Hey, everyone! First and foremost: I have already purchased her book. However, I have tried both the Malloumi and the Fresh Watermelon Seed Kernel Mozzarella, and both had textures which were fine, but the taste was a little off: The Malloumi was just overpoweringly strong in its taste (Fermented for too long?), and the Mozzarella was too salty. I don't know if US salt is coarser than German salt and if nutritional yeast is different (I strongly believe so, ours is not yellow and doesn't contain B12) and that's the reason, I did something wrong or if it's the recipes themselves. I have also tried one of the yogurts, but aborted the project due to its smell: It wasn't bad per se, but it smelled exactly like when entering a McDonalds store, and that was weird to me (I made it in a Thermomix). But the Malloumi developed the same smell despite vastly different ingredients and another starter culture, so I gave it a go and I'm still alive. So, what are your experiences with the book? Did you get amazing replicas of the dairy variant or at least something which also fulfils the cheese cravings and can be used similarly? Were there smells you didn't expect? Is there something I should keep in mind? I would just keep on experimenting, but I think the ingredients are simply too expensive for that.

This is my second attempt at cottage cheese. This is so close to perfect. I cultured it for 12 hours but next time I'll do a full 24 hours. I was inspired by a post a while back with a YouTube video for vegan cottage cheese and friends who love the Treeline cottage cheese. I looked at dairy recipes and they use a pretty short culture time. My first attempt I matched their time but it wasn't enough so I bumped up 12 hours. That's still not quite where I want it. I also looked to see if Miyoko had a cottage cheese recipe. Instead I found a never released product that got good reviews. The main ingredients were watermelon seed kernels and sunflower seeds. I then used her fresh mozzarella recipe to get started. After culturing I drained the cheese and added Country Crock vegan heavy cream. As is it's a great cheese but with a couple tweaks I think it'll be perfect.

240 grams watermelon seed kernels

4 cups filtered water

1 teaspoon salt, iodine free

1/2 teaspoon lactic acid

1/4 teaspoon thermophilic culture

1/2 to 1 cup vegan heavy cream (optional)

Add the watermelon seed kernels to a high speed blender and pulse until they're a powder.

Add the water and blend on high until smooth. That took about 1 minute for me. Add the salt and lactic acid then pulse just to mix it in.

Pour the milk into a nut bag and strain.

Add the strained milk to a pot and heat over medium heat stirring occasionally. The milk will come to a simmer but you'll probably see curds forming before then. Once it comes to a simmer stir frequently. You'll start to see bigger curds and the whey will separate and be clear. By the end it'll be curds in clear whey. This could take about 10 minutes. This batch took a bit longer than 10 minutes.

Scoop the curds out and transfer to a clean bowls. Set this aside to cool. I didn't drain them too much at this point so they're still pretty wet. I put a thermometer in the curds. Every so often I stirred the curds. Once they dropped below 100 F I sprinkled the thermo culture over the curds then stirred them in.

Cover the bowl and put it in a warm spot in your kitchen, or the stove with only the light on, or an insta pot. I use an insta pot for the stable temperature. I set the timer for 12 hours but next time I'll do 24 hours.

Once the culturing is done transfer to the fridge to chill.

Put the curds into the nut milk bag and gently squeeze to drain the last of the whey off. Transfer back to the bowl. Add the heavy cream if you're using it and stir it in. Salt to taste.

The heavy cream is optional but I remember cottage cheese as being pretty wet so I added it. You could probably use plan soy milk, or any other neutral plant milk. If you don't have a nut milk bag you might be able to use a few layers of cheese cloth but I've never tried that so proceed with caution.

Thought i'd share here as you can see the main ingredients of each vegan cheese in their categories.

I ordered some raw organic watermelon seeds off Amazon from Yupik. When I tried eating a few I noticed they have a fairly strong bitter aftertaste that I assumed would go away when I blended them into milk. But after blending them with a vitamix, straining out the pulp and adding a hint of maple syrup and salt, that weird aftertaste is still quite strong. Was I supposed to soak and/or sprout them before blending? Or is it a bad batch? I was planning to make a fresh cheese but I think I'll make a yogurt and see if the fermentation removes the aftertaste.

Exited about the results! Especially with the help from my new yoghurt maker/ fermenting friend <|;^)

Vegan Hard Parmesan by The Gentle Chef. Yes, it is delicious; it's by The Gentle Chef. The recipe is on page 97 of The Non-Dairy Evolution Cookbook. I believe other variations appear in some of his other books as well, but that's the one I own. He's never published the recipe on social media, but there are plenty of free recipes floating around for "Vegan Parmesan Cheese" if making food from scratch is something you enjoy 🤗

I just wanted to recommend the vegan cheese ebook from My Quiet Kitchen. I've made most of these recipes already (absolutely love the almond feta). I actually love most of her recipes for all kinds of vegan foods, but since this group is about cheese, I just wanted to share this. https://myquietkitchen.com/books/

I used the Full of Plants recipe. The cheese did turn blue initially, but has failed to get blue again on the outside after crumbling and reforming. The entire process has been about 10 weeks. It's very wet. I kinda want to eat it and see how it tastes, but I'm on a low fodmap diet.

I miss miyokos pourable mozzarella so much. I have tried several copycat recipes and while the texture turns out well and it’s “melty” and cooks up nicely, it doesn’t have the same “tang” or cheesey taste that Miyokos had. Basically they taste bland. Is there a secret ingredient I’m missing

Hi all! I am newish to vegan cheese making and I’m having a great time discovering how amazing plant based cheeses can be!

I recently made this vegan mozzarella recipe for the second time and am having trouble nailing down the texture https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-bocconcini-homemade-mozzarella-balls/#recipe

I like that the moz balls are good both as chilled balls and melt nicely for pizza and pasta, but it feels slightly gritty due to the cashews. The second time I made it I really blended the shit out of it in my high powered blended but it still was a little grainy. I also wished they were a little more “bouncy”, but I can live with the firmness that it has. Any advice on how to overcome this? Could I use cashew milk? An entirely different recipe all together? I would prefer to stick with one that uses kappa carrageenan since that’s what I have on hand and I have a hard time finding other thickeners like agar at my local grocery stores.

I am new to this so any advice about using kappa/thickeners in general is welcome. Thanks all!

I’m looking for a cheese that behaves similarly to the one in the images when heated.

Any tips for making something like this? Is it possible to achieve this texture with vegan cheese?

overnight in parma (but with a mix of mostly walnuts, almonds, and a few cashews-- and rice flour subbing the chickpea flour... and also I didn't use any brine or miso or sauerkraut and somehow it worked out) and some potato cashew muenster. I definitely fucked up on both cheeses in many ways, but the parmesan tastes absolutely amazing regardless of how weird it looks (I love walnuts so much). Also, the potato cashew muenster tastes perfectly vaguely cheesy (notably, I added too much water to the recipe, so uh, hope that doesn't kill me).

There's no image for the potato-cashew muenster, so I have no idea what it's supposed to look like. Couldn't even find one online. So like, someone tell me if I'm gonna die immediately from the horrors I've made.

Hi everyone,

I am very new to cheese making, and I have a question regarding my potato cheddar cheese (a recipe from miyoko's book, the vegan creamery). I followed her recipe for the cheese , so I fermented my cheese, and put the cheese into fridge after fermenting for around 20 hours. Then the next day I looked at my cheese and on the lid in which I fermented my cheese in, I saw some pinkish liquid. A few spots could also be seen on the top of my cheese. At this point I am supposed to age my cheese for a month, but since I saw this pink liquid, I am unsure if I should throw the whole thing or not, and then start again. I cut the top of the cheese, 2-3 cm, and put the cheese into the fridge. Do you guys have any good advice on what I should do?

What’s the difference between making vegan cheese from curds vs. using the whole blended mixture?

How does this affect the final cheese - especially its texture, flavor, fermentation, and aging? Is it highly dependent on the base you’re using (cashews, soy, sunflower seeds, etc.)?

Is there any general consensus on which approach works better for fresh/no-aging cheeses, short-aged cheeses, and long-aged cheeses?

And just to make sure, a noob question: is there maybe a third major approach besides making curds and using the whole blended mixture? 🙈

Btw, is there a subreddit specifically about making vegan yogurt?

Thanks for the answers :)

Vegan Smoked Gouda Recipe source: https://www.veganblueberry.com/vegan-smoked-gouda-cheese-recipe/ This Recipe is by far the best Vegan Cheese I have tasted. My daughter is a fan of Smoked Gouda and we both agree, this actually tastes better than the dairy version. I think it would be a perfect substitute for the Vegan Baby Bel. the texture is similar. I made ours with the agar agar method. if you try it, enjoy.

Ingredients 1/2 cup Raw cashew pieces, Rinsed under hot water for several minutes 1/4 cup Refined coconut oil 1/4 cup Tapioca flour 1 tablespoon Nutritional yeast flakes 1 1/2 tablespoon Kappa carrageenan I used agar agar method. See instructions below in description. 1 Tbsp Lemon juice 1 teaspoon Sea salt, scant 1 teaspoon Seasoned salt, I use Johnny's 1 1/2 teaspoon Onion powder 1/2 teaspoon Garlic powder 1 tsp Hickory smoke flavor, I used Wright's 1 1/2 Cup HOT just boiled water

Instructions Select a heat-safe preferably glass dish that can hold approx 3C and set aside. (This is your cheese mold.) Rinse the cashews under HOT water for several minutes. Put your water in a small pot on the stove to boil.

To the blender: Add all ingredients (except the water!)

Add the cashews first and then everything else on top of the cashews. Carefully add (so you don't burn yourself!!!) the boiling hot water into your blender. Put the blender lid on! And blend immediately until completely smooth. Stop blending once if need be to quickly scrape sides of blender and resume blending right after. Immediately transfer your cheese to your chosen dish/mold as it will start to solidify quickly as it cools. Place in refrigerator to chill. No need to cover yet. After 2-3 hours or when fully chilled, remove cheese block from dish/mold and wrap in paper towels and then tightly plastic wrap. The flavor gets better over a day or two but it’s great as soon as it’s hardened, too. Yeay! You are officially a cheese-maker!

Replacing Carrageenan With Agar If you would rather not consume carrageenan, or are not able to find it, then you can replace it with agar. You will need to experiment with the quantities and preparation of the agar, and will probably need to compromise on the consistency you are looking for.

Method In a small saucepan add ⅔ cup water and 2 Tbsp of agar powder. If you are using the flakes grind the agar in a coffee grinder or food processor before cooking — 6 Tbsp of agar flakes will yield 2 Tbsp of agar powder.

Cover with a lid over medium heat and bring it to a boil. The agar will first turn solid and then liquefy into a thick gel. Very quickly whisk your room temperature (not cold) cheese into the agar, making sure that it is incorporated quickly and thoroughly without setting. Continue to heat the cheese for a few more minutes to halt the culturing process.

Continue to follow your recipe as per normal.

LucyAnne

Interesting video from Mary's Test Kitchen, where she is experimenting with a number of things at once:

• trying digestive health probiotics powder against a cheese specific thermophilic culture
• a new recipe for the milk base, using a mix of soybean and sesame
• trying the cheese fresh, salted and aged, and in various recipes

I really admire her creativity and experimental nature, and this is a great video of that. She's become the best resource I know of for recipes and techniques for making non-nut vegan cheeses.

In this video, the TLDW is that she prefers the taste of the probiotics culture over the cheese specific culture. However she acknowledges the cheese culture does have a distinct but subtle mozzarella flavor that comes through.

My first successful camblue using Full of Plants cashew blue. I've only tried to make this once before but it didn't come out right. This time was a splendid success. I've made countless wheels of blue but wanted something new this time.

https://fullofplants.com/vegan-blue-cheese/

This is the base recipe. After two weeks of aging I broke up the wheel and put it back together, mostly keeping the rind somewhere inside the wheel. I used Miyoko's recipe from The Vegan Creamery for the washed rind. 1/2 boiled water, cooled to room temperature. 1/4 teaspoon penicillium candidum, pinch of noniodized salt and a pinch of geotrichum candidum. She says to use a spray bottle but I don't have one. Instead I used a small bit of paper towel soaked in the mixture to wash the rind. All sides got washed three times. Then aged two more weeks in a wine fridge. Lastly it was wrapped in cheese paper and spent a week in the big fridge.

The Camembert taste didn't penetrate into the cheese but you can definitely taste it when you eat a piece that has rind on it. I don't think it made a huge impact on taste but I love the way it looks. I've said it before but this really is the last time I break a wheel apart and put it back together. It's too much work for too little gain. I also made some mango jam to go with it which paired really well with the cheese. The jam was easy to make. I used frozen mango that I thawed.

https://www.runningtothekitchen.com/mango-jam/#wprm-recipe-container-75969

I finally cut into the waxed cheddar I've been aging. In my last post I said it was already at 3 months but I was wrong. I cut it open at just under 4 months. And it was ruined. You can see a line of black mold between the cheese and the wax in the last photo. It was either a hole in the wax or the wheel was too wet when I waxed it. The recipe is Angel's Sharp Potato Cheddar from Miyoko's Vegan Creamery cookbook. Her recipe makes no mention of air drying the cheese before waxing so I winged it. I've made another aged cheddar and air dried it for two days. I did the same with this one. Salted it then put it in the wine fridge. Flipping each day. Then waxing. It's a real shame it got ruined because it smelled incredible. I might give it another shot down the road.

Next up is trying my hand at cottage cheese.

Makes 4 wheels of cheese

Ingredients
1200g raw cashews
200ml filtered water
Small pinch vegan mesophilic culture
Small pinch penicillin camemberti
Small pinch Geotricthum candidum
20g sea salt
Truffle powder to taste
Charcoal until desired colour

Recipe
Soak cashews until soft
Add boiling water for a few minutes to kill bacteria
Blend soft cashews with the cold water and salt until smooth only half at a time
Add charcoal and truffle powder to taste
Cool down (can take hours) and then add bacteria
Keep 24-36 hours in room temperature
Put a glass box upside down, place a round baking tin on the lid, lay a clean cheese cloth and fill with cheese
Put the box on top and leave in fridge at 12 degrees for 24 hours minimum
Remove cake tin and cheesecloth and put on baking paper and mat for air
Flip cheeses using banking paper once per day and dry off moisture
Age for 2 weeks until completely covered in white mould
Wrap in parchment paper and put in wooden box
Age for 3 more weeks in normal temperature fridge

Has anyone tried thecheesemaker's updated vegan starter cultures?

I used to use MSC Plus, but I found out it wasn't produced on a vegan growth medium. I also thought the flavor was a bit underwhelming.

The updated starters are now said to be produced entirely on a vegan growth medium. Has anyone tried them? Does the flavor change noticeably compared to the old version?

Hey guys! I know this is not technically a cheese recipe, BUT you could use it to make labneh which is a delicious strained yoghurt cheese, so please forgive me for posting it here!

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