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Saturday 5 November 2011

All you need to make a bit of cheese

I see! That's how you get the holes!

Making cheese is really not that difficult. Making GOOD cheese is a bit more difficult. Making a living out of selling good cheese is akshully quite difficult.
To start off you don't need that much and you can find all you need online and in small shops.
I myself bought everything online and I spent not more than 60 euro (+ 70 for a fridge).


Shopping list:

  1. Milk (5 liters approx for 1 Kg cheese, NOT ONLINE!!! :))
  2. Rennet (animal, 250 g, 7.5 euro)
  3. Starter culture (Mesophilic and thermophilic for different recipes, 6.5 euro each)
  4. Cheese moulds (ricotta moulds 7.5 euro for 50, pecorino 7.5 euro for 50)
  5. Thermometer (6 euro on ebay)
  6. Cheesecloth (5 meters x 35 cm, 8 euro on ebay).
  7. Old fridge to be converted into a cellar (70 euro second hand in a town nearby)

I bought most of the stuff from these guys: http://www.tecnolatte.it/pages/acquista
but I think they deliver only in Italy (Rowena, they're close to you!)
If you are in the UK there is a pretty good ebay shop which I might use in the near future, they are very nice and helpful (thanks Ann!) and the shop is called "Small Farm Supplies".
I got my Cheesecloth here, it was extremely cheap.
Regarding the Cheese cave, most people tend convert old fridges or wine cooling units by substituting the thermostat with one like this, and by adding a fogger and an hygrostat to build up humidity like in this post: the cheese cave, but for the time being I'm going to rely on the inbuilt thermostat (it looks like it could do 12C°) and the built in humidity (I'll dedicate a post next week to the cheese cave).
So far, so good. All the stuff should come in next week. So exciting!

4 comments:

  1. Good luck! Can't wait to try some. I'm sure it'll be great, if your pizza (and cooking generally) are anything to go by!

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  2. Uhm.... you made me be wanting to turn myself into a cheesemaker!

    The problem, in my opinion, is just that: how you make a "good" cheese?

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  3. You might be surprised by how easy it is at a home-made level ;)
    Milk quality is the biggest factor. The second is the right environment for aging, finally it is really trial and error and being good in the kitchen. I'm sure Rowena would make you excellent cheese :)

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  4. Cheesemaker! Maybe in another life. I akshully love the whole idea of buying cheese, the aroma that tickles your nostrils, the tasting sessions, the supercalifragilistic and expialidocious VISUALS of looking at all those lovely shapes and sizes.

    Okay I'm ready for the next part of this adventure.

    ReplyDelete

Comments welcome from almost everyone :)