Cheese making
There are a lot of resources on line; both informational web sites, and also lots of You Tube clips (examples follow).
1. Supplies
Usually I get my supplies from New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, home of Ricki Carroll, 'The Cheese Queen'; http://www.cheesemaking.com/ . I have been buying from them since the 1980s- their web site says it was started in 1978, so I was close to getting in on the ground floor.
They are an excellent source for the small-scale cheese maker. There are many other suppliers for larger scale operations; I am slowly moving in that direction.
This web site has much more than supplies. A lot of recipes and educational materials are available, and they also do classes. (Cheese making classes tend to be very expensive.)
The You Tube clip is Ricki Carroll making the 'microwave mozzarella'. I worked with this recipe for years; then tweaked it with input from other direct-acidified mozzarella recipes so as to use vinegar when I didn't have citric acid; and finally did another tweak with provolone recipes. My present recipe uses raw milk, starter cultures, sometimes lipase, vinegar, rennet, and I do the microwave method about 50% of the time. The other times I try to do the water bath method. It definitely takes longer, but the product is more uniform. I have worked with both fresh prov and aged prov. The last time I had spoken with Peter Dixon, he said he didn't usually use lipase, or used a very small amount. I like it OK if I age the cheese in the fridge for a month or so. I don't like it as much if I age at 'cave' temp. Cave aging changes the taste and texture in very interesting ways. provolone is much moister than the other cheeses I age, so I am learning a lot about how to handle it. More experiments this coming year.
1. Supplies
Usually I get my supplies from New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, home of Ricki Carroll, 'The Cheese Queen'; http://www.cheesemaking.com/ . I have been buying from them since the 1980s- their web site says it was started in 1978, so I was close to getting in on the ground floor.
They are an excellent source for the small-scale cheese maker. There are many other suppliers for larger scale operations; I am slowly moving in that direction.
This web site has much more than supplies. A lot of recipes and educational materials are available, and they also do classes. (Cheese making classes tend to be very expensive.)
The You Tube clip is Ricki Carroll making the 'microwave mozzarella'. I worked with this recipe for years; then tweaked it with input from other direct-acidified mozzarella recipes so as to use vinegar when I didn't have citric acid; and finally did another tweak with provolone recipes. My present recipe uses raw milk, starter cultures, sometimes lipase, vinegar, rennet, and I do the microwave method about 50% of the time. The other times I try to do the water bath method. It definitely takes longer, but the product is more uniform. I have worked with both fresh prov and aged prov. The last time I had spoken with Peter Dixon, he said he didn't usually use lipase, or used a very small amount. I like it OK if I age the cheese in the fridge for a month or so. I don't like it as much if I age at 'cave' temp. Cave aging changes the taste and texture in very interesting ways. provolone is much moister than the other cheeses I age, so I am learning a lot about how to handle it. More experiments this coming year.
2. Learning Resources
a very useful link. http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/CHEESE.HTML . In fact if you back track to his main page you will find an extraordinary number of resources.
In the words of David Fankhauser;
'...I have been making cheese since the early 1970s when my wife, Jill and I began "homesteading" on a little farm in SW Ohio. We were interested in achieving as much self-sufficiency as feasible in the late 20th century. Our activities have included keeping a herd of dairy goats. As a result, we have performed countless experiments making various cheeses, yogurt and other milk products. I teach some of these techniques in my biology labs at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College. In participating in Cheesemaker's Discussion Boards over the years, I have seen many of the same questions arising over and over. To answer the recurring questions, I have put together a collection of my recipes, protocols and suggestions for making and using these various milk products.'
The sharing of information on this website is an act of extraordinary generosity, the work of a dedicated teacher.
3. Pineland Farms
When I saw this clip from their farm on You Tube, I couldn't resist sharing it with you. Their operation is huge compared to what I do. That tank probably holds over a thousand gallons of milk- at the present time I do 10 gallons at a time.
Setting up a Cheese Making Operation
I had gone on tours of cheese making operations (see Pineland, above), had worked out of books (I had bought the first edition of 'Home Cheese making from the NE Cheesemaking Supply Co), and had also learned from everyone who hand on recipes; but my first real cheese class was with Peter Dixon;
http://dairyfoodsconsulting.com/ 'Dairy Foods Consulting Peter Dixon, M.S. Artisan Cheese maker'
If you want to learn about all aspects of cheese making, Peter is an incredibly good teacher. The first class I took with him was on 'cheese affinage'- how you handle and treat cheese in the 'cheese cave' during the aging period. But I came home with that and much more.
The class was held at Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet, Vermont. I was there at kidding time, and the town was taken over by little goat kids.
http://www.considerbardwellfarm.com/index.html
Three of the following You Tube video clips show Peter hard at work making the magnificent cheese, and then I had also to put in one of the farm's goat videos. Please go to these web sites; you will learn a lot. I keep cattle, but her goats make me want to add goats to the farm.
http://dairyfoodsconsulting.com/ 'Dairy Foods Consulting Peter Dixon, M.S. Artisan Cheese maker'
If you want to learn about all aspects of cheese making, Peter is an incredibly good teacher. The first class I took with him was on 'cheese affinage'- how you handle and treat cheese in the 'cheese cave' during the aging period. But I came home with that and much more.
The class was held at Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet, Vermont. I was there at kidding time, and the town was taken over by little goat kids.
http://www.considerbardwellfarm.com/index.html
Three of the following You Tube video clips show Peter hard at work making the magnificent cheese, and then I had also to put in one of the farm's goat videos. Please go to these web sites; you will learn a lot. I keep cattle, but her goats make me want to add goats to the farm.
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A summer without cheese making
2013 has been a unique experience for me- without parallel in the last 10 years or so. My herd management system is an old-fashioned one, with the cattle on pasture whenever possible and a herd bull not segregated from the breeding stock.
Typically breeding occurs when the cattle want it to; in good time, allowing calving to occur over a 2-3 month period in the spring. This method has worked for me for as long as I've had cattle- from 1983 to the present (30 years) (with only the years 1990-1996 as a 'fallow' period without cattle during which I had finished nursing school, moved to Maine, and got my life back together).
The herd size varies, the number of cattle in milk and being managed for cheese production also fluctuates (so far for me between 1 and 3 at a time)- but the milking- and the cycle of cheese making- plays in the summers of my life as a constant theme. Crop, field, and garden management all blend with and incorporate herd dynamics.
2012 had been a year for enlarging the cheese operation. I had gone from milking 2 cattle to 3; from 10 gallon batches of cheese to 20 gallon batches- from 6 pound wheels to 10 pound wheels. The result had been a very crowded cheese aging system, with consequent disorganization and less than optimum air circulation. In addition, while we were able to control rodents, the screening of the 'cheese cave' design allowed fruit flies (or something resembling fruit flies) to get in and attack the cheese. I was not happy. While we indeed made swiss, romano, asiago, jack and mozzarella, I had too many quality control issues and determined to make major changes.
The plan at year's end of 2012 had been to radically expand the cheese cave. Throughout the bustle of that very busy summer, I had laid in supplies for construction of a walk-in cheese cave- small by commercial standards, but very large for me- taking up a considerable section of the existing cellar space, with rodent- and fly-proofing, fiberglass reinforced plastic walls that could be completely washed down, control of ventilation and other parameters, and ROOM- shelves and carts allowing for greatly improved systematic management of cheese and affinage. My dream cave.
I started construction in early 2013, setting up sawhorses in the garage, dragging supplies through the snow to the bulkhead by sled, then down into the cellar for assembly. My design worked out, honestly, well enough, and the cave is so far a pleasant little island in the larger gloom of the cellar. I have yet to do the FRP walls- having waited 'til it was warmer' to cut, transport, and glue the panels on to the walls.
So that piece was in place. And as the winter wore to a close, I continued feeding the cattle and looking for signs of imminent calving.
There was one problem. There was no sign of calves. March, April, May- no calves. I went out and had a serious talk with the bull.
Ted is 5 years old- the longest I have ever kept a bull- and he is huge- maybe 2000# when carrying his full weight. The cattle- Spring Beauty, Little Princess, and Stardust- are all young, 2nd calf heifers, who did well at producing last year. There was no sign of disease, but as I cast back into my memory, my observations of the summer (when I had any limited chance to observe)- did not include any rowdy breeding. Hmmm.
I had changed hay suppliers (when the earlier supplier put his price up to $4.75 a bale, I was done with that), and the cattle were perhaps thinner by winter's end, but I saw nothing to point at as the root cause for the infertility.
So here it is, now July of 2013, and we have no calves, no milk, and no new cheese. (The freezer is still stocked with cheese from last year.)
Part of me is very depressed at the knowledge that my investment in last winter's hay cost is not to be recouped in those aspects of herd output. Another part of me realizes that the herd continues their contribution in fertility for the grain fields, pasture, and gardens. And part of me is simply taking the time that would have gone into the dairying and rolling it over to the garden.
I can see (in retrospect) why my gardens often look so ratty- time you spend dairying is time you don't spend gardening- or harvesting grains- or processing food brought in.
Dealing with the question of what to do going forward is another issue. Ted is a friend and a herd member, and I don't really want to sell him or eat him. Some of my local 'go to' people for farming information have suggested to me that he may actually be *too big* for breeding- that he might injure the smaller cattle. But I need to keep the cow/calf operation going. So I have observed closely what is going on this spring and summer. They have all gained weight, and he has been breeding the cattle. The little mini-bull ('Tiny the 2nd') is also doing his best to breed the younger girls (Sunshine, Shadow, and the Dutch Belt). There is a new ultrasound machine on the market for pregnancy detection, and I think it would be a good investment.
And the cheese cave will be finished, before I need it again. At this point, if the summer continues as brutally hot as it has been, I shall install chairs, a reading light, computer, and use it as a cooling center. I fear that if word gets out, between my husband, my son, his fiancee, the baby, their friends, and the dog, that I will have to wait in line and may have to finish the rest of the cellar into living space.
Typically breeding occurs when the cattle want it to; in good time, allowing calving to occur over a 2-3 month period in the spring. This method has worked for me for as long as I've had cattle- from 1983 to the present (30 years) (with only the years 1990-1996 as a 'fallow' period without cattle during which I had finished nursing school, moved to Maine, and got my life back together).
The herd size varies, the number of cattle in milk and being managed for cheese production also fluctuates (so far for me between 1 and 3 at a time)- but the milking- and the cycle of cheese making- plays in the summers of my life as a constant theme. Crop, field, and garden management all blend with and incorporate herd dynamics.
2012 had been a year for enlarging the cheese operation. I had gone from milking 2 cattle to 3; from 10 gallon batches of cheese to 20 gallon batches- from 6 pound wheels to 10 pound wheels. The result had been a very crowded cheese aging system, with consequent disorganization and less than optimum air circulation. In addition, while we were able to control rodents, the screening of the 'cheese cave' design allowed fruit flies (or something resembling fruit flies) to get in and attack the cheese. I was not happy. While we indeed made swiss, romano, asiago, jack and mozzarella, I had too many quality control issues and determined to make major changes.
The plan at year's end of 2012 had been to radically expand the cheese cave. Throughout the bustle of that very busy summer, I had laid in supplies for construction of a walk-in cheese cave- small by commercial standards, but very large for me- taking up a considerable section of the existing cellar space, with rodent- and fly-proofing, fiberglass reinforced plastic walls that could be completely washed down, control of ventilation and other parameters, and ROOM- shelves and carts allowing for greatly improved systematic management of cheese and affinage. My dream cave.
I started construction in early 2013, setting up sawhorses in the garage, dragging supplies through the snow to the bulkhead by sled, then down into the cellar for assembly. My design worked out, honestly, well enough, and the cave is so far a pleasant little island in the larger gloom of the cellar. I have yet to do the FRP walls- having waited 'til it was warmer' to cut, transport, and glue the panels on to the walls.
So that piece was in place. And as the winter wore to a close, I continued feeding the cattle and looking for signs of imminent calving.
There was one problem. There was no sign of calves. March, April, May- no calves. I went out and had a serious talk with the bull.
Ted is 5 years old- the longest I have ever kept a bull- and he is huge- maybe 2000# when carrying his full weight. The cattle- Spring Beauty, Little Princess, and Stardust- are all young, 2nd calf heifers, who did well at producing last year. There was no sign of disease, but as I cast back into my memory, my observations of the summer (when I had any limited chance to observe)- did not include any rowdy breeding. Hmmm.
I had changed hay suppliers (when the earlier supplier put his price up to $4.75 a bale, I was done with that), and the cattle were perhaps thinner by winter's end, but I saw nothing to point at as the root cause for the infertility.
So here it is, now July of 2013, and we have no calves, no milk, and no new cheese. (The freezer is still stocked with cheese from last year.)
Part of me is very depressed at the knowledge that my investment in last winter's hay cost is not to be recouped in those aspects of herd output. Another part of me realizes that the herd continues their contribution in fertility for the grain fields, pasture, and gardens. And part of me is simply taking the time that would have gone into the dairying and rolling it over to the garden.
I can see (in retrospect) why my gardens often look so ratty- time you spend dairying is time you don't spend gardening- or harvesting grains- or processing food brought in.
Dealing with the question of what to do going forward is another issue. Ted is a friend and a herd member, and I don't really want to sell him or eat him. Some of my local 'go to' people for farming information have suggested to me that he may actually be *too big* for breeding- that he might injure the smaller cattle. But I need to keep the cow/calf operation going. So I have observed closely what is going on this spring and summer. They have all gained weight, and he has been breeding the cattle. The little mini-bull ('Tiny the 2nd') is also doing his best to breed the younger girls (Sunshine, Shadow, and the Dutch Belt). There is a new ultrasound machine on the market for pregnancy detection, and I think it would be a good investment.
And the cheese cave will be finished, before I need it again. At this point, if the summer continues as brutally hot as it has been, I shall install chairs, a reading light, computer, and use it as a cooling center. I fear that if word gets out, between my husband, my son, his fiancee, the baby, their friends, and the dog, that I will have to wait in line and may have to finish the rest of the cellar into living space.
2014