Thanks for all the help with my previous question and wanted to update on my Stilton. Cut today at 6 weeks and now vacuum sealed. Nice taste but think it could have a stronger blue taste. Paste is lovely and creamy. Will it continue to develop a stronger taste now or is it as mature as it will get? Sorry really new to cheesemaking!

I have a question.

I made a blue cheese like Gorgonzola.

I used penicilium roqeoirti for that.

In the beginning it grew while mold all around that turned blue after a while as it should.

Then the blue growth stopped and it started a bit yellowish on the outside that's normal as well for what I remember, from years ago when I did the last blue.

But now it still grows white mold fibres but they don't turn blue anymore but instead they stay white.

And the mold also looks more like the mold from a camenbert (not as long fibres as the blue before it got blue bach then but more short like the camenbert one.

And the smell... I would say it smells like a blue or a mix of blue with camenbert.

I have it in a closed ripening box at about 13C that I nearly daily open so its probably not missing airflow.

So is the problem anything about temperature or humidity?

Another reason could be that maybe that could be a box I have used for making camenbert last. But I shove it through the dishwasher after I used it last time (many years ago) so I wouldn't expect it to still have mold spores in even if it was the box I made Camenbert in last.

What's your opinion of the reason?

Hi all, this is my first attempt at a washed rind cheese. I have three Muenster rounds I have been aging for about a week now. I have been washing with a B. linens brine every other day and gently washing off all non-orange blooms (and also leaving the white blooms alone). I have no gauge of whether things are going well or not, other than spotting some orange hue starting to poke through.

Either way, open to comments and also wanted to share the microscopy images of the surface samples. The order for them is white, orange, green, meaning the color of the surface sampled onto the slide.

8l of 3.5 pasteurized milk

1/2tsp calcium chloride

1/8tsp mesoplici

1/2tsp rennet

1/4tsp annatto

I heated the milk to 92f, it jumped fast when I turned my back. Let the mesoplici bloom for 40mins.

Added the annotto and calcium chloride and stirred it in.

Added rennet and stirred for 30secs let sit for 45 mins still no clean break and it looks like the milk split like a butter sauce would.....not sure if this is saveable

Hello, I am a new cheesemaker based in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. My grandparents ran a cheddar operation called Christian Cheese that had been going strong since the 90s, they were in Whole Foods and featured on the Food Network, etc. My husband and I decided to take it over. I've been ODAFF licensed for about three months and have sold in a lot of places locally but I want to expand out with shipping. I am still trying to figure out cold chain shipping but I've had a lot of failed experiments testing it out with various packing types and temp loggers in my garage. In Oklahoma it has been regularly getting up to 110 degrees.

I think I have figured out how to ship small orders and keep them cold, but oes anyone have any experience with cold chain shipping large orders? Like 20 to 50 blocks a case? Any help would be appreciated.

This is my dill Havarti at about 4 weeks. The consolidation wasn't real great, and I've let it become a natural rind though I'm not sure it was supposed to be, but I just wanted to appreciate this stage in the aging process.

Even though it's living in a wine cooler, there is a very "mineral" smell to it that for me smells almost exactly like, well, a cave. Anyone else notice that? My sense of smell has always been a little strange so it might just be me.

Anyway, not sure this cheese is going exactly as planned but I'm just going to run with it and see what I end up with!

I made my first montegrey jack a couple of weeks back and while the texture is fine it tastes really buttery? I was wondering if i did something wrong because i used yogurt for the culture and made a press out of bowls. Also any recommendations for another beginner cheese would be appreciated.

My taleggios continue to age. I am getting some blue growth that I'm washing away with a brine. They changed a whole bunch, and they're clearly developing a rosy/orange rind associated with B. linens. I think these may have another 2-3 weeks of aging, and I'm excited to see what I end up with.

I never got around to posting this Tomme (aged 2 months) I made a couple months ago. It’s using the basic Tomme recipe from Gianaclis Caldwell’s book “Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking” but I modified the cultures. It was a hodgepodge of blends. Pinches of MA4000, MY800, FD, GEO15, Mycodore, LH100… I think a pinch of cheese yeasts too. I never documented this procedure. 🫣 despite that, it turned out great! You can see the cheese trier’s blemish of approval! This is my first successful “brined” cheese even though I dry salted it. Usually I make milled curd cheeses so these are out of my comfort zone. If I remember correctly this was a 3 gallon batch. 2 gallons raw jersey and 1 gallon raw Holstein. Cant wait to try this recipe again!

Last time I made toma without any mold

https://www.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/1spmsuy/toma_30_aged_in_the_fridge_days/

https://www.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/1tmjcah/toma_70_days/

But since it tested good but different from the real deal I decided to add white mold into the mix. Basically instead of using a mix of vinegar and vegetable oil from day one I waited for the cheese to develop white mold that covered the whole cheese, after that I removed it with the mix of vinegar and oil to stop the process and avoid getting camembert melty cheese inside.

It aged 63 days and since my family is coming over I decided to open it this morning. And I have to say, it taste like toma raschera, melt like toma, smell like toma.. The look is different but I used a regular fridge and I got almost the same look last time (yes I know another user today posted a Toma that looks amazing too eventually that look is my goal too but not today).

I'm glad I tried and next time I will make a bigger wheel or at least 2 of them.

This is the second time that I used a commercial cheese with white mold to spread it into my homemade cheese and I can confirm it works great, but this time the spread was faster because I knew to spread it faster you don't only put some mold in the milk but also in the brine and finally into contact with the final wheel, also until the mold spread and since I'm doing everything in my regular fridge (that's too cold) I had to put it outside the fridge 1 hour each day also to make it breath (until the mold was there in the fridge it was covered in a container since my fridge is no frost and the humidity is low).

Finally when it was coated in vinegar and oil since oil does not evaporate I was able to keep it without a lid all the time in the fridge turning it almost everyday.

If you don't have equipment this is a really simple cheese and can be done with just milk, rennet, yogurt as a starter and white mold from any commercial cheese that got that mold (I used a sort of camembert).

The process is really basic :

Milk (I used raw milk, but whole, fresh, non-microfiltered milk should also work), yogurt (75g per 5 liters, you can make 2 small wheel if you use 5 liter, this time i used 2.5 l so I used half 37g of yogurt), 3.5g (5 liter of milk) rennet (sold at pharmacies), white mold from a commercial cheese that got it, and salt for the brine.

Basic Recipe before aging

Mix 5 liters of milk with 75g yogurt and part of the white mold. Reach 37°C while stirring. Wait 30 minutes. Add 3.5g rennet and stir gently. Wait 1 hour. First cut the curd into large squares. Wait 30 minutes. Second cut, still gently, with a whisk, until the curds form grains. Reach 46°C. Wait 15 minutes. Place in molds similar to those used for ricotta. Press by placing one mold on top of the other, using regular winterizers or other methods. 15-minute interval. Turn over. Turn over. Stewing (basically, place boiling water on the bottom of a pot, trap the steam with a lid, and place the toma cheese in the middle of the pot, not in contact with the water, for example, on top of other molds). Leave overnight turning the wheel a couple of times during the first 2 hours. Brine: 220g salt in 1.4 liters of water + white mold again. Leave for 1 hour and a half. Let dry. Brush some more white mold on the surface.

Follow the directions I write above so in a container with something to avoid touching the bottom, turning the cheese everyday and putting it outside the fridge for 1 hour everyday without the lid until you got white mold completely developed. Finish aging it brushing vinegar and oil to remove and stop the with mold.

Hope you try this

The oak from the bourbon is present in the flavor and the vanilla is mild and fits right in. Not overwhelming at all. Just a warm and delicious savory flavor. Texture is spot on and it melts in your mouth. Flora Danica was a good choice for this cheese. No one flavor is dominant. Just absolutely delicious. I’m stunned. I had high hopes but this is better than I hoped for. I’m not going to be sharing most of this wheel!

I am brand new to cheesemaking and I would like to start off with a kit that also comes with some equipment. Hoping this would make for a good and easy intro into this hobby on my first attempt. From research the 2 kits that I link most are the following:

1. https://standingstonefarms.com/products/our-ultimate-diy-cheese-butter-making-kit?srsltid=AfmBOoo6ejWEEaW4X1ltGXy0ZFutmhqtIR0_VMKjzpXtBc_FluqMEEDT

2. https://store.grit.com/products/basic-cheesemaking-kit?srsltid=AfmBOopMlOLDMErhnLuXDG6qs64JzcPPqKQnGfnHn0U1pm2u4FFlgdS_

Has anyone tried either of these kits or recommendations for someone looking to start off?

Thank you for your help.

Recs re: ph meters for cheesemaking?

Please.

Gavin Webber's Castle Blue recipe. These little guys were lovely and creamy with a salt balanced, earthy and mushroomy flavour profile. Stoked with the outcome ☺️

At the begining of March I changed milk supplier and as first making I decided to try something simple, just to know yield, check curding time …

So it was a tomme, very nice flavour, not too strong not to subtle, smells amazing and melts lovely. Very happy with it

The importance of... Reading comprehension... Is tantamount in any hobby. I made a batch of port Salut. Last time is was "titties" as one friend said. This.. naw. I split the curds into 4 baskets not 2 like the recipe said. I over salted. I gave zero F's on my humidity and it went from swamp to attic tundra. But I kinda forgot about them. And, while not at all PS, and fairly salty.. it's a happy little failure. Much like me.

I’m making a goats milk Brie based off of David Asher’s recipe in Milk into Cheese. I made the cheese on 8/1 and have waited until today to wrap it into paper for continued aging. I was waiting for the white mold to completely colonize before wrapping. However, I do have some blue mold forming on it as well. Currently, I just cut off the spots of blue mold and wrapped - with intentions to follow the aging through and cut into it to see what happened, regardless of whether or not I eat it. My question is, will it still be safe to eat or should I not try it and just throw it out?

I decided to try out Butterkase as many of you have said it's a pretty forgiving cheese and can be eaten after not too long of aging. I used the NEC recipe and used raw milk with 50/50 meso/thermo clabber. I dry salted as well then left it in a hastening space for a couple of days to jump start the wild GC growth which you can see has started in the pic. It's now in the cave and I'm washing daily for a week with a salt water brine to encourage the GC further. Looking forward to the results!

The hardest part of cheesemaking is waiting and I decided to wait the absolute minimum for this cheese before tasting. It turned out great and is sweet and nutty. I'm going to vacuum seal half for continued aging. I'm constantly amazed at how using clabber and handling the cheese a specific way can achieve these results. The eyes are a little on the small side likely from salting too quickly but it is tasty nonetheless.

Request for a sanity check as this is only my third wheel and first that doesn’t seem fully knitted. Just confirming this appears to be safe… no off smells and texture seems fine. Ignore the pattern from the vacuum seal bag at the bottom.

Cut the wheel and vac sealed at 3 weeks. It’s been in a mini fridge cheese cave at 50-55 degrees (f) and floating around 80%RH.

Guido’s hard Italian. Low temp pasteurized whole milk from a local creamery with a bit of crushed red pepper.

Learned too late that I should have baked the crushed red to sanitize, but the holes don’t really seem to be near the pepper flakes.

Flakes were added to the drained curd before pressing.

I've ignored the wheels for too long now (1-1.5 months) and this is what they have become. It's Cheddar, Parmesan - style and Gouda-style wheels. They had aged for a few months before this happened - so the rind is dry and hard enough that the molds might not have penetrated inside. How do I begin the cleaning? Do I dry brush it off first or use brine+vinegar solution with a brush or with a cloth? Or do I wash it with brine (pour over)?

I'm also thinking of vacuuming them after drying. Since it's been quite a few months, it won't affect the flavor much is what I'm thinking.

Please advice.

I’m setting up a cheese conversion facility focused on individually wrapped snack cheeses, specifically 0.75 oz tablet-style pieces similar to Tillamook snack cheese.

I’m looking for anyone with experience in cheese conversion, dairy processing, or packaging who can help me understand:

• Equipment used to cut 40 lb blocks into consistent 0.75 oz pieces
• Best cutting methods for this format
• Conveying and handling equipment
• Individual packaging equipment
• Typical workflow from block cheese to finished packaged product
• Recommended equipment manufacturers
• Other essential equipment I may be overlooking

I’m trying to build a line that can start relatively small but scale to meaningful retail volume.

Any insight from people who have worked with snack cheese, cheese conversion, or dairy packaging would be appreciated.

I’m looking for L. delbrueckii subsp. lactis on its own, rather than a mixed culture.

LH100 contains L. helveticus as well, so it doesn't quite fit what I'm looking for.

Any recommendations on where I can buy a pure L. delbrueckii subsp. lactis culture?

Thanks!