cheesemaking resources?
So basically, i've decided i want to start making cheese at home...i know it's a pretty time consuming effort, and definitely one of those things where you can probably buy better products than you can make, but still, it's something i'm interested in. I've already made a basic ricotta cheese, but i'm interested in more complex--and more flavorful--cheeses. I'd really like a good all purpose "how to" book on cheesemaking--does anyone know if anything like this is out there? if not, what are some reputable resources for home cheesemaking?
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4 Comments:
This site is great. Good luck!
chicagochic at 9:33PM on 09/30/09
If you live somewhere near a dairy, you might want to try to get some raw milk for your cheesemaking. Sometimes pasteurization and homoginization affect your final product.
beth1 at 12:59AM on 10/01/09
I started making cheese a few months ago. While I'm still very much a beginner, I can give you some good resources and tips.
First of all, cleanliness is extremely important, because the slightest little thing can cause your cultures to go wrong so you don't end up with the product you desired. Second, organic milk makes a MUCH tasiter chees in the end. And since you'll be saving so much money (after your initial investment), the little bit extra you pay for that milk isn't too bad.
Also, most people recommend starting with other dairy products first to learn how to handle milk properly.
That being said, the following resources will be helpful to you :
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/cheese.html
Also, I'm currently working my way through "Making Artisan Cheese" by Tim Smith. It's very good.
Chicagochic is very right, raw milk tastes better and is much easier to work with (some cheese you'll need to use raw milk unless you can find calcium chloride, which I haven't yet). There is a website I found that will list places to find raw milk for you. It is here : http://www.realmilk.com/where2.html
fractious at 2:05AM on 10/01/09
I recently purchased "Home Cheese Making" by Ricki Carroll, and it seems to be a pretty good basic how-to book for cheese making. Something worth checking out at your local book store anyway.
I've recently started the at-home cheese-making madness as well. If you have ricotta down, probably the next logical step is mozzarella. A mozzarella kit (or the individual kit ingredients) can be purchased at http://www.austinhomebrew.com/ and there's a video for mozz making on their site as well. Best of luck to you!!
hungryengineer at 9:43AM on 10/01/09