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Cheese-making guide

Added by: rom

Date posted: 2023-08-28

This is a complete guide for making your own cheese, from simple to advanced.

Milk

10 L

for 1-2kg of cheese

Bacteria Culture

10 g Optional

Rennet

1 g Optional

1. Store some raw milk in a non-toxic container: use glass. Avoid plastic, or cartons, at all costs. Avoid metal, even stainless steel (can leech metals and conducts EMF).
   
2. Wait until the raw milk starts separating. In cold temperatures, it takes a few days. In summer, a couple hours. Just leave it at room temperature, in a dark cupboard or anywhere.
3. Optional: If you want the process to go faster, you can warm it by putting the container in hot water (less than 36.6°C / 98°F preferred). You can also use rennet (preferably homemade raw, without additives).
4. The first thing to separate is the cream, on top. Scoop it and store it for other use, or to add back later (for full-fat cheese).
   
5. Strain the whey. The raw milk ferments and separates into whey, a transparent liquid, and curds, which are technically early cheese, and have a jello-like, moist texture. Put the whey aside: you have cheese.
   
6. At this point you already have the earliest form of cheese. You can decide to go further with the next steps, as far as you like (for a few hours, to months!).
7. Further straining: The curds still contain a lot of whey liquid. You can hang them in an organic unbleached cotton cloth (first wash the cloth with some of the whey).
   
8. Further straining: The curds still contain a lot of whey liquid. You can use a makeshift “press” to push it out faster, with a weight to apply more pressure on top, or by pushing by hand.
   
9. This step is completely optional. You can add bacterial cultures to your cheese if you want it to ferment in a certain way, to get a certain taste. For example. if you previously made a cheese that you liked, you can reuse a piece of that one, and add it to your new cheese, so that the bacteria transfer over. This can be done earlier during step 2.
10. Dry-aging: Store the cheese on a surface, plate (glass, ceramic, untreated wood). Do not store it in a jar: it would mold fast. The cheese can dry even further by being in contact with the air. Make smaller cheeses: they will dry faster, and make sure to turn them on their other side every few days. If you have a dry-aging fridge (usually for meat), it will dry even faster. You can put it in sunlight, if not too hot.
11. Aging in a cave: The other method for aging cheese, the more traditional one, is much slower, but will make the cheese much tastier. Cheese caves are places with controlled temperature and moisture, they are cool and humid, usually at 12-15°C (53.6-59°F) with maximum humidity. Over months, the cheese develops taste, and a rind, but dries very slowly. It is possible to fast-dry it after this step.

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