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You are here: Home / Archives for cheesemaking

Homemade Cheese Press

April 13, 2019 by Jason 6 Comments

I was asked recently about my cheese press and if I would be willing to show some pics and explain it. I’m always happy to ablige. This is a cheese press that I made for cheese making. I made it using all scrap materials and specifically recall, I made it over the winter in my bee mentors workshop… when I was supposed to be building beehive.

It’s rudimentary, but it gets the job done. It’s the only one I’ve ever used and I still use it today. Sure there are some quirks that I’ll explain, but with a little thought, maybe I’ll eventually figure out the clever tweaks it needs. Anyone can look around on the net and find ideas, and maybe even some plans. I refused to buy any because of the simple nature of the device. I also wanted something that I could tuck away when I wasn’t using it. Hence, the design is my own.

First, here is what it looks like when it’s collapsed and ready for storage.

Simple and collapsible.

The black base was a piece of scrap counter top that was cut out for the sink. This is particle board in nature, but it’s compact, and of course, has a piece of Formica laminated on the top. So far, so good, over the many years it’s been used, there’s no sign of de-lamination yet. However, the acid from the draining whey has discolored and stained it a bit. I wanted to bottom to be durable, smooth, and sanitary since that is where the cheese mould would be sitting… on a corrugated may, of course, to allow the whey to run out from under.

Spare hinge holding on a 2×4.

From the pic above, you can see that I have a hinge holding on a 2×4 that can be tipped up when it’s time to use it. The block under the 2×4 is simply for stability. Another critical piece is the wire coat hanger that goes from the top of the 2×4 back down to the front of the base. This is critical to hold things steady as we swap out various weights during use. You can see this in the next pic.

Wire coat hanger that hold the column steady.

Next, are the lever arm and the plunger. Both were made out of some scrap walnut that I had laying around. The shapes are my own. I just drew some sketches and based them off many of the presses I have seen on the internet. I knew what the press would have to do. Sometimes, based on the height of the cheese mould, the plunger may need to be adjusted up or down because we’ll always need the lever positioned in a way that we can hang various weights off it based on the amount of weight we need. As you can see, both are simply held together using some bolts I had laying around.

Walnut lever and plunger.

Here is the press fully assembled. When I use it, I hang the front edge over the side of the sink on my counter. It let’s the whey drip into the sink and I can leave the press set up for as long as it’s needed.

Assembled homemade cheese press.

Now, the quirks… or should I say quirk. There’s only one. We need to adjust the amount of weight that we are pressing with. Typically, you start low, say 5 or 10 pounds of weight, for 30 mins to an hour, then increase to maybe 20 pounds for an hour, then 50 pounds for 2 hours, 75 pounds for 5 hours, and then maybe even 100 pounds, etc. Different cheese have different weights and times. The idea is that when you press low, you are allowing the proper amount of whey to escape from around the curds. If we pressed with too much weight too soon, then we actually trap whey inside. The whey is acidic and it develops the cheese in different ways. The right amount of whey need to be evacuated at the proper rate so that acidity is properly managed. That said, I use my bathroom scale under the plunger and then I add weight with whatever I have laying around to get it there. It used to range from a dutch oven hanging on the lever with stuff in it, to my more modern approach of using real bench weights. Also, weight can be adjusted simply by where you position the weights on the lever arm. So, a 5lb weight could actually weight more when it’s moved out to the furthest end of the lever arm. Notice the blue rubber band on the lever arm. That simply holds whatever I have on the arm from slipping in the even the arm is angled downward slightly. If it’s too far downward, then I can adjust the plunger lower by selecting a higher hole on the plunger arm.

Pressing Esrom cheese at 75 pounds.
Checking the weight using my bathroom scale.

So that’s it. I’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and maybe even hear about the press you made. I’m sure this could be improved upon. Who knows, I may one day buy a real cheese press but as long as this one keeps doing what it does, there’s no need. I do love upcycling and any excuse to re-use the stuff that I tend to squirrel away for the right need.

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Filed Under: cheesemaking, do-it-yourself, food/culinary, how-to Tagged With: cheesemaking, do-it-yourself, food/culinary, how-to

Pasteurize Milk via Sous Vide

March 8, 2019 by Jason 7 Comments

All you need to pasteurize milk at home is a stove, stainless steel pot, and a thermometer. You slowly warm the milk to 145F and hold the temperature there for 30 minutes. Once done, you’ll quickly cool the milk down to 40F (by putting the pot in a sink with ice water) and then store in the refrigerator.

Using a stovetop however, comes with a few things you’ll need to watch.

First, when warming your milk, you’ll want to stir it often to keep the heat dispersed throughout. If you let it sit too long without stirring, it can scorch (or scald). It can also scorch if you heat it too quickly. If you have a double-boiler, this is even better then a single pot and decreases the likelihood of scorching.

I put a dedicated thermo probe in the milk so that I know its temperature at all times. Once you’ve reached your target temp of 145F, you’ll need to watch the heat and keep stirring to keep the temperature up. This may entail increasing or decreasing the heat of your stove to keep the milk above 145F for the full 30 minutes.

Finally, when cooling, you’ll also want to stir in order to cool it down quickly. The longer it takes to cool, the better the opportunity for spoilage or bacterial contamination.

Enter sous vide

I decided to try pasteurization using my Anova immersion circulator. Since I use it regularly to make cheese, it made sense to try pasteurization with it as it almost eliminates the possibility of scorching. The longest part was getting the water bath up to 148F (I set the circulator to get the water bath about 3-4 degrees hotter than my target temperature of the milk). The next time I do it, I’ll get the circulator going ahead of time to get my water heading towards 148F. While scorching is not nearly as likely, stirring is still recommended just to disperse the heat evenly to get the milk up to the needed 145F. I still keep a dedicated thermo probe in the milk so that I know it’s at the proper temperature. Once the milk hit 145-146F, I was able to walk away from it and it maintained the steady temperature the entire time. The process was easy and I think I’ll move to use my sous vide circulator for my future pasteurization needs.

If you’re really a techie, here’s the Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker w WI-FI and Bluetooth, the same as mine, but the wifi allows you to control the unit remotely.

Your comments are always welcomed!

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Filed Under: cheesemaking, food/culinary, how-to Tagged With: cheesemaking, food/culinary, how-to

Make Esrom Cheese

March 6, 2019 by Jason 2 Comments

Here’s my first attempt at Esrom cheese. It’s a trappist-style cheese that should turn out creamy/semisoft… but not as far as brie or camembert. Named after an abbey of monks around the 12th century, it’s a washed rind cheese. What’s interesting is that we often don’t press a softer cheese, but rather let it sink into the mould. This one, however, gets pressed with increasing weight all the way up to 75 lbs. These are usually hard cheese weights. How we prepare the curd and stifle the acid development, we retain a lot of moisture. Even after pressing, the wheel is pretty pliable and needs to be handled delicately. It’s brined after pressing and before air-drying for a few days. The next regimen will take special attention to caring for the rind. It needs to be flipped twice a day and I’ll do the first wash when I see the geo tric kicking in. I’m bound to have unwanted molds start and that’s where it’ll take repeated washes to get that off and let the white and red molds kick in. See more info on pics.

If you want to try to make this cheese, here is a link to the recipe I used from Jim Wallace at Cheesemaking.com.

For cheesemaking, I now use the Anova immersion circulator and I don’t know what I’d do without it. You can really control the temperature, including holding the same temperature for as long as you need, and also manage the ramping of temperatures needed in most cheesemaking. If you’re really a techie, here’s the Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker w WI-FI and Bluetooth, the same unit, but has Wifi.

Sanitization is critical. I boil my cheesecloth, moulds, and bamboo mats in scalding water to have ready for pressing.
The curd is cut to about 3/8″ size and is pretty soft. We’ll cook it to firm it up a bit. When squeezed, it should willingly consolidate, but then kind of fall apart.
This is a washed curd cheese too. I removed a third of the whey and replaced with the same amount of 120F water. This slows the acid development and also starts cooking the curd.
The curd is pressed by hand into the mould to help consolidation.
Close-up of the curd.
First press is only 8 pounds for 15 minutes.
After pressing with 8 pounds the first 15 minutes, it was 30 minutes at 25 lbs., 60 minutes at 50 lbs., and 5 hours at 75 lbs. I went longer than 5 hours though as I thought the curd was still a little too wet. So, I left in the press for maybe another 5 hours.
A nice consolidated curd before brining.
In the brine. I did 7 hours on one side, and 7-8 on the other after flipping in between. This is also kept at 55F.
After brine… now drying.

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Filed Under: cheesemaking, food/culinary, how-to Tagged With: cheesemaking, food/culinary, how-to

Make St. Marcellin Cheese

December 24, 2018 by Jason Leave a Comment

St Marcellin is a very soft and creamy cheese ready to burst out of the thin rind with the least bit coaxing. As such, it’s often shipped and bought in little crocks or ramekins to hold it all together. The feature shot above was sent to me by my friend Chris Mitchell when I sent him a round to try. Thanks Chris.

The St. Marcellin recipe I followed is from New England Cheesemaking Company here. Traditionally made from goat’s milk, it’s more common to find it made with raw cow’s milk today. Little rennet is used because coagulation is by lactic acid development and not so much enzymatic. The curd is developed for over 24 hours at room temps (72F).

I also used buttermilk culture and not the regular mesophilic culture used in many of my cheeses. The result is heaven. It only ages for about a month and is ready to eat. Some people like it aged further… and since I made a 4-gallon batch, I had enough to eat some, give some away, and still let enough age in the cave (both with and without ramekins). Mine turned out just about textbook both in taste and appearance. I’ve added captions to the photos to provide more detail.

For cheesemaking, I now use the Anova immersion circulator and I don’t know what I’d do without it. You can really control the temperature, including holding the same temperature for as long as you need, and also manage the ramping of temperatures needed in most cheesemaking. If you’re really a techie, here’s the Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker w WI-FI and Bluetooth, the same unit, but has Wifi.

Heat the milk to 72F… but in my case, since I brought it home from the cow, I had to cool it down.
After reaching 72F, it needs to sit for about 90 mins. OK to stir periodically to keep the cream stirred in.
The rennet is added, and then it sites for just over 24 hours!
The curd is then cut. Notice not too much. The curd is still in large chunks. The pH is around 4.6 at this time.
I used my ladle to cut the curd further as I filled the molds round-robin style.
The whey slowly drains, and it sinks in the moulds.
The mould are topped up again and allowed to drain.
Keep filling the moulds until all the curd is in the moulds.
The curd is left to drain and as soon as possible, you’ll flip it. Flip 1-2 times before letting drain overnight.
The next day, I salt both sides and allow to sit still in the molds overnight again.
The next day, I remove the rounds and put in a covered container in my cave to achieve 52F and 90-95% RH.
At 12 days, the cheese has a dusting of mold. I’m still flipping twice daily.
I keep flipping the cheese twice daily.
After 15 days or so, I put a couple rounds in ramekins and covered with breathable wrap. I just wrapped all the others.
Here are the cheeses in the breathable wrap.
Here’s a smaller one that I made just to use as a test to cut into one.
Here, the cheese is pretty awesome, but notice the inner part still needs to break down a little.
Here, we’re looking at the cheese at it’s finest hour, in my opinion.

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Filed Under: cheesemaking, food/culinary, how-to Tagged With: cheesemaking, food/culinary, how-to

Make Brie Cheese

September 11, 2018 by Jason Leave a Comment

Brie cheese is pretty easy to make once you are set up to maintain the aging environment. Like most mold-ripened cheeses, it has to sit in a higher humidity to allow the white coat to develop. I have made brie from a number of recipes, but the one that consistently yields my desired results is the Brie Jim Wallace over at New England Cheesemaking.

Since recipes are all over, and cheesemakers don’t usually deviate from the recipe at hand, I’ll spare you of the ingredients and general process since this is all documented at the link above. However, I do want to spell out some parts of the process making this cheese that you should pay attention to.

As I mentioned… it’s easy to make Brie. However, if you are a beginner, Brie is not the cheese to start with. It’s not considered advanced, but it takes a dedicated environment to produce what these soft cheeses want to become.

On some cheeses, you cut the curd, but in the case of Brie, you ladle out thin layers into the mould. This helps preserve the whey and butterfat that you want to maintain in this cheese. How fast the whey drains from the curd dictates the acidity (among other things) and dryness of the cheese. You’ll fill up the mould, and then you need to leave it time to sink down before ladling in more. There will be flipping and allowance to drain over the first day or so.

For cheesemaking, I now use the Anova immersion circulator and I don’t know what I’d do without it. You can really control the temperature, including holding the same temperature for as long as you need, and also manage the ramping of temperatures needed in most cheesemaking. If you’re really a techie, here’s the Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker w WI-FI and Bluetooth, the same unit, but has Wifi.

After the cheese has been salted and air-dried, it is important that the cheese is put in the right temperature and humidity. Recipes talk about the surface of the cheese not being too wet or dry. We want it just perfect to allow the bloom of the desired yeasts and molds.

As the white mold grows, you’ll “pat” it down each time you flip it to allow it to make somewhat of a skin that becomes the familiar white coat. Here again, humidity is critical. I have made Brie so many times and have had various results until my knowledge of things became more solid. If the white mold is growing too fast (typically from too high of a humidity,) it can introduce a strong ammonia smell to your cave… and of course, the taste of the cheese! I usually make a few small rounds that I can cut and sample during the journey to affinage. We’ll often think of a cheese needing time, and patience when really, some may just need to be eaten while they are still delicious.

Fact is, Brie and most soft cheese are to be eaten sooner then aged hard cheeses. Brie has become one of those cheeses that I’ll make when I want to enjoy something sooner.

The first picture below is labeled as a “failed brie.” That’s right. sometimes, things just don’t work out. The curd on this particular one hardened up a bit… maybe because (as you can see) the shallow depth of the cheese. It likely dried out a bit more, but I wouldn’t rule out another flaw in the process. The end result, however, turned out to be a pleasantly sharp “hard cheese.” If I knew how I did it, I’d totally do it again.

I’d love to hear your questions… or even your stories about Brie.

A field Brie, but happy mistake.
Brie rounds ready to eat.
Brie developing it’s white coat.
Brie rounds in the aging container.
Brie just starting to develop the white coat.

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Filed Under: cheesemaking, food/culinary, how-to Tagged With: cheesemaking, food/culinary, how-to

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About AllMorgan

AllMorgan started as a family blog to keep extended family and friends around the world apprised on what's going on at the Morgan Ranch. Over the years, it grew in to something so much more.

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Welcome to AllMorgan

AllMorgan started as a family blog to keep extended family and friends around the world apprised on what's going on at our Indiana homestead. It always been a cross between a family diary and photo … Read more

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