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How to make cheese at home: making a cheese press

27 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by handyface in cheese, cheese making

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

amateur cheese, cheese, cheese making, diy, diyfood, food

A key part of the cheese making process is pressing the cheese – particularly if you’re making a harder cheese.  The purpose of pressing is to force any remaining whey out of the curd, as well as give the cheese its required texture.  At first glance it seems like a simple enough problem – you’ve got your cheese in its mould, which may have a bottom and a removable top, so exerting pressure on it is simply a case of putting enough weight on it.  But pressing cheese at home is actually quite a difficult task.

On an industrial scale, purpose-built hydraulic cheese presses exert huge amounts of targeted pressure with ease, however during my own home-cheese making experiments I realised pretty quickly that this wouldn’t be a possibility for me.

Early Cheese Pressing Experiments

My first attempts at making a cheese press were fairly basic.  Two planks of wood, held together with copious amounts of glue and a few bits of dowel, using some free weights (and apparently a couple of mugs filled with pennies!).

Cheese pressing: the early years

Cheese pressing: the early years

As you can see from the picture, there were clear physical limitations on how many weights you could actually pile on top of the cheese, and when the stack inevitably toppled over, the results were pretty disastrous.

I was never going to be able to exert the kind of pressures required for a cheddar.

Back To School

It was clear that I would have to go back to my cheese-making books and see what they advised – but the process ended up taking me back to GCSE Physics!

The cheddar recipe from Cheesemaking Practise (a fantastic, although expensive, book) mentions a final pressure of 200kPa.  Put simply, the pressure required to press a cheddar effectively is absolutely immense.

So what’s a “kPa”?  Well, it’s kilo Pascal.  And what’s a Pascal you might ask?

Blaise Pascal - mathematician, physicist and inventor

Blaise Pascal – mathematician, physicist and inventor

Pascal is a unit of pressure (named after Blaise Pascal, above), which can be broken down into Newton’s per square metre.  Newton’s are a measure of force which, using Newton’s second law of motion (see, physics in school did have a use!) can be broken down into mass multiplied by acceleration.  On Earth, where gravity exerts an acceleration on objects close to the surface of 9.81 metres per second squared, this ends up meaning that a mass of 1 kilogram exerts a force of 9.81 N downwards.

Breaking down a Pascal

Breaking down a Pascal

That’s the Newton covered, but we still need to think about the denominator, that is the surface area on which the Newton is being applied.  An average cheddar cheese is around 30cm in diameter, so it’s surface area (school maths and physics in one post, how exciting!) can be calculated using pi (remember “pi r squared”?) to be 0.07metres squared.

Now we’ve got all the components of Pascal broken down, let’s get back to cheese making.  A cheddar needs a final pressure of 200kPa.  That means 200,000Pa of pressure, which equates down to almost 1,500kg of mass on our little 30cm cheddar!  Clearly we’re not going to be able to load over a ton of mass on top of a little cheese, so we need some help in the form of mechanical advantage.

Mechanical advantage means a small amount of force can be multiplied through the use of levers, gears or pulleys.  Which leads me on to Dutch presses.

The Dutch Press Dilemma

Traditional Dutch press

Traditional Dutch press

Many of the cheese-making websites and books I read suggest you invest in one of these contraptions (see the one I bought above).

Traditional Dutch cheese presses use a lever to create a mechanical advantage high enough to exert sufficient pressure on the fulcrum (the cheese, in this case) using a small amount of mass at the end of the lever.

Lever mechanical advantage

Lever mechanical advantage

Which all sounded great – so off I went and ordered one of these Dutch presses and carefully assembled it at home.  But I soon found out that it wasn’t the perfect solution it appeared to be.

Firstly, the mechanical advantage is all well and good, but the practicalities of a free-standing press mean that dangling any serious amount of weight from the lever puts the whole press off-balance, and liable to topple over at any moment (which did happen!).  Secondly, the construction of most Dutch cheese presses means the whey dribbles out onto the wood base, which is quite difficult to clean without taking the press apart.

The Customised Solution

So after a lot of consideration and planning, I decided to build a cheese press that would lever directly from the wall of my cheese room, with the ability to lengthen the lever and add multiple weights to the end.  That way I could exert all the pressure I wanted, without any concerns about stability.

The general idea was to replicate the lever mechanical advantage of a Dutch cheese press.  I sketched out a vague idea on the back of a beer mat with a mate at the pub, then headed to B&Q to scout out what bits I might need.  As usual, I wanted all components to be easily accessible, without any need for custom parts.

I wanted something that had minimal impact on my existing setup, so I decided to use different sized square-moulded steel to interlock with each other, cobbled together with a few long screws, washers and nuts to ensure the joint allowed sufficient movement.

Making my cheese press

The components of my cheese press

Exerting pressure on the cheese would be done by another square steel rod, with some of the pressure being spread out using right-angle brackets.  The steel rods needed to be sufficient in size and strength to not buckle or warp under pressure.

The end result

The end result

After much hacking, sawing, drilling and filing I had what I wanted.  Smooth running joints, and a nice long, strong lever to add mechanical advantage.

Attaching the wall piece was pretty straight forward.  The walls of my cheese room sadly aren’t brick, but with a couple of good-sized screws it seemed solid enough for some serious pressure.  The main lever piece slots into the wall piece smoothly, meaning I can store it separately without interrupting my cheese making.

Mounting the press in the cheese room

Mounting the press in the cheese room

In testing, laden with 1.25kg of mass, the press exerted 4.528kg of mass on the scales, so a mechanical advantage multiplier of just over 3.6.  Not a huge result, but I have plenty of good-sized 1.25kg weights, and the slot-in system has the advantage of being easily extendable with longer bits of steel if required.  I could also easily saw off a bit of the short end of the press to increase the advantage easily.

Mechanical advantage

Mechanical advantage

And here’s the finished press in action!  So far it seems to operate very well indeed.  I’ve just finished making a cheddar with the new set up, and have high hopes.  Will post results… in about 6 months! (that’s a cheddar joke, that is!)

Home cheese press

Home cheese press

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How to make your own halloumi cheese

30 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by handyface in cheese making

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

amateur cheese, cheese making, diy, diyfood, food, halloumi

For those of you who found your way here from the Guardian article How to make your own halloumi cheese, you might want to check out some of these previous posts:

https://handyface.wordpress.com/tag/halloumi/

Halloumi

Halloumi

Halloumi is really easy cheese to make, as it’s very difficult to get wrong.  Plus, it’s much cheaper and tastier than supermarket halloumi!

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Washed Rind Cheese

07 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by handyface in cheese, cheese making

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

amateur cheese, animal rennet, ayrshire milk, cheese, cheese making, diy, diyfood, epoisse, food, local, organic, raw milk, salt, sea salt, vegetarian rennet, washed rind

Inspired by my experience washing Bermondsey Spa cheese in Kernel Brewery ale with Mootown Cheese I decided I wanted to try and recreate it’s oozing, meaty goodness at home.

At the heart of any sticky, orange-coloured cheese like Milleens or Stinking Bishop is the bacteria brevibacterium linens.  This naturally occurring bacteria is present on human skin at an incredibly high concentration, and if left unchecked, can start to smell – especially on your feet!

Smelly feet or good cheese?

Smelly feet or good cheese?

Just as the blue of Roquefort cheese comes from naturally occurring spores in the Roquefort Caves, washed rind cheeses are also a product of their surroundings.  Historically, sweaty cheesemakers unwittingly transferred their own strain of bacteria to the cheese which, with the right environment, caused a sticky, pungent orange rind to form.  As the cheese matured, the bacteria ate into the cheese paste, causing it to break down into a soft, meaty cheese.

Brevibacterium Linens

Brevibacterium Linens (apparently)

Nowadays of course, the bacterial strain has been isolated and cheese is innoculated directly during the make, or propagated from an existing cheese through washing.  Even though cheese making is a sanitary process, the “smelly feet” odour remains, which sadly turns a lot of people off washed rinds.  It’s unfortunate because many – such as Stinking Bishop – actually have quite a mild flavour.

24 pints of raw Ayrshire milk

24 pints of raw Ayrshire milk

I picked up my usual 24 pints of Redlays Farm unpasteurised Ayrshire milk from Blackheath market on Sunday and got cracking!

Three cheese moulds

Three cheese moulds

Having not had much success with making washed rinds in the past, I asked around a few cheese making friends and forums for any tips.  A fair number of people recommended innoculating with geotrichum candidum to create a “clean layer” for the brevibacterium linens to grow on.  So, after heating the milk to 31C, I added these, plus some DVI starter and left to acidify for 30 minutes.

Adding the animal rennet

Adding the animal rennet

Previous experiments into how much rennet to use indicated I should use around 0.06% animal rennet, diluted in four times as much water, to achieve a set in around 60 minutes.

Curd giving a clean break

Curd giving a clean break

In reality the curd took around 20 minutes longer than expected to give a clean break – I think this may be down to natural degradation in strength of the rennet, as I’ve had the same bottle on the go for quite a while now.

Cutting the curd

Cutting the curd

Using a palette knife, I cut the curd into roughly 1cm cubes, starting with large blocks vertically, then smaller and smaller, angling the knife to try and cut through the blocks.  Cutting the curd allows whey to be released from the curd, and slows down the rennet acidification.

Stirring the cut curd while heating

Stirring the cut curd while heating

Once the curd has rested for a few minutes to allow it to heal (i.e. recover from the cutting), it’s time to get stirring and heating in order to slow the rennet action even further and release more whey, making a less squidgy curd.  I heated to around 35C over the course of 20 minutes or so.

Getting rid of the whey

Getting rid of the whey

Here’s where my lovely vat becomes really useful.  Having the tap at the front allows whey to be drained off much quicker and easier than ladelling out by hand.  Once the whey had been completely drained off, it’s time to carefully squash the curd into the moulds and add some weights on top for around 24 hours.

Curd in salt water

Curd in salt water

Then it’s time for the salting to start!  In the past, I’ve mostly used dry salting (i.e. applying salt directly to the cheese), however washed rinds are generally initially bathed in salt water to allow the salt to permeate throughout the cheese.  In this case, the cheeses floated around in a 16% brine solution for 12 hours, after which they were given a bit of a drying off, then placed in a fridge at 16C at over 90% humidity.

Unwashed cheeses

Unwashed cheeses (note the propagator cheese on the right)

After about a week, a light fluffy covering of geotrichum candidum had appeared, so it was time to start washing, to keep the surface moist and salty to encourage the brevibacterium linens growth.

Washing the parent cheese

Washing the parent cheese

First up for a wash was the parent propagator cheese.  This is one from a previous batch of cheese I’d made which had ended up with a great flavour and texture, so I wanted the strain to continue.  Washing consisted of a couple of drops of 10% salt water solution and a bit of gentle smearing.

Damp cheese

Damp parent cheese

Washing continued roughly every couple of days.  As my experience with Bermondsey Spa had taught me, if the texture of the surface was any more moist than a postage stamp, I postponed washing till the following day.

Fully ripened homemade washed rind cheese

Fully ripened homemade washed rind cheese

After about three weeks I cracked them open and had a taste.  They were really, really good!  So good in fact that I actually allowed other people to have a taste, including washed rind cheese king, Bill Oglethorpe of Kappacasein, who said:

Just polished off the cheese, it’s really good! I thought there might be too much salt and a hint of bitter but on second thoughts its fine. The contrast in textures is really nice, oozing on the edges and slightly chalky in the middle. I left it at room temperature for a couple of days and it survived very well.

I’m very happy with this recipe and the feedback.  Next time I might try to go a little lighter on the salt concentration to address Bill’s concerns, but other than that it seems like a winner!

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My Trip to Ellie’s Dairy and the Young British Foodies

18 Friday May 2012

Posted by handyface in cheese, cheese making

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

amateur cheese, animal rennet, camembert, cheese, cheese making, cheeseawards, diy, diyfood, ellies dairy, food, goat milk, goats milk, kid rennet, local, organic, raw milk, urban cheese

Good news!  I have been shortlisted for the Young British Foodies in the “Honorary Young British Foodie” category, with my entry which involved making cheese from a single animal, a goat from Ellie’s Dairy called Footsie.  The results will be announced on May 29th at the Young British Foodie awards event.

The event will feature food created by entrants to the Young British Foodies, and I’ve teamed up with Kiren Puri of the Bladebone Inn to create a canape featuring my cheese.  Obviously since cheese making is a hobby for me, this requires some careful planning to ensure I have sufficient cheese available, as the event will be attended by around 200 people.

After some careful calculations, I decided to make 45 small raw goat white cheeses, over the course of three days, and matured for around a week.  This meant tripling my usual milk order from Ellie’s Dairy from 24 pints to 72, so rather than ask Debbie to lug them all the way to Franklins for me to pick up, I thought I’d take the opportunity to visit the dairy in person, and meet Footsie, who had helped me get to the finals with her lovely milk!

Ellie's Dairy

Ellie’s Dairy

Situated in Kent, just over an hour from my home in South East London, the dairy is home to the happiest goats I’ve ever seen.

Happy goats

Happy goats

A few seconds after I took the photo above, the goats noticed I was a new person and came over to investigate.

Inquisitive

Inquisitive

Goats have a fantastic habit of staying perfectly still until you’ve pressed the button on your camera to take a photo, at which point they bob their head around.

Little kids

Little kids

It wasn’t long until the little kids got in on the action and started bleating for attention and running around to see what was going on.

Standing on a bucket

Standing on a bucket

Kidding season has just finished, so there were plenty of newborns vying for prime position, which apparently for a young goat is standing on a bucket.

The wonderful Footsie

The wonderful Footsie

After a bit of cajoling, and luring with bananas, Footsie came back in from the field to see what was going on.

Feeding Footsie

Feeding Footsie

Having never fed a goat before, I started peeling one of the bananas I’d brought for her, only to have her grab the whole thing and chew it down, skin and all.

Jake the Peg

Jake the Peg

I also got to meet famous Jake the Peg, who had jumped on fence too many and broken his leg, which is now in a little cast.

Goats wandering round outside

Goats wandering round outside



We took a little wander out into the field, where we were quickly surrounded by inquisitive grazing goats, who seemed to enjoy nibbling the pegs on my duffle coat and shoes quite a lot!

Julie, Debbie & Francesca

Julie, Debbie & Francesca

Thank you to Debbie, Julie and Francesca for letting me come and take a look around, it was so heart-warming to see how healthy and happy all the goats are.  The importance of good quality milk in cheese making is absolutely paramount, and it was fantastic to meet them in person, especially Footsie!

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Rennet Type Experiments – The Results

09 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by handyface in cheese, cheese making

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

amateur cheese, animal rennet, ayrshire milk, calf rennet, camembert, cheese, cheese making, diy, diyfood, ewe rennet, food, guernsey milk, jersey milk, kid rennet, lamb rennet, local, natural rennet, organic, raw milk, salt, sea salt, urban cheese, vegetarian rennet

Just over a week after making cheese with different types of rennet, the cheeses were ready for tasting!

Cheeses coagulated using different rennets

Cheeses coagulated using different rennets

From top left to bottom right, left to right: vegetarian, generic, premium, calf, lamb, kid rennet.

VEGETARIAN RENNET

The cheeses were quite different in texture, most noticeably the vegetarian rennet cheese was much softer than the any of the other cheeses.

Vegetarian rennet cheese

Vegetarian rennet cheese

Notice that the vegetarian rennet cheese has significant breakdown just beneath the rind, which creates the soft texture to the touch.  The rind actually ended up slipping slightly off the underlying paste.  Taste-wise, it was a bit disappointing, having a slightly metallic, acrid flavour.

GENERIC ANIMAL RENNET

Generic animal rennet cheese

Generic animal rennet cheese

The generic animal rennet cheese had much less breakdown beneath the rind, and a nice soft paste.  The rind texture felt a little thick when biting down on it, and the paste had a good strong earthy flavour to it, without a hint of bite.

PREMIUM ANIMAL RENNET

Premium animal rennet cheese

Premium animal rennet cheese

The premium animal rennet cheese had quite a dense paste, and the rind was surprisingly fluffy.  The paste tasted relatively inoffensive, and may have benefited from a few more days maturing.

CALF RENNET

Calf rennet cheese

Calf rennet cheese

The calf rennet cheese had hardly any breakdown below the rind, with a slightly chalky paste.  As a consequence, the rind texture was quite thin, although this resulted in a slight aftertaste after an initially mild flavour.

LAMB RENNET

Lamb rennet cheese

Lamb rennet cheese

The lamb rennet cheese had broken down substantially just below the rind, with the paste starting to break away.  This resulted in a thicker texture to the rind when biting down on it, although the paste remained quite soft and buttery, with a slightly meaty flavour.

KID RENNET

Kid rennet cheese

Kid rennet cheese

The kid rennet cheese had quite a fluffy rind, and the paste had a much stronger flavour than any of the other cheeses.  Overall it was the best combination of rind texture and paste flavour, with only a small amount of breakdown.

IN CONCLUSION

Cheeses coagulated with different rennets

Cheeses coagulated with different rennets

Clockwise from top: vegetarian, generic animal, premium animal, calf, lamb, kid.

In conclusion the results are quite surprising.  I was expecting calf rennet used with cow milk to give the highest yield, and the best flavour and texture.  It was however the kid and lamb rennets which gave both the highest yield and best resulting cheese.  Vegetarian rennet was also surprising in that it gave quite an unpleasant resulting flavour.  I had read that in long-aged cheeses, vegetarian rennet sometimes gives a sharper flavour than animal, but wasn’t expecting it in such a short maturing time.

Thanks again to Jaap from Jongia (and the retail arm The Cheesemaking Shop) for providing the rennet for this experiment.

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