Cheesebuff.....The Big Cheese?

Hello everyone,

Zoe mentioned that I might start a new thread about my cheesemaking. I have titled it Cheesemaking for Beginners, because that is what I am. I have only made 3 kinds of cheese. I have learned that it truely is an art and some of my cheeses have been better than others.

The first time I made cheese, I am not sure how good it was, but I was so delighted that I had actually done it! I have found a very simple recipe for mexican style fresh cheese: Queso Fresco, and make it and share it with some hispanic friends of mine. They love it because it reminds them of the cheese their grandmothers used to make.

I start with farm fresh milk, raw, unpasturiezed and non-homoginized. It took me a while to get used to the strong, pungent flavor of the fresh milk. I was so used to the processed milk that really doesn't have much flavor that I wasn't sure if I liked the "real" milk. In the state that I live in, it is illegal to sell fresh raw milk in a store. A person can sell directly to you if they have 3 or less cows. If they have more than 3 cows they are not allowed to sell their milk raw to anyone. This is related to sanitation. Fresh raw milks make the best cheeses. I have only experimented with cow milk as of yet, but I will be trying goat milk one of these days and make "chevre". It can be expensive to buy this coveted milk here, up to 11 dollars a gallon, however I have a good connection and can get it for 5.00 a gallon. This has made it affordable for me to try out this little hobby, because it takes a lot of milk to make a small amount of cheese. You only yield about 1 lb of cheese per gallon of milk.

This is all for now.....I have to get on to work....it is 9 AM here in the Pacific Northwest. I will bring home my conversion calculator today so I can make some handy conversions since I know more of you are on the metric system and I am on the oddball measuring system!

I will post more later about some cheesemaking instruction sources, online shopping etc. Them perhaps some of you in different places could share some of your local sources for supplies in your areas for others.

I will tell you more about what I have done and learned next time!

Am looking forward to following this one, & reading about your expertise,

thanks Lizbuff...

Well, I was only thinking this week, I really MUST try my hand again. I have only made "crowdie" so far and would like to make a semi-hard cheese. I can get unpasteurised fresh milk from the farm next door, BUT he has had TB in his herd so my husband says NO! But that's by the by - looking forward to hearing about your experiences.

Hmmm....I suppose if you are following you will develop your own expertise as I develop mine!

I really would not consider myself as having much expertise, but I am learning and I will share my successes and failures with all of you.

I would like to learn how to do some harder cheeses as well, though they take a little more work. I will be shopping my local craigslist, etc. to look for some cheesemaking supplies and order some special "molds" sometime in late Sept. I would like to try to make a cheddar this fall. Right now I have too much going on in the garden to do too much cheese, but we will pick it up a notch with the cheesemaking come after the first frost here.

Watch for my upcoming post on basic white fresh cheese. It is very simple and quite delicious to accompany several different types of meals. The last time I made it, I added Jalapeño and it was delicious. I think you could add what ever flavor or herb you wanted to really, to compliment the meal.

Please tell me about the kinds of rennet that are available to you in your areas? I am purchasing a liquid vegetable rennet. I don't believe I will ever try to aquire my own rennet naturally.....When using the rennet to seperate the curd from the whey, I believe it is important to follow the instructions on the package. Also.....this is where the art comes in....the temp, the time, the rennet......tell me about the rennet available to you.