Nifty noodles!

Did you use a candy thermometer? I haven't seen my thermometer in about 2 years, so I forget what temp. range is on it.

It would be interesting to try the one pound recipe for cheese instead of getting held up at the grocery store. I always tell the cashier that I'd like to report a robbery. She hates me.

The price of cheese up here is outrageous.

the price of cheese everywhere is outrageous, holly.

Denninmi, thanks for that link. After canning season, I've been threatening to make cheese. I already make yogurt, so that seems like the next logical step.

Annie

I'm paying 2.99 for a pound of butter, and I can still get 4 liters of milk for 2.99, so I don't know what's up with the price of cheese.

DH is now telling me that 1 pound of cheese is 4 dollars. I'm pretty sure that's incorrect, as I haven't seen a package under 7 dollars for quite some time.

Not only is the experience of making cheese interesting, I'm trying to figure out if it would be cost effective too.

A pound of cheese is $4? Not here, even an 8 ounce block of the grocery store Kraft stuff is nearly that.

Good stuff is at least $7, going up into the teens....

Annie

I thought that he was mistaken, or he's been shopping on a planet that I've never heard of.

Do you think that a candy thermometer will suffice to monitor the temp of the milk? Chemo-brain has left me wondering where I put that darned thing.

Yeah candy therm works well. That is what I use when making yogurt.

Dave

Thanks Dave, but now it looks like there's going to be much difficulty in finding rennet tablets around here. Even the health food stores don't carry them.

Rennet is found at wine and beer making supply stores. I still have several here. An old dessert called Junket used to be rennet and milk which was flvored and would cabbor to a yogurt thickness.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rennet tablets

Thanks Ken, but still no luck. There isn't a single person that knows what I'm talking about either.

I did find one place out west that will ship out to me, once I place an online order.

If you order from the source I linkd to, they can ship that with citric acid, acid blend, and even pectic enzyme if you want to make fruit based syrups that you don't want to gel and set up. The source I provided also has many other cheese making supplies. They are nearby me, and have been in business since the early 1970's. I know the owner Karen too.

Holly - 1 source I found said that in Canada it is also called chimosina, chymosine, rennin, or microbial enzymes. Don't know if that will help or not.

Down here it is sold in health food stores too.

Dave

Actually, it was a chance encounter with rennet a couple of weeks ago that prompted me to finally make the cheese recipe. Been wanting to do it for a couple of years now, and I was at Kroger looking for pearl tapioca, and there was Junket brand rennet tablets in an 8 pack, sitting right next to the pearl tapioca above the jello and pudding displays. 8 pack of tablets was $2.79 - most of the cheese recipes use either 1/4 or 1/2 tablet, and they are scored to break easily.

Yeah I threatened to make cheese last year after an article in Mother Earth News. Have the box of Rennet Tablets and have access to raw milk, just never got around to it.

Thanks for all of the info!

Ken, that site offers much, much more than our stores up here do. If making cheese seems something worthwhile doing, I'll probably use them for equipment, like a cheese press. Hey, Christmas is coming up!

Dave, I googled some of those terms and was off on another online adventure. I did go with the company out west as they had the rennet tablets in a blister pack of 10 for 4 bucks.

It says to keep the unused rennet tablets in the freezer to help prolong their lifetime.

New england cheese making supply has every thing you need
the online recipe for quick mozzarella is great I had to experiment with different store bought milk to find one that works well

Here is a link that might be useful: cheese supply

I love making cheese! I have been doing it for two/three years now and boy is it ever worth it! If you have access to raw milk you can scoop the cream off and make butter, and buttermilk for baking or even whipped cream, then use the milk for the cheese. You get like three products out of it and don't have any waste! I love it! I just get a couple gallons when I need it from my neighbor for 2 dollars a gallon, pasteurize it at home, then I'm all set. I've found the cheapest place to buy cheese supplies is Hoegger(sp?) goat supply. New England cheese supply has more variety though. I believe Hoegger just sells the basics.
: )
Holly

Thanks so much for posting this site! I have thought about making my own yogurt and cheese and things but I didn't know anything about how to do it. I love how this site tries to use common/inexpensive items. I made my first yogurt today and soon I will try the cheese. It was soooo much fun and it turned out very good.

Carly

I've always said that I wanted to try to make goat cheeses but I cannot dedicate the time to a milk goat right now. I'm so glad your cheese turned out well, that is a big accomplishment!! Lori

My mom would make cheese out of yogurt. She used a fine mesh filter and allowed it to drain in the fridge overnight. The next day it was almost as firm as creamed cheese and she would spread it on a toasted bagel.

Well, I tried to do mozarella, but the curd never set up at all, so I was forced to cook it into ricotta, which actually turned out really well, so no loss by any means. The Feta turned out really good. The first cheese, cheddar-type or whatever you want to call it, is NEVER going to last the 30 days recommended for aging -- every time one of us goes near it in the fridge, another piece gets cut off for sampling.

Wow, this reminds me of last spring when I was making cheese nearly every morning because my husband decided to milk 2 of our beef cows that lost their calves. Kind of like a science project, temperature, cultures,enzymes and timing are very important. (the New England Cheese Supply is awesome) I made my own press with a PVC pipe with holes and made wood disks to fit inside. My weighting were not accurate, but I guess it didn't matter since most of the cheese got eaten before it totally aged anyways. The harder the cheese (Romano or Parmesan) the more pressure._

Quite frankly there's not big money to be saved making your own but it is fun and I learned to appreciate the process. It takes 10 lbs of milk to make 1 lb of cheese and I can buy basic cheddar around here for $4.00 a lb. (homemade yogurt is definitely money saving though 1 gallon milk =1 gallon yogurt)

I like the fast mozzarella recipe using citric acid when ever I was in a hurry but I did experiment with some of the other hard cheeses although most did not make it through the aging process because of sampling.

Oh, I agree, this isn't a money-saving thing at all, just a fun project. I got milk on sale for $1.49 a gallon, and I don't know how long those price levels will last, I've heard there is a big milk production glut right now and prices have collapsed, so a lot of dairy farms are going belly up, and prices are expected to go the other way in the near future.

Yogurt is definitely cheaper to make at home, and also the ricotta I made, 2 gallons of milk and a quart of buttermilk, which cost me $3.75 total, made almost 4 pints of ricotta, and that stuff is about $4 a pint unless its on sale, so I'd say that was a good return on the money.

Lucky people who are not lactose intolerent.

KSrogers, did you know that the process of making cheese removes most of the lactose from it? I know that in making yogurt, if you let it culture for the full 24 hours it is supposed to, that all of the lactose is gone. I am also lactose intolerant, and can eat yogurt made this way.

Jenny P

Yes, most cheese I can deal with. On the other hand sour cream and buttermilk are both like dynamite. I can't even enjoy an ice cream cone anymore, unless I carry lactic enzyme with me and some insulin. I do eat yogurt, the Activia Light brand. Helps diverticulitus issues.

Yippee! The rennet tablets came today!

They also sent a sample package of mesophilic culture for the production of buttermilk, sour cream, cream cheese, gouda, etc., using "set milk". FOR FREE!

Did you get the vegetable rennet tablets? I first started with the Junket rennet tablets and love the vegetable rennet tablets much better. Sets a firmer curd and always is set up at the recommended time. Junket wasn't always as reliable. I always store the cultures and rennet in the freezer too. They'll have a longer shelf life that way.

I believe the mesophilic can also be used for cheddar and colby type cheeses. If you every buy buttermilk (and it has the active culture in it, another words, not pasteurized) you can use that as a mesophilic culture too.
Active plain yogurt can be use as a Thermophilic culture (basically cheese cooked at a higher temperature).