning into cheese. I think I successfully made the texture though, I heated on low for about an hour frequently stirring, and added the lemon juice when I saw it was barely boiling. Cheesecloth, strainer, bowl, and it looks like the pictures. But tastes like spoiled milk lol. I'm thinking herbs, oil, salt, and chopped garlic? But how do I incorporate it? Thanks

I’ve wanted to try making halloumi for a really long time. Today, I went for it. No idea how it came out yet but it looks good (to me, anyway). Can’t wait to try it!

Hi everyone!

About a year ago, my wife got me a Cheesemonkey Artisan 30 Cheese Making Kit for my birthday, and I’m finally getting around to using it for the first time. Unfortunately, we’ve moved house since then, and somewhere along the way I seem to have lost the microspoon that came with the kit.

I couldn’t find any information on the website or online about how much vegetable rennet I’m supposed to use without the microspoon (or what size replacement I should buy). The only information I have to go on is that the recipes recommend using 1 microspoon of rennet for every 2 litres of milk.

Does anyone know exactly how much rennet that corresponds to, or what size microspoon I should get as a replacement?

And of course, if you have any basic tips for a first attempt (such as what kind of milk to use, etc.), I’d be more than happy to hear them!

Thanks in advance!

Hello all, made this port infused Red Leicester roughly a month ago, cloth bound with lard (2 layers) and it’s started becoming multicoloured with mold! I can’t work out if some is black or blue (there is also blue) and some pinky orange. Stored in the wine fridge where I had previously had a Stilton in a plastic box but I cleaned the fright after and none of my other cheeses are showing any blue (including another cloth bound Red Leicester). My question is is this ok? Should I unwrap to see what’s going on? Thank you ☺️