I’m completely willing to make cheese for friends that ask nicely! Send me an email if you’re interested and we’ll discuss more 🙂
Cheesemaking Photos
Queso fresco curds right before pressing.
Ready for waxing!
Wax has a low melting point and is very flammable. Always melt it using a double boiler setup.
Slabs are stacked on top of each other, doubling their height. They are flipped over every 15 minutes for the next 90 minutes.
Chemicals used for queso fresco (7/3/2014) Shot glasses (left to right): calcium chloride, mesophyllic starter, lipase powder Bowls (left to right): rennet solution, cheese salt
Gouda has been waxed and will age at least 3 months before we can eat it.
Layering strips in the cheese pot. Learn from my mistake: DON’T CROSS THE STRIPS.
Mozzarella with red pepper flakes added.
Cheddar cheese that has been air dried for about 24 hours.
Cheddar “slabs” stacked, but not criss-crossed.
Queso fresco will be pressed under 30 pounds of weight for 6 hours.
8 quart and 20 quart double boilers.
A wheel of Farmhouse Cheddar air drying under a piece of cheesecloth. This cheese will be flipped twice a day until a yellowish rind develops on the edges.
Queso fresco that has been pressed for 1 hour
Mozzarella with sun dried tomatoes, garlic, and truffle salt
Wax is sold as a big, solid brick.
Milk with annatto coloring added.
Cheddar cheese curds before pressing.
Cheese curds have formed!
Left to right: calcium chloride, citric acid, red pepper flakes. A rennet tablet has been dissolved in the white bowl.
Hang cheesecloth to drain.
Curds in the mold.
Before adding rennet the plastic container will glide across the milk easily. After adding rennet the milk will coagulate and the container will appear to get “stuck”. The time it takes to get “stuck” is used to calculate how long the milk needs in order to completely coagulate.
Dip cheese into melted wax then put on wax paper to dry. Repeat until entire cheese is waxed, using the paintbrush to seal in any gaps.
Tomatoes wrapped with dill mozzarella.
Rounded gouda (left) next to a flat bottomed cheddar (right)
Cheese can now be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
Cheese under 40 pounds of pressure. The weight pushes whey out of the cheese, making the final cheese both dryer and firmer.
Pour yogurt into cheesecloth.
DON’T drop the cheese into the wax.
Yogurt cream cheese.
- Colby Jack Cheese (1/24/2017) – Colby Jack is a semi-hard cheese with a marbled look that is created by combining curds from Colby and Monterey Jack cheeses. I think the most challenging part of this cheese is running two cheeses in parallel and hoping that they both finish at the same time. If you decide to make this cheese, I […]
- Asiago Pepato (Part 2) (7/11/2016) – I was asked to make a few cheeses for a wedding coming up in October. Here is the first cheese, an Asiago Pepato. I started with a two gallon batch for practice, and to work out any bugs in my process. Then I scaled up the recipe to make a 4 gallon batch. The smaller […]
- Asiago Pepato (1/26/2016) – Asiago cheese with peppercorns in the middle. I’ll probably only age it for 2 months because I’m curious how it tastes! Written by: Anna on January 26, 2016.
- Chocolate Chip Cheesecake (11/29/2015) – I’ve been wanting to post about cheesecake for several months now, and what better time than just after Thanksgiving? Rather than just posting pictures with a brief description, this post will walk you through my cheesecake recipe step-by-step. It takes several days to make a cheesecake, so I recommend planning ahead. Several of these steps […]
- Shaping Gouda (7/9/2015) – If you have ever purchased a wedge of Gouda, then you may have noticed that the cheese tends to have a smooth, round curve on one end. Standard cheese molds make flat, pill-tablet shaped cheeses with a corner and not a round edge. I’ve heard there are tricks you can use to simulate a bowl-shaped […]
Leave a Reply