Making Your Own Cheese at Home, Ingredients
Part One
by Katie
Thear
Milk
Milk is obviously the main ingredient and may be from
cows, goats or dairy sheep. There are also some who use buffalo milk.
In fact, from the regulatory point of view, milk is recognised as being
a product that emanates from these four animals.
Dried or frozen milk will produce perfectly good cheese, as well as
milk from the milkman or supermarket, although the latter will be more
expensive than having your own dairy animal or bulk source of milk.
Starter culture
This is a culture of the appropriate bacteria to ensure that milk is
at the optimum level of acidity or ripeness before it is turned into
curds and whey. There are several different strains available, depending
on the cheese to be produced.The most common ones are Streptococcus
lactis and Streptococcus cremoris. Some cultures have
a range of different bacteria, making them suitable for all types of
soft or pressed cheeses, while others are manufactured for specific
cheeses.
Starters tend to be of two types: Thermophilic can stand
higher temperatures than normal. They are used in some Italian and Swiss
cheeses that require higher than usual temperatures in their production. Mesophilic starters
are used at lower temperatures and are suitable for most cheeses.
Starters are available in freeze-dried form, in foil packets, from
specialists who supply by mail order. They need to be stored in the
freezer until used. They are generally available in one of two forms:
DVI (direct vat inoculation) cultures or the traditional 'incubated
before use'; ones.
The former is the most convenient to use because it is merely a matter
of opening the foil sachet and sprinkling the starter into the milk
in the vat. One sachet of Ezal MA4001 or 4002, for example, will be
enough for 50 litres of milk, so while suitable for the commercial dairy,
may be too much for home use.
However, it is possible, although not recommended, to use some of the
powder, then re-seal the sachet with tape and freeze it until next time.
The general guidelines as to its usage are as follows:
- Soft cheese: Leave to ripen for
30 minutes
- Hard cheese: Leave for 60 minutes
before adding rennet
Traditional or 'incubated before use' starters are those that need
to be prepared before use. Some of the most common are Ezal MM100 and
101, but there are many others. The procedure for preparing them is
as follows:
- Heat one litre of fresh milk to 90 O C for ten minutes. Put the
saucepan lid on immediately and allow the milk to cool to 20-22° C.
- Sprinkle the culture from the sachet into the cooled, sterilised
milk and stir well until completely mixed.
- Pour the milk into a previously sterilised container such as a food-grade
plastic box (an ice cream container is suitable).
Place in a warm place at 20-22° C for 24 hours so that the culture
is incubated.
- It is then ready for use. It should smell clean and sharp and resemble
yoghurt. As to how much of this starter to use, amounts
obviously vary depending on the scale and type of cheese to be made.
After taking the amount needed for making the cheese, the rest of the
culture can be frozen. Home users may find it useful to store the rest
of the culture in a self-sealing, ice-cube freezer bag until needed.
One of these cubes is approximately equivalent to one tablespoon.
Next In Making Cheese at Home
Next
we look at the Ingredients for Cheesemaking Part Two >>
© Copyright Katie Thear 2006
Making Cheese Information
Katie Thear is the author of Cheesemaking
and Dairying which
is available post-free (£7.95) from the publishers Broad Leys Publishing
Ltd, 1 Tenterfields, Newport, Saffron Walden, Essex CB11
3UW or directly from this web site -Cheesemaking &
Dairying
Sample chapter from Cheesemaking & Dairying
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