Chilling the milk shouldn’t affect it. We have cow and goat milk, both raw and I make cheese out of the “older milk” which means it has been chilled for a week at least most of the time.
We still have tons to learn about cheese but the learning is so much fun. Since the milk is ‘extra’ it doesn’t hurt so much when a batch fails - and we’ve had plenty of failed batches! It’s a challenge to get it right, plus the flocks and dog love the rejects so it’s not a complete waste. We love our “cheese eggs”
One thing we do is keep a kitchen journal and write down exactly what we did with each batch and figure out what works for us and what doesn’t. Once we have a recipe down and we can make it over and over with good results we don’t change it again. We have had to tweak some of the recipes to work for us, I suspect that’s why there are so many different ways to make the same cheese. Don’t be afraid to make a recipe your own.
Mostly - don’t be discouraged, no one just makes great cheese every time from day one. No one in our house anyway! DH’s goal is to be able to make as much cheese, etc. as we can right now and freeze it for winter when milk is more scarce. The goat milk freezes fine plain, but I don’t like how the cow milk separates when thawed.
That’s reminds of something – do you have anyone who will work with you on the cheese? We both like to cook and experiment and I think it helped us to learn by working together. Even if it’s a kid, you might find it easier to learn yourself by explaining things to someone as you go. Learning what each step and ingredient does to/for the cheese helps a lot IMO.
From the goat milk we have down chevre, mozzarella, feta, ricotta, and will be trying provolone this weekend and brie next week (waiting for the mold to arrive). We like to add fresh herbs to the cheese we have made so far also.
From the cow milk we make mozzarella (we really like mozzarella, it’s so versatile
) cheddar, colby, and will be trying provolone and burrata this weekend. The hardest part with hard cheese is the aging, I am not a patient person by nature.
I use lemon juice instead of commercial citric acid and buttermilk and yogurt for my thermophilic and mesophilic cultures since we are aiming for self sustaining and we can make / grow those (we do have one lemon tree and will be adding more). I do buy the rennet, lipase, and brie mold. The salt and wax are also bought, but store nicely so can be kept on hand in bulk for “just in case”. Worse case scenario I could get old fashioned rennet.
p.s. my hard cheese press is an old piano stool from the local Habitat store, it works perfectly and cost just $4.
Sheesh, I just realized how long this is! Sorry! I really like making cheese
. Once the curds have cooled enough to handle, use your hands to mix in one teaspoon baking soda and two tablespoons melted butter. That part is optional but we really like the results.
