• Heat the milk to 66 C. Stir the milk to prevent scorching.
• Leave it for 30 minutes at this temperature.
• Cool the milk as fast as you can. You can do this by putting it in ice water. If you add some salt to the water it will cool even faster.

This method is called LTLH or Low Temperature Long Hold. Another method is called HTSH or High Temperature Short Hold. The procedure is the same but in this case you heat the milk to 70-72 C and keep it at that temperature for 15 seconds.

According to the book from which I shamelessly copied this information, pasteurizing at the lower temperature is the best because some useful enzymes and bacteria can survive this procedure.

Boiled milk falls under the definition Ultra Pasteurized milk. Which is (as far as my knowledge goes) not the same as UHT because this has to be heated to 137 C.

I have never tried this and according to some websites it is not possible to make cheese from Ultra Pasteurized milk.

To make a not very long story even shorter; Don’t boil your milk.

Hans

For me as a hobby cheese maker I have access to one variety of each. I know that there are more varieties but I simply don’t have them.

The thermophylic bacteria used for example to make Mozzarella, Leerdammer or Emmental are easy to obtain. A very knowledgeable member of this cheese forum advised to use Greek style yogurt because it contains several strains of bacteria that are very suitable for these cheeses.

So when I want to make one of the cheeses that require thermophylic bacteria I act as follows: I warm up the milk to the temperature mentioned in the recipe and I add 3 table spoons of yogurt per 10 litres of milk directly to the milk and stir it in. Very simple.

The mesophylic culture is a bit different. I store the “mother culture” in the freezer in the form of ice cubes. When I began this cheesy hobby I added the frozen culture directly to the milk. This did not work at all. It took much longer for the milk to coagulate. Eventually it did, but it made me very unhappy when milk remained milk when I was expecting sort of pudding. Since I was only a beginner I really became nervous and stressed. What was wrong? Did I use the wrong milk? Was the temperature wrong? Was the recipe wrong? Was the culture dead? Did I kill it with my sterilizing skills? This is not really a relaxed hobby.

Now I know a little better and I have to say that making cheese is a hobby that gives me a lot of peace in my mind. I find it very relaxing. Beer, wine, and cheese making are hobbies that made me think a lot about what could be happening.

So what could be happening that made the milk not coagulate?

I was making wine already a long time and in the back of my mind there is the knowledge that dried yeast needs some time to rehydrate and get used to the environment before they start to work. So I tried to imagine that I was a mesophylic bacterium that was frozen for months and then suddenly was put in 30 C milk. I think I would be rather confused and definitely not ready to go to work. Of course it is nonsense to pretend to be a bacterium but it still solved my problem.

So what I do these days is this:

In the morning I add a cube of the frozen culture to a glass of milk and cover it so nothing can drop in. After about 3 or 4 hours I start making cheese. By now the bacteria has converted all the milk to active “mother culture”. So when the recipe mentions 60 ml of mesophylic culture I use 60 gram of this “milk”. As a test you can smell the milk in the glass. It will smell sour.

I use the frozen culture for 1 year and then I make a new batch. Probably it can be used longer but I want to be sure that the culture is working instead of throwing away 5 or 10 liters of milk.

Hans

The recipe comes from the book “Kaas je kaasje” written bij Joop Rademaker. It means “Cheese your little cheese”. Which also does not make any sense in Dutch.The book is originally from 1982 but it has been updated by his brother (I believe) in 1987 according to the knowledge of these times! Yes, I feel nostalgic.

It is a small book with only 1 recipe! But with this recipe it explains quite a lot about the steps in making cheese.

Normally I believe that I don’t have much to add to the cheese making world but perhaps somebody is interested in an at least 30 year old recipe of a dead Dutch cheese maker.

Here is his recipe for 9 liters more or less in his words. (He does not waste a lot of words)

• Milk 9 litres
• Add mesophylic culture 1% or buttermilk 2%
• Heat milk to 29 C
• Add 36 drops of rennet 2,25gr
• Leave for 30 minutes
• Cut and let rest 10 minutes Not clear how big to cut but he mentions pea size
• Remove whey. 3 litres
• Add hot water to 33 C while stirring Water should be 75-80 C
• Stir 10 min
• Remove again 3 litres whey.
• Add hot water again to 36 C. He warns here about not exceeding 37 C. It kills the bacteria and causes a defect in the finished cheese.
• Stir 10 min
• Cover and let ripen 30 min
• Fill the mold. Place the mold in the whey and fill it there
• Place the mold up side down for 10 minutes
• Place cheese in a press and press for 30 minutes with half pressure. For cheeses 500 or 1000 gram, use 750 gram or 1500 gram weight
• Turn cheese and press with full pressure (1500 gram or 3000 gram) for 3,5 hours
• Let ripen covered but without cheese cloth for 8 – 10 hours
• Put cheese in brine for 6 – 12 hours.
• Coat cheese after 24 hours
• Keep cheese in a cool not too dry space for example your basement. Turn daily for a few weeks. Weekly later.

Each step has it’s own small chapter in the book with some how and why’s. I tried to include the important remarks.

As you can see he does not use Calcium chloride. If you do not have fresh milk you should!

What I was most surprised about was the pressing mentioned in the recipe. As you can see it is only very lightly pressed compared to recipes found in other books or the internet.

I made it this way a few times and never had the patience to let it mature. Eaten after a few months it is already a beautiful cheese. Tasty, soft, young.

I don’t know if it is a Dutch habit but what we do is the following: We cut the cheese in blocks of about 2x2cm and gobble it away with some mustard. Sharp French mustard or (for an old sharper cheese) better a mustard with some honey.

BUT if you want to taste cheese it is so much better to take the cheese out of the refrigerator 20 minutes on beforehand and cut the cheese in much smaller parts and eat them with a glass of wine saying AAHHH after each bite. It really increases the experience!

Hans

Since the first steps in the making of this cheese are not very special I already came to the conclusion that the problem was in the stretching part. When I was making the first cheese I realized that the water that I used was not hot enough and I had to heat it up. All this time the curds were in the (not too) hot water which turned very white.

So I looked for some tips on the web. I found this video which was very helpful. (Apart from the fact that it is from Fahrenheit country) It taught me that the water should be really hot and that you should place the curds in it for only a short time. It also shows very well how to knead and form the cheeses. This part is described very poorly in the books that I have.

The lady in the video has made some changes compared to the recipe that I used. Therefore I would like to rewrite that recipe with her method.

Ingredients

• Citric acid 1 ½ tsp
• Milk 6L
• Calcium chloride 1,25 mL
• Rennet 1,25 mL
• Salt +/- 10 gm
• Bowl of ice water

Procedure

• Clean equipment.
• Dissolve Citric acid in a little water
• Mix Citric acid in the milk
• Mix calcium chloride with a little water and add to milk.
• Warm milk slowly to 31 C. At this time you can already see some solids forming
• Mix rennet with a little water and add to milk
• After 15 minutes, check for a clean break. If no clean break, wait for 5 minutes more.
• Cut curds in 3 cm cubes.
• Heat the curds slowly to 41 C. This should take 20 minutes.
• Remove (Do not throw away) the whey from the curds and let it drain in cheese cloth for 15 minutes
• In the mean time heat part of the whey up to about 80 C and keep it at that temperature.
• Break the curds in big pieces and mix in the salt.
• Place enough curds for 1 cheese in a big spoon and dip it in the hot whey for about 30 seconds to a minute.
• Wear heat resistant gloves and knead the cheese as if it was dough, folding it a few times.
• When the cheese becomes too cold, place it in the hot whey again for 20 seconds or so.
• When the cheese is smooth and shiny you make it into a ball.
• Place the cheese in a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes.
• Continue with the next spoon of curds to make the next cheese.
• Eat immediately or wrap and refrigerate.

Since I use raw milk I did not add the Calcium Chloride but with the above recipe I managed to make good mozzarella cheese. Learning all the time!

Here is the difference between a short dip and a long bath! The yellow ball from last time tasted nice but it was definitely NOT mozzarella!

Need I say more?

Buon appetito!

Hans

I was very happy with it but also a bit ashamed of this snobbish piece of equipment which nobody really needs. You don’t get the combination of these feelings very often.

Shortly after buying it I realized that it is a great place to let cheeses ripen. Only at that moment I started making cheese. The refrigerator was suddenly a tool that I could not miss.

A few months ago I noticed that there was something wrong. It became more noisy and the motor would not stop running. The motor was also very hot. It even had big problems to keep the temperature at 18C.

I googled to see if I could find out what the problem could be. The motor was running, the thermostat was working… Many more options are not available and based on my research I concluded that the coolant had leaked out of the system.

On some Dutch “do it yourself” sites I saw the advice “Throw it away and buy a new one!” because the repair would be too expensive.

I was pretty angry about it because it is only 4 years old! It is an AEG so I expect German quality. Unfortunately the German quality was “made in China”.

The first thing I tried was kicking it very hard but that did not help. I googled some more and I found some movies that showed that it is not so difficult to refill a refrigerator. Nobody mentioned anything about fixing the leak but after some more googling I read somewhere that the leak could be extremely small.

I decided to have a look for the equipment and try to fix it. I found a site with a copper filler tube which you have to solder to the refrigerator, a gas bottle and a tap for the bottle. That looked promising so I ordered them. I decided that I could find a tube needed to connect the filler tube to the tap in a hardware shop.

That was a mistake. The thread of the copper filler tube mentioned ¼” but it definitely was not the G¼” that is available. It turned out to be SAE which is not used regularly. But luckily I found a website that sells a tube with this thread. By now I spent 100 euro without any guarantee.

Now was the moment of truth. I cut the filler line and soldered the filler tube in it. This went surprisingly easy considering I have not soldered before.

On the refrigerator is mentioned that I should get 25 gram of the gas R600a in it.

I connected the can, the tap, and the tube to the filler and opened the tap. I could hear the gas flowing but it was not much. I weighed the can and it was only about 12 gram lighter.

Then I remembered that the motor should be running!

I connected it again and switched on the refrigerator. This time I could hear that the motor sucked in more gas.

I disconnected everything and closed the filler with its cap.

This time approximately 30 gram went in. I did not have any patience so I let the refrigerator running. It worked great! The outside became warm and the temperature in the refrigerator dropped really quick.

It is working for 2 months now and I am sure that it is working better than when it was new. It is cooling faster and it is not as noisy. And the funny thing is that the filler is still there! I have enough gas for 10 more refills so if it happens again I can simply fill it again.

You can believe that I am really happy with the result. I can make cheese again.

Hans

Read the update

I don’t know why, but so far I have not made mozzarella. Maybe it is because you can buy it for extremely little money and I don’t think it is a very special cheese. As a matter of fact; the cheap mozzarella’s have no taste at all. It seems like a complete waste of good milk.

Secondly, it requires gloves to protect your hands from the high temperature. Since my house is filled with all kinds of stuff for making cheese, wine and beer I could not be bothered with buying more.

But because I like to try to make all kind of cheeses I could not skip mozzarella because the way it is made is completely different from all other cheeses I tried before.
Ok. I’ll burn my hands a little.

Here is the recipe that I used in my own words:

Ingredients

• Citric acid 1 ½ tsp
• Milk 6L
• Calcium chloride 1,25 mL
• Rennet 1,25 mL
• Salt 90 mL (Yes. That is what the recipe says. I used 90 gm.)
• Bowl of ice water

Procedure

• Clean equipment.
• Dissolve Citric acid in a little water
• Mix Citric acid in the milk
• Warm milk slowly to 31 C
• Mix calcium chloride with a little water and add to milk
• Mix rennet with a little water and add to milk
• After 30 minutes, check for a clean break. If no clean break, wait for 15 minutes more.
• Cut curds in 1,25 cm cubes and wait for 5 minutes.
• Heat the curds slowly to 41 C. This should take 20 minutes.
• Stir for 20 minutes more and then leave it for 5 minutes
• In the same time boil 4 L water and dissolve the salt in it.
• Remove the whey from the curds and let it drain in cheese cloth for 15 minutes
• Place the curds on a cutting board and cut it in 2,5 cm strips.
• Place the strips in a large bowl and pour the hot salt water on it.
• Wear heat resistant gloves and stretch the strips into long ropes. The cheese becomes soft in the hot water. To test if it is ready for stretching you can try it with a small piece of cheese. If it does not stretch or breaks you should wait some more.
• When the cheese is smooth and shiny you make it into a ball or make several small cheeses.
• Place the cheese(s) in a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes.
• Eat immediately or wrap and refrigerate.

Ok. That is the way you should do it. But I ended up with absolutely no mozzarella. It was actually much better than any mozzarella I ever ate.

It ended up with the texture of a rubber ball. The colour was more yellow than white. The rind was firm like plastic but very thin and tasty. (Perhaps the cheese can even be kept for a few weeks.)

The taste was a bit sweet, a little nutty, milky and fresh. Very well balanced.

I tried to warm it to see if it can be used on a pizza and it melted very nicely.

Well, I did not make mozzarella. Now the question is of course; What happened?

There are some things that I did not do according to the recipe:

• When I started I noticed that I did not have enough citric acid. (Unbelieveable that I could run out of that.) So I used 2 tsp tartaric acid which is a little weaker than citric acid. I don’t think that it matters when you use it in 6 L milk. But who knows? Small details can make big differences.
• Since I use fresh milk I do not use calcium chloride.

These are the changes that I was aware of but I don’t think that they make a lot of difference.

I think that the greatest influence was the stretching.

I divided the curds in 3 pieces and when I wanted to stretch them they would only stretch for about 20 cm and then they broke. I waited for a while but it did not change a lot.

I decided to heat the curds some more and then they would stretch a lot better. Even better than chewing gum.

I believe that I tried to stretch them too much or often and that is why it became rubbery. But next time I am doing that again because the cheese was fantastic!

Hans

P.S.

In the mean time I have learned what I did wrong. If you want to make a proper mozzarella look here.

Usually I do not consider cheeses that turn out a little different to be failures. They will still taste nice and are just as good as the cheese I intended to make. But this one I really classify as a failure.

In the past I made Stilton before. It is not my favorite blue cheese but I try to make many different ones to find out which I like best. In the book of Tim Smith there is also a recipe for a white Stilton. I don’t know why, but it grabbed my attention and I wanted to make it for a long time.

The main difference is that blue Stilton is blue, and white Stilton is white.

And there is the problem. Blue Stilton is blue because you give it P. Roqueforti. When these bacteria start growing they protect the inside of the cheese by forming a blue rind. In the white version you have to avoid all the bugs that may have an appetite for cheese. There is no real protection.

As a matter of fact the recipe states that you should clean the cheese every week with a mild brine solution.

And that is where everything went wrong. The outside of the cheese is already a bit moist and soft and by washing it every week you create the perfect conditions for B. Linens. The creator of stinking cheeses.

I was hoping that it’s influence would be limited to the outside but it was no good. White Stilton is fresh, and acidic and the B. Linens odor does not suit that taste at all.

To be honest; I was sad. I did not want to eat it but I also did not want to throw it away. I am very bad at throwing things away in which I invested a lot of time.

So I left it in the refrigerator. And it improved. More and more it turned into a stinking cheese. The inside is becoming a bit more creamy and it is ok. Not great, but not bad.

Unfortunately I don’t have a solution for the problem. I will not be able to make this cheese under home conditions. Fortunately I don’t think it would be one of my favorite cheeses so I will consider it a lesson and not make it again.

However if I would try it again I would make it just like the blue version but I would not pierce it, so the outside is blue and the inside remains white.

But I am not going to try again.

Hans

Therefore I decided to describe the path of failures that I walked to get where I am today. I will also include stories from others because I did not make all the mistakes there are.

I am not sure whether I should write about my failures because they are actually important to me. I have forgotten about a lot of successes but the failures I remember vividly. And I can laugh about most of them. Especially the biggest ones. I remember the kitchen floor was flooded with boiling beer. My God. At the moment I felt awful about it but now I…. I..

I still hate that moment.

Anyway, I am sure that there are plenty of mistakes left for you to make.

Since I made more than a few failures I cannot write all of them at once so this story will be a living document.

Topping up

Shards bring luck!

Racking can lead to foggy results

How to make white Stilton yellow

Failures in cheese can be magnificent. This attempt to make mozzarella resulted in a much better cheese than I aimed for. Since I did not reach my goal I call it a failure but I consider it a great achievement. The tastiest rubber ball

Why is my cheese not coagulating?

Not really my failure but fermentation stopped?

Oops, Did I add bottling sugar?

Hans

You can compare this cheese to its better known cousin Emmental. It is very similar but this version can be eaten young.

Here is the basic recipe which I more or less copied:

Ingredients:

Milk 14L
Partly skimmed milk 2L
Thermophylic culture 2,5mL
Propionic bacteria powder 1,25mL
Calcium chloride 3,75 mL
Liquid rennet 3,75 mL
18% Brine
Cheese wax

Recipe:

Warm milk to 31C
Mix culture and propionic bacteria in the milk
Wait 30 min.
Add Calcium Chloride
Add rennet Wait 40 min.
Check for a clean break and cut curds to pea size
Remove whey up to the surface of the curds
Add as much water (31C) as removed whey
Warm curds to 39C in 30 min. Do not heat too quick!
Wait 30 min. Stir curds.
Remove 750 mL of whey and replace with cold water until temperature reaches 36C
Wait 10 min.
Drain curds and fill mold.
Press at medium pressure for 4 hours
Place cheese in brine for 20 hours at 12C. Turn at 10 hours
Dry cheese at room temperature for 2 days
Use cheese coating and ripen at 4C for 2 weeks
Ripen for 4 weeks at 18C

Here are my alterations:
I make a smaller version so I only use 10 litres of milk (No skimmed milk at all)
I do not have thermophylic culture so I use 3 table spoons of Greek yoghurt instead.
I only use 2,3 mL rennet because of the smaller volume
I place the cheese in brine for only 9 ½ hours. I think this is very important because
propionic bacteria are not very resistant to salt!
I do not use Calcium Chloride because I have fresh cow milk.

In this case I did not use wax (Obviously) because at the moment I believe that the other bacteria benefit the cheese. I may change my mind later!

Hans

Leerdammer ripens for a period of 4 weeks at a temperature of 18 C. This is quite warm and I guess this temperature helps the propionic bacteria to grow and multiply inside the cheese. Apparently this bacteria is not as strong as P. roquefortii or P. candidum so I guess it needs some help.

However this temperature not only helps propionic but it also helps the others.Resulting in this:

Yes it IS cheese! Isn’t it fantastic?

A work of art but quite disgusting to have in your refrigerator. It appears that every fungus or mold or whatever has found a home. I had no idea that it looked like this and asked my friend if she could turn the cheese while feeding the cats. She claims that she did….

This is not the first cheese that I made but I did not see anything like this before in my life. I stared at it as if you would stare at a car crash. Horrified but fascinated at the same time.

I picked it up and the blue fungus turned into a blue fog. It simply falls off like dust. I cleaned the cheese with a brush and water. After that I cleaned it with a salt and vinegar mix to kill all remaining bugs. And look at the result:

It is perfect! You can see how swollen it is. I am sure that the propionic bacteria did their job and made lovely holes inside.

And they did!

This cheese was perfect. The skin protects the inside so nothing happened there. I am more than a bit fascinated by that because the skin almost feels like leather!

Usually this type of cheese has to be very big to help the holes to grow. This was made of only 10 liters of milk so I was very happy with this holy cheese.

Unfortunately my success also caused the disappearance of the cheese. Sema was here and liked it a lot so she took it with her when she went to Turkey.

Anyway. It is a cheese that can be made relatively quick. Only 2 months before the next one is finished..

Hans

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